BY STACEY WALLACE
OPINION —
As I’ve mentioned many times in this column, my husband and I have fallen in love with the city of Opelika, while living in Auburn.
Mike’s love of Opelika began 60 years ago when he was a kindergartener at West Point Elementary School. In 1965, Mike and his classmates boarded a train in West Point, Georgia.
The train traveled to Opelika, where parents picked up their children and took them to Monkey Park. Mike said he loved the Rocket Train and wanted to take it home with him.
These days, Mike and I worship in Opelika at Central Baptist Church (if you don’t have a church home, please visit us) and do most of our shopping in Opelika.
We love beautiful downtown Opelika, where you don’t have to feed a kiosk one or two dollars for permission to park as we do in downtown Auburn.
Also, downtown Opelika has a lot of great places to eat, and Mike and I discovered another one a few weeks ago. We went to Stinson Breads at 714 N. Railroad Ave.
Stinson Breads is owned by Opelika residents Anna Claire and Matthew Stinson, who opened the bakery almost a year ago, in April 2024.
When Mike and I entered Stinson Breads, we enjoyed the delicious aroma of fresh bread baking. Also, I loved the old brick which composed one wall.
Matthew greeted us warmly and told us how he and Anna Claire met in high school and both graduated from Auburn University. (They get bonus points for that.) In 2019, the Stinsons started a baking business in their home, one piece of bread at a time. Beginning in 2021, they began selling their bread to local restaurants. In fact, as I mentioned in a previous column, Mike and I enjoyed one of their warm, delightful baguettes at Café de Fleur recently. Last spring they opened the brick-and-mortar shop on Railroad Avenue. Business is going well, so soon they will be moving up the block to a larger space.
“God is blessing us,” said Matthew, who explained the best part and the hardest part of owning your own business is being in the driver’s seat. “If you are successful or you’re not successful, it starts with you.
“We’re trying to make good stuff in Opelika,” he said. “I want this business to last at least 60 years. The most important thing to my wife and me is having a happy staff. If they’re not happy, I’m doing something wrong. They keep everything clean. There is no wall; you can see them baking.
“We appreciate the Lee County community. Our metric of success is if our customers love what we’re doing,” said Matthew.
Besides breads, the shop had a tempting variety of pastries. Mike and I selected two cinnamon rolls and two cheese Danishes.
Since Stinson Breads offers sandwiches on freshly baked bread, we jumped on those, too.
Mike chose the pimento cheese, which Jack, who kindly waited on us, said was the bakery’s best seller. I selected the turkey bacon club.
As soon as we got home and Mike photographed our selections, we jumped on our sandwiches. Oh, my two times. Sandwiches made with freshly baked bread are really something special.
Later, for a sensible snack (my eyes are rolling with sarcasm at this point), Mike and I devoured the cinnamon rolls. They were slap your Grandma two times good. We managed to restrain ourselves and enjoyed our cheese Danishes the next morning since I didn’t want to go into a diabetic coma. They were really tasty, too, and were great with our coffee.
Besides our tasty sandwiches, customers may order smoked chicken salad, caprese focaccia and Italian ciabatta. The bakery also offers dark chocolate chunk cookies (gluten friendly), almond ricotta cake slices, chocolate croissants and morning buns, among other items.
Trust me, run and do not walk to Stinson Breads. If you see a cinnamon roll in my hand, please yell, “Drop it!” Thank you from this “Pooh-sized” diabetic.
Stinson Breads is closed on Sunday and Monday. The bakery is open on Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or until they’re sold out of everything.
Stinson Breads makes the grade with an A+ from this retired English teacher. Remember, “Pooh-sized” people NEVER lie about food. Enjoy!
Stacey Patton Wallace, who retired from teaching language arts for 30 years, is a professional diner. Her column, “Making the Grade,” will appear every other week in The Observer. Stacey may be reached at retiredlangartsteacher2020@gmail.com.