Rising Star

An independent bakery that’s a respite from the malls

ake a seat in the airy, high-ceilinged former Odd Fellows Hall, in front of a giant window overlooking Natick Common, and prepare to taste the difference between fresh-baked and trucked in from a warehouse. The Bakery on the Common serves up generous-sized cakes, pastries, pies, and the biggest high-topped, cream-filled cupcakes you have ever seen, all made in the expansive kitchen right out back, along with fresh breads, coffee, soups, salads, sandwiches, and paninis. Far from the frenzied Natick of parking lots and shopping malls, it’s hidden in the comparatively quiet Natick Center of 19th-century brick storefronts and parents walking with their kids in strollers. Try a slice of cheesecake, a generous-sized whoopie pie sprinkled with powdered sugar, or a chocolate-filled croissant. Marcus

Shhhh! Owner Marina Jorge’s father
owned Mazzarelli’s Bakery in Milford,
inspiring her to open her own bakery.

Shhhh! Many of those parents meet for
lunch here on weekdays, when the Bakery
on the Common turns into Toddlerville, so
avoid eating in if you mind that sort of thing.

Shhh who knew

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization imported to America from Great Britain in 1819. The chapter that met in the 1887 building that now houses the Bakery on the Common was called the Takawanbait Lodge after a Native American who converted to Christianity and preached to his fellow so-called Praying Indians in Natick.