Where do you buy a good baguette in Arlington on a Tuesday morning? Since mid-October the answer is different from Wednesday's. On Wednesday you have three independent bread bakers open along Mass Ave and Broadway. On Tuesday you have one.

That gap comes from how the town's bakeries split up the week. Colette Bakery opened at 681 Massachusetts Ave. in Arlington Center on Friday, Oct. 16, Arlington Patch reported. It joined Breadboard Bakery's takeout window on Broadway and Quebrada Baking Co. in East Arlington's Capitol Block. Each one keeps a different schedule, so once you know the pattern, the order you visit them in matters about as much as what you buy.

The week, laid out

Here are the regular posted hours for the three bread bakeries, side by side. Breadboard runs only on the days shown.

All three are open on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings. Thursday and Saturday each have two. Monday and Tuesday belong to Quebrada. The sections below follow that order, starting with the newest arrival.

Colette: Wednesday through Sunday, with seats

Colette is run by Nathalie and Franck Beddiar, who moved from Toulouse to the Boston area in 2017 and opened their first bakery at 509 Main St. in Medford in 2020. Next came 465 Main St. in Melrose in 2022, then 517 Columbus Ave. in the South End. That makes Arlington the fourth location. Their son Valentin is the pastry chef, and their daughter Clémentine helps manage the business. The family also runs Atelier Colette, a chocolaterie on Beacon Hill that opened in 2023.

The room is what sets this location apart. The café is in the storefront that used to be Symmes Mini-Mart, and it has about 20 seats. When Patch first covered the plans in August, Beddiar said the chance to sit down set it apart from some of the other Colette locations. So you can have a croissant and coffee at a table instead of carrying a paper bag back to the car. Patch lists the café's range as artisan breads, viennoiseries, pastries, quiches, traditional Parisian sandwiches, and hot and cold drinks. The bakery's specialties include baguettes, naturally leavened breads, brioche, éclairs, tarts and kouign-amann.

Colette's schedule starts in the middle of the week. It's open Wednesday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and it's closed Monday and Tuesday. Even within those five days, some items only appear on certain days. Colette's online order page lists the Brioche Cannelle at $12.55 for Saturday and Sunday only. Everyday breads include the French baguette at $3.60, the Campagne loaf at $5.75 and the multigrain loaf at $8.95. Arlington is one of the store locations you can pick on that page.

Whole cakes and tarts need two days' notice. The same page sets a 48-hour minimum for gâteau preorders, including the Tarte citron at $44 to $54, the Flan parisien at $42, the Amandine at $41 to $51, and apple tarts that go up to $80 for the large size. Colette is dark on Monday and Tuesday, so if you want a tart for a Wednesday dinner, place the order online on Monday.

Breadboard: three mornings, one window, and a 2 p.m. habit

Head up Broadway to Breadboard Bakery at 203A Broadway and the setup changes completely. Breadboard bakes artisan breads with an emphasis on sourdough and whole wheat, plus croissants and cookies. It sells from a takeout window from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. According to its FAQ, customers don't go inside. Every order is handed out at the door through a pickup window and shelves, and online orders have to be placed at least two days ahead.

The preorder clock is the part to learn. Wednesday orders close at 2 p.m. Monday, Friday orders at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and Sunday orders at 2 p.m. Friday. The bakery says preordering gets you the best selection and prices. You can also order day-of at the window from the current menu while it's open.

Lay that clock over Colette's calendar and the two fit together. The Monday cutoff for Breadboard's Wednesday bake falls on one of Colette's closed days. So does the Wednesday cutoff for Friday, which lands on a day both bakeries are open. If you place a Breadboard order on Monday afternoon, you can collect a sourdough loaf on Broadway on Wednesday morning, then stop at 681 Mass Ave for pastries that same day.

Quebrada: the Monday and Tuesday bakery, from 6 a.m.

When the other two are closed, East Arlington is open. Quebrada Baking Co. is at 208 Mass Avenue in the Capitol Block. It opens at 6 a.m. every day and stays open until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 4 p.m. on Sunday.

That makes it the earliest door of the three every morning of the week, and the only one of these bread bakers serving customers on Monday and Tuesday. It also fills in the late afternoons. Breadboard's window closes at 1 p.m., Colette closes at 4 or 5 depending on the day, and Quebrada keeps going until 6 p.m. six days a week. If you need a loaf on the way home from work, East Arlington has the latest hours. Quebrada also takes online orders through a link on its location page.

Up in the Heights, a 1991 constant

For dessert, head to the Heights. Cookie Time Bakery at 1375 Massachusetts Avenue calls itself "Arlington's Finest Handmade Cookies Since 1991." The bakery has been in business for 35 years, and Colette's Arlington café has been open for less than a month. A box of handmade cookies is one of the easiest additions to a dessert tray when you're carrying bread home anyway.

Thanksgiving week, counted backward

The week's pattern matters most in late November. Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, and the deadlines come before it. Here they are in order, based on each bakery's regular rules. Holiday schedules can shift, so check each bakery's own site or call before you count on a pickup.

1. Friday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m. Tatte's Thanksgiving order page lists Arlington as a pickup café. It takes orders for seasonal pies, cakes, tarts, rolls and sweets until 8 p.m. that Friday, with pickups from Nov. 20 through Dec. 1. Tatte cafés are closed on Thanksgiving Day.
2. Monday, Nov. 23, by 2 p.m. On Breadboard's regular schedule, this is the cutoff for the Wednesday, Nov. 25 window.
3. Monday, Nov. 23, at the latest, for Colette. A whole tart for Wednesday pickup needs Colette's 48-hour lead time, and you place that order online. The Arlington café is closed Monday and Tuesday on its regular schedule.
4. Tuesday, Nov. 24. On a normal week, Quebrada is the only one of the three bread bakeries with its doors open, from 6 a.m.
5. Wednesday, Nov. 25. On their regular schedules, all three are open in the morning. That makes it the best day for rolls, a baguette and a tart in one trip.

Wednesday works for the holiday for the same reason it works every week. Along with Friday and Sunday, it's one of the three days when Colette's café, Breadboard's window and Quebrada's counter are all open before noon, and it's the one that lands the day before Thanksgiving. Think of Monday as the day you place orders and Wednesday as the day you pick them up.

If you've found a Colette pastry worth bringing to a holiday table, or you're getting a house ready to host this season and want a second set of eyes on how the rooms show, I'd love to hear from you. Sarah Shimoff works across Arlington and the close-in suburbs and is always glad to trade bakery recommendations. Let's Connect.