Southfield, MI — In mid-June, I had an epiphany while I was at work. Despite my nearly one hundred foodie adventures since launching my blog, I realized I hadn’t really dedicated any culinary expeditions to the numerous bakeries around Metro Detroit.

I’ve mentioned it several times in previous posts, but I’m not the biggest enthusiast of sweets or baked goods. While I’ll eat them once in a blue moon, due to my workout regimen, I usually avoid sugar and items that are high in carbs. I’m not a complete health nut, though, and confess to the occasional slice of cheesecake or miscellaneous dessert for a special occasion. Nonetheless, I figured my lack of preference for sweet treats shouldn’t prevent me from exploring and learning more about all of the wonderful bakeries that we are truly fortunate to have in our communities.

As foodie luck would have it, a quick Google search would immediately reveal to me my next foodie destination: Culinary Combo Bakery in Southfield. Some early green flags were that the bakery was close to my job, had a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Google Reviews (the highest that I could find for the surrounding area), and had eye-catching baked goods professionally showcased. The bakery is located just off the Lodge (Northwestern) Freeway, just north of 12 Mile Road on the ground floor of The Claymoor Apartments.

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I decided to make a spontaneous adventure to Culinary Combo Bakery that day for my lunch break to scout out the establishment and several of their sweet treats that caught my eye through the reviews on Google and Yelp. One of the particular items that caught my attention was the Bumpy Brownie, which was one of the most commonly shared photos by reviewers, all of whom sang high praises for this rich buttercream Detroit delicacy. Anyone who grew up in Metro Detroit is familiar with the Bumpy Cake, an iconic chocolate ganache cake with buttercream “bumps” that was created in Detroit in 1875 by Fred Sanders. I was excited to check out this bakery and learn more about the mother and daughter duo who run the business.

Culinary Combo Bakery can be a little tricky to find, but once you’re able to navigate to the back of the Claymoor Apartment building, you’ll spot the shop’s open glass storefront along the first floor facing east. The unique location and low-key vibe of this bakery adds to its mystique; a shop that holds an important place in the hearts (and stomachs) of its loyal followers and fellow Claymoor residents.

I walked in and was warmly greeted by Co-Owners Jodie Polk (mom) and Jessica Barris (daughter). I chatted for several minutes with Jodie and Jessica, learning about their daily specials, crowd favorites, and facets of their business. The mother and daughter duo were extremely nice and helpful, even explaining some of the desserts to me that I wasn’t initially familiar with, which was greatly appreciated! I was very impressed with the sizes and designs for some of the baked goods, as well as the ingenuity woven into some of the treats and pastries that glared back enticingly through the glass at me. I picked a few things to take back to the station with me for lunch and to sample, including one of the Bumpy Brownies and a massive Frittata that was so big I couldn’t finish it in one sitting.

I was inspired by how engaging and knowledgeable Jodie and Jessica were; I could tell they were running a top-tier operation between the two of them and that they took pride in their work. I was also intrigued by the gift baskets assembled at the bakery, coming in different sizes and containing assortments of cookies, bars, chocolate-dipped treats, and more. I decided to arrange a follow-up adventure so that I could come back to interview Jodie and Jessica and learn more about Culinary Combo Bakery’s origin story.

Fast forward several weeks, and I was walking back into Culinary Combo Bakery during the early morning hours of Saturday, July 12th. I checked back in with Jodie and Jessica, eager to learn more about the beginnings of their bakery.

I started things off by asking Jodie how her bakery got started. It all started years ago when Jodie enrolled in culinary school in 1986, where she met her husband, Jim Polk. Jodie and Jim, who was also a chef at a local restaurant, decided to launch a catering company called Culinary Combo in 1989 as a side hustle. The catering company operated out of the Polk household for several decades, until a sudden and unexpected health diagnosis came to light.

“We did well, we didn’t have the brick-and-mortar, but we did well. And then, almost seven years ago, my husband Jim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and he died a month later… So that was it for me, it was the end of Culinary Combo, and I didn’t really know what I was going to do at the age of 54,” explained Jodie.

After trying to adjust to the unthinkable, several family members stepped in to help support Jodie and guide her to her next chapter.

“I needed a job, my kids were married and had their careers, but I needed a job. I had two sets of cousins who came to me and said, ‘We want you to have a bakery. We want you to have your own place,’ so they afforded me that opportunity, and my daughter Jessica at the time said I would like to be your business partner. And now it’ll be five years in October that we opened Culinary Combo Bakery, so it’s been a journey.”

With a new Culinary Combo born, Jodie and Jessica got to work on learning the needs and wants of their customers at their Southfield shop. When the bakery first opened, Jodie and Jessica planned to have different flavors of muffins every day, but soon shifted that to scones once patrons started trying and becoming obsessed with the bakery’s scones. Due to the demand and popularity, Jodie and Jessica ended up creating monthly calendars for customers to track the daily scone rotations, which adds up to over 80 different variations throughout the year.

