If only we could hide away the calories.

Byline: Best of . . . The Register-Guard

It's hard to put a finger on what makes the Hideaway Bakery so great, but it's currently the favorite place for Team Best of ... to go on a bread bender.

We like the Parma braids, which are hand-assembled, sesame-seed-coated twists with prosciutto and fontina cheese that taste like a little swirl of heaven.

The potato donuts are another popular favorite. Made with real Yukon gold potatoes, sugar and cinnamon, they're darker than your average cruller and won't make you feel like you're taking your life in your hands by eating them. They're also only available on weekends.

And coming soon: orange hazelnut pinwheels.

We're making ourselves hungry just talking about this stuff - and we haven't even gotten to the artisan breads, which is where the whole Hideaway thing started.

"Open crumb" is the way the bakery describes its bread with big holes. We just call it delicious.

Along with the country levain (one of which is loaded with green olives), the Hideaway bakes a tortano, which looks like a bread life preserver. It's made with potatoes and a dollop of honey, and although it won't save you from drowning, it tastes great hot or cold.

These bakers even make bread for people who can't eat bread. We're talking about the wheat intolerant, not those loser, low-carb holdouts who don't know what it means to live. Those with wheat allergies probably will enjoy the spelt bread (so do the kids, we're told), not to mention the old world rye.

Rising dough is only half the attraction at the Hideaway, though. It's the ambience that brings us back to this place again and again.

We know the words European and East Amazon Drive probably have never been spoken in the same sentence before, but there's definitely an old world feel to the place. One member of our team described it as both "European" and "secluded and neighborhood-y."

And lest we forget, it's the oven that makes it all possible. A massive, wood-fired beast the size of a Dodge Durango, this ain't no Easy Bake with a 100-watt light bulb in the back.

The internal temperature reaches 600 degrees thanks to the scrap wood from a local sawmill that gets tossed in on a daily basis. Every afternoon, the fire is stoked, and by 10 p.m., the baking begins.

The brick-and-cement walls of the oven retain heat for 12 hours to 14 hours, and the staff works into the morning baking sweets and savories. Hotter than an electric-powered industrial oven, this one imparts the perfect degree of crustiness on the outside, while maintaining that hole-y quality on the inside.

Oven and bread aside, owner Mazzi Ernandes says there's something special about the Hideaway location. Before the bakery was there, back when it was just a parking lot with some recycling bins, it was apparently a popular gathering spot for Mazzi's employees on break.

"On a sunny morning," he says, "there's no nicer place to be."

Best of ... has a hard crust with a rich, dark caramel color. Break into the Best of ... archive at www.registerguard.com/ bestof.

BEST HIDDEN GEM Hideaway Bakery Where: 3377 E. Amazon Drive Hours: From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Phone: [phone].