Merry melodies

To play the oboe, you must have perfect pitch, discipline, concentration and a passion for music. Trained as a classical musician, Nicholle Alumbaugh opened her bakery in December 2011, and has been able to make a symphony of classical, nouveau, and original delight with discipline, concentration and passion.

Alumbaugh has always enjoyed the kitchen and spent time at the Siena, the IGT bakery, Charlie Palmers as a sous chef and even a seasonal chefing adventure to Alaska. She was about to head off to Chicago to make her fame and fortune but “something just felt right about this” and with heirloom recipes from family and friends the house on Ralston a block southwest of St. Mary’s Hospital became a “tribute” to creations of flavors.

Her compositions began with 100-percent-from-scratch small batch fine pastries and espresso. The repertoire has moved to 49 varieties of cream, meringue, chiffon and fruit pies; cakes referred to as “entremets” (serves 6 to 10, $42) that have names like Mogador, 24-Karat, Chanel and Cherise. These plaisirs célestes have ingredients like passion fruit gelee, cassis mousse, espresso-soaked vanilla cake and caramel corn.

Lunch is a new amenity at Homage. I had an opus: sprouted mung bean salad ($11) filled with snap peas, shaved carrots, radish, cabbage, celery, red peppers and cucumber with a honey-ginger vinaigrette. Mung beans are light yellow in color native to the Indian subcontinent about the size of a young sweet peas and have a fairly dense structure. Healthy, crunchy, earthy fiber with a nice hint of sweet ginger—a vegan delight

Then, I had a black bean burger ($12), with sprouts, pickled onions, avocado, yellow pepper, ketchup, cilantro, and lime on a house-made Kaiser roll. This was a fugue worthy of Bach, a big composition in flavor. The reoccurring flavor of the bean married with so many other tastes and texture and the crescendo of the sauce created the perfect chord—music in my mouth. The ginger pumpkin soup ($3), with rich, distinct orange gourd flavor and a ginger accent, ended this movement gracefully.

The second movement of this food symphony came as Croque Madame ($12), a waffle made from croissant dough, Black Forest ham, Swiss cheese with an egg sunny-side up and a Mornay sauce—simple but fortissimo in flavor.

I had two encores. The first was a strawberry-basil pot de créme ($5), a loose French dessert custard dating to the 17th century. It was sweet and creamy, with fresh-cut berries and the accent of the basil gave it a minty, almost aromatic finish, something I wasn’t expecting, but it created a “wow” factor.

Encore two was a lemon posset ($3.25), which refers to an old English drink similar to a simple pudding. This was rich and just tart enough, with lemon notes that left my taste buds satisfied and not puckered.

Homage offers a lot of esoteric, cool craft beers ($3.75-$18) and British ciders ($10). And there’s a boutique wine list ($27-$42) from a classy boutique distributor, Vin Cepage, including white, reds and dessert quaffs by-the-glass ($9-$15). They offer a full cadre of teas and coffees ($2-$4.50) with beans from the award-winning Portland Roasting Company.

Lunch ($9-$15) is served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There’s catering, online ordering, and even an app for iPhones. Alumbaugh’s inspiration for this bakery is her love of life, baking and cooking for friends, old and new, producing beautiful food and pastry. Her compositions are melodic artistry for the taste buds and her homage to food and life.