The creativity doesn’t stop at scones. Jodie says she and Jessica get a lot of inspiration from magazines, social media trends, and seasonal recipes.

“I get bored, so I’m constantly trying recipes, typing recipes, coming up with things, inventing things. I may see something on a trip or just in a store, and I just kind of play around with it. Jessica’s the same way. A lot of social media, I still have subscriptions to all the food magazines that are left to have. I’m a big recipe collector and a big cookbook collector, so I’m always trying to come up with the next thing,” Jodie said.

I turned my attention to Jessica, who should be up for a daughter of the year award, and is quite the inspiration as well. Jessica left her corporate job to work with her mom once the bakery began to take shape, helping prep and bake all the various goodies, organizing gift basket orders, as well as handling photography and social media elements.

“When my dad died, I didn’t want to let the business die. And I knew that it would be quite a feat to do by herself and that she needed someone. And who better than me, whether she wanted me or not!” Jessica stated as she and Jodie shared a chuckle. “But I definitely enjoy baking. I like it a lot more than cooking. I can’t do nearly what she does, but I have definitely learned a lot over the years. It’s just always been there my whole life, so I joined on.”

As Jessica adapted and learned more tricks of the baking trade from her mom over the years, she adjusted to the earlier work hours and taking customer orders after hours, even though she says some OG customers will still call and ask to speak to and order from her mom! But Jessica takes it in stride, saying she’s happy just to be working alongside her mother and bringing joy to their customers.

“I love when people come in with their kids, and their kids are like, ‘Wow, look at this stuff!’ Like, the pure joy on their face, I love that. Just to make someone happy with a cookie, you know, when you see someone be happy because of something you made, you can’t help but be happy,” Jessica said.

My final question to Jodie was inquiring what she thought Jim would say if he could see how Culinary Combo has evolved, and to see his daughter working alongside and supporting her mother.

“Jim and I always said we didn’t want our children to go into this kind of business just because of the hours, the holidays. He worked long, incredible hours. He had to miss a lot of family functions. So, the fact that she’s in the business, he would be blown away by that,” Jodie said. “You know, I often wonder what he would think of this whole thing… He definitely would be proud of us, for sure. We’re very lucky. This place kind of saved me. I was in a bad place. In shock that my husband died. My whole world changed. And that’s why I’m willing to put in the hours and the time to make this place work. It’s not easy. The economy’s not so great right now. And, you know, we’re kind of a hidden gem. So it’s a challenge, but, you know, we’re in it to make it work, and we hope it does.”

It was time for the foodie adventure! I selected a mix of fan favorites, eye-catching items, and personal cravings: the Samoa and Lemon Bar! While I was capturing interior b-roll, an apartment resident/patron stopped by for a few things and was quite ecstatic when he learned they still had bagel bites available. The bagel bites for the day were everything bagels, filled with a pungent and attention-grabbing cream cheese. Because of this customer’s persistence, it inspired me to order two of the Everything Bagel Bites, alongside Culinary Combo Bakery’s rendition of the poptart, and an Apricot Walnut Raisin Rugelach. The rugelach is a popular Eastern European Jewish pastry, originating in the communities of Poland, and if you can’t tell from the photo of it above, it’s quite sweet, buttery, and delicious!

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I was loving every bite of the bagel bites and rugelach, while saving my personal three selections for last, and the daily scone special, a Cherry Chip Scone. The bagels had every bit of everything going on between the very fresh bread and a good clump of everything bagel seasoning on top. The cream cheese stood out, was nicely portioned, and had a robust flavor and creamy texture to pair with the squishy and zesty bread. The rugelach was very sweet but not too overwhelming; a buttery baked-up roll with bits of sweet apricot and walnut scattered throughout. I begrudgingly saved half of my rugelach and second bagel bite for later to ensure that I had enough room to enjoy some of the other treats before me.

By this point, my coffee had cooled down enough for me to start taking some half sips. I figured this was the perfect time for a couple of bites of the Cherry Chip Scone! The scone was exceptional, with the right amount of interior softness and exterior firmness. It had a nice, slight crumble reaction once I started forking around, making sure I had a full range of the scone’s tastes from all its layers, top to bottom. The cherry and chip chunks were quite copious, but I was certainly not complaining. I was rather enjoying a nice crisp bite of dried cherry in every bite of the soft and slightly sweetened bread.

