I may be going out on a bit of a limb here, but one could argue that of all types of shops, bakeries may be the unsung heroes of their neighborhoods. They are often among the oldest, if not the oldest, institutions in the area.

Think about it. For one thing, I can think of few people who work harder than bakers — they’ve already put in three, four hours of work by the time we’re waking up at the crack of dawn and complaining about it. For another, baking is a precise process of equal parts science and art.