Tipping the Scales: vegan croissants and cinnamon buns by phone order

A truly vegan croissant can be hard to track down around Portland, but out in Forest Grove, Tipping the Scales Vegan Bakery lists croissants and cinnamon buns on its official menu. The bakery describes itself as all about vegan and all about making tasty treats, and every page of its website says vegan bakery. The bakers love animals, none were harmed in the baking, and they want vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike to ask, "This is vegan? Really?"

Before you plan a trip, know that there's no shop to walk into. The official address is P.O. Box 602, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116, and the phone number is (971) 207-6884. The site doesn't list a street kitchen or walk-in hours, and the Weebly store has shown the croissants and cinnamon buns as Unavailable, so you'll need to call. Tell them what you want, how many people it's for, when you need it, your phone number and roughly where you are, and they'll tell you about pickup and delivery.

The croissant is the headliner, and the site calls it the French patisserie standard with a plot twist from across the pond. Plain starts at $5, chocolate filled is $7, maple swirl is $7, almond is $8, and there's a garlic one too. The savory croissants are bacun and cheeze; bacun, Just Egg and cheeze with BeHive bacun; and ham (Tofurkey) and cheeze, and those meat and cheese names are the kitchen's names for its vegan versions.

The cinnamon bun is a generous swirl with gooey cinnamon and orange icing, for $5, and there are also walnut strictly sticky buns and a caramel pull-a-part, the bakery's version of monkey bread. The soft pretzels are big, in plain, salt, sweet with sticky-bun glaze, cheezy and everything, with ranch, mustard or marinara, plus pretzel pockets. The colossal cookies come in chocolate chip, double chocolate, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, the Smatch mash-up, cherry oatmeal and ginger molasses, and the scones are blueberry, chocolate chip, cherry almond and glazed lemon poppyseed. There's also mini banana bread, coffee cake squares and double chocolatey brownies, including a red velvet with Cultured Kindness cashew cream cheese baked in, along with classic biscuits, Red Bay biscuits and garlic dill focaccia.

For a group, there are party platters of cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, coffee cake, banana bread, scones, biscuits, croissants and cookies. The cakes page says "Cakes for Any Occasion" without listing any flavors, so ask when you call.

Vegan croissants and iced cinnamon buns are something a lot of Portland lists skip, which is why this one stays on PortlandBread's. Call first, and get the croissant and the cinnamon bun with orange icing.

The essentials are on the Tipping the Scales page.