As I had learned from Jodie during the interview, this particular scone was but one of the about 80 different scone varieties that are made at different times throughout the year at Culinary Combo Bakery. Jodie and Jessica said scones quickly became a crowd favorite after they opened, which led to an expansion of flavors fueled by a mother and daughter’s creativity, modern approach to baking, social media, and trends. The fruity and sweet scone was the perfect accomplice to the bitter coffee that I was now able to gulp down more consistently. I really enjoyed how delicate and soft the interior of the scone was in contrast to the crunchier and sweeter crust. Albeit I rarely eat scones, if every scone were on this level, they would probably become a morning necessity alongside my cup(s) of coffee!

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I was at the halfway point and already grooving with the goodies from Culinary Combo Bakery! I eagerly picked up Jodie and Jessica’s homage to the poptart next. When I was ordering that item, I explained to the bakers my attachment to the poptart, an item I grew up eating quite regularly throughout my childhood and even well into my early adulthood. It wasn’t until around my mid-20s that I decided to remove the breakfast pastry from my morning meal rotations due to realizing how much sugar is actually in those things! Wellness aside, I’ll allow myself the rare occasion to enjoy a Poptart pastry or two for childhood nostalgia and to reminisce.

The Culinary Combo Bakery poptart is everything a poptart SHOULD be, in other words, actually filled with a LOT of real fruit jelly. As someone who ate quite a few Pop-Tarts back in the day, let me tell you what a difference twice the amount of fruit filling can do — because wow! The pastry felt heftier and bigger, was sweet but not in the typical way, the sweetness was much smoother and didn’t taste processed, which made a significant difference for the positive. This was hands down one of the best poptarts I’ve ever had in my life. Little did I know, the ‘best ofs’ had only just begun.

I scooped up the massive Samoa cookie next, which happens to be one of my favorite cookies that I order from the Girl Scouts when that time of the year rolls around. At one point during the interview, I asked Jessica if they were considering implementing a summer internship program, because I think if more people discovered Culinary Combo Bakery’s Samoa cookies, the Girl Scouts’ cookie empire might be in trouble!

This was the best rendition of a Samoa cookie I’ve ever had (sorry Girl Scouts!), I’m almost not even sure where to begin! Every aspect and layer of this cookie was perfect, the amount of sweetness, coconut, crunch, chocolate, the proportions, and so on. Jodie explained the intricate process and steps that went into making them, and this was surely an example of hard work paying off! The cookie even had the perfect amount of “stickiness” to the thick and crunchy blend of caramel and toasted coconut topping atop the vanilla cookie. The use of butter and high-quality ingredients made a significant and noticeable impact on the Samoa’s overall presentation, delivery, and execution of flavor — a true masterpiece of sweetness!

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Last but not least, and certainly not the last time I’ll cave to my growing sweet tooth for future orders — the Lemon Bar. It’s rare for me to walk away from any establishment stating that two items, let alone one, were the best variations I’ve ever had. Not only did the Samoa leave my tastebuds pleasantly stunned, but Jodie’s Lemon Bar was also the best rendition of the popular dessert that I’ve ever had. The square-shaped sweet usually consists of a thin shortbread crust similar to a pie along the bottom, with a lemon curd filling on top.

I particularly enjoyed the Culinary Combo Bakery version, which also had a slightly toasted crust on top versus the usual dusting of powdered sugar. The sweet and tart lemon filling was exquisite, again another noticeable taste difference that you could tell was not processed flavoring in any way. I found out during the interview that Jodie and Jessica peel, zest, and blend everything themselves fresh every day, and it’s those little extra actions that make all the difference and a bakery like Culinary Combo stand out. The bar was extremely soft, squishing slightly inward as I pressed along the top for inspection before taking my first bite. I was blown away by the range of textures and mastery of maintaining a soft filling while still providing the slightest of paper-thin crunches with the crusted top. It added an extra element to the mix, overall providing one sweet and delicious lemon bar that I wish I could have slowed time down for in order to enjoy it longer. Oh well, at least the bakery is only five minutes away from my station, because I need more of these lemon bars in my life ASAP!

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You could tell a lot of these sweets and baked goods were made through an intricate process that could only be described as a labor of love. When someone has perfected a craft for decades to the extent that Jodie Polk has, the proof is simply in the pudding — or, in this case, the scones or Samoa’s. Jodie and her daughter are creating some amazing products and offering wonderful services for their customers, including lavish gift baskets, sweet and savory items, special orders, and catering.

I also think it’s wonderful what Culinary Combo Bakery has become for Jodie, a thirty-year dream personified into a brick-and-mortar that became Jodie’s next chapter following the passing of her husband, Jim. And while the future remains uncertain for many restaurants, bakeries, and other small businesses in this economy, one thing is certain for Culinary Combo Bakery — this hidden gem is worth the trip off the beaten path for some truly remarkable baked goods made by some genuinely wonderful people. I hope you consider checking them out!

For more information about Culinary Combo Bakery and the services they provide, click here.