Froehlich's Bakery

Froehlich's is technically two operations in Three Oaks, a bakery and a restaurant across the street, and regulars will tell you the bakery side is the one. Quiche by the slice. Almond cookies. Chocolate croissants. Macarons. Wedding cakes that get ordered months out and arrive looking the way the website promised. People drive in from across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana for the pastries, which is the kind of detail that tells you more than any review score.

The room has a general-store feel. Jars of jam and jelly for sale on the shelves, including the house grape and a Dutch apple pie jam that is worth a jar to take home. Tables are close. Indoor space is tight. This is a stop, not a sit-and-work, and the shop is set up around that assumption.

Order the quiche, an almond cookie, a chocolate croissant, and the ham and Swiss croissant if you are hungry. Macarons if you need a small thing. Grab a baguette and a jar of the Dutch apple pie jam on the way out. The jam alone is a reason to come back when you run out, and people do.

Wedding cake orders go through the bakery side and get cited regularly as the best in the region. If you are planning ahead, that is the conversation to have at the counter.

Outdoor tables welcome dogs, which extends the seating capacity in warmer months and accommodates the people who drove the dog in from the lake house. Coffee is part of the program but the pastries are why people drive in. The almond cookies in particular get bought by the dozen and packed for the road, and the chocolate croissants disappear before noon on weekends.

Drink the coffee, eat the quiche, leave with a jar of jam and a box of cookies for the drive back. That is the visit, and it has been the visit for long enough that the regional driving radius is what it is.