We're up before you are.

Packanack Bakery has been a fixture on NJ-23 for as long as most of the neighborhood can remember. Long before the sun is up, the lights are on, the mixers are turning, and the first trays are sliding into the oven.

We bake the way bakeries used to: by hand, in small batches, with ingredients we'd be happy to eat ourselves. Real butter. Real cream. Real vanilla. Our crumb cake — well, you've heard about the crumb cake.

Everything in the case is made fresh that morning: lemon meringue pies, chocolate croissants, lobster tails, whoopie pies, butter rolls, muffins, cookies and cakes decorated by hand. Nothing frozen, nothing shipped in.

But what we're proudest of isn't on a tray. It's the regulars who come in for coffee and a chat, the kids who get to pick out their own cookie, the customer who once walked in with a dripping coffee from next door — and walked out with an extra bag, no charge, no questions.

That's the bakery we want to be. Glad you found us.