Our Party-of-Four had a Wedding Cake Design appointment at Sugarbakers, down the street and arrived an hour too early. Fate found us parking in front of Atwater's Bakery & Cafe. Stumbled in and discovered what has become - a destination cafe when ever on I-95, south of Baltimore.

Without having "organic' shoved down your throats or touting Gourmet or Arsinial this enterprise offers all of the above coupled with low profile, delicious lunches & baked breads and yes. the full array of desserts.

I found the place to be remencent of organic (that word again) focused restaurants that popped up in Oregon in the seventies. The upstairs has about 8 self serve tables offering large windows and skylight in a surround of first-person art.

The food. By 2pm the soup choices are down to one. A good sign. Corm chowder with chicken, a generous hunk of sour dough and the diners choice of 2 cookies round out the $7.00 special. Good?,NO, Great. Served in a Thailand style stacked canister, a real spoon and near real napkin. Featured beverage; Howard County, Md, tap water in a sanitary glass.
Self serve, Arrows advising self busing ----> over here.

Great breads. Wonderful cookies. Funny employees.

Tripadvisor readers will be rewarded to know that there are several parking spaces behind the building. Street parking with coin meters. Detractor for the, not so nimble, the stairs to the 2nd floor are of Civil War era design, steep and narrow.

Access, for us is best by driving West off of I-95 at the BWI - Marshall Airport exit. it is a pastoral drive about 5 miles to Fredrick Rd and another mile to downtown Catonsville.