Let me premise this by saying that I’ve been to Europe and it was in part what got me started looking for better bread in the US. I just didn’t know that bread could be more than it was—I mean, sure, I knew fresh was better than store-weeks-old-presliced stuff, but that was about it.
Having said that, just about everywhere I’ve lived has been able to make some damn tasty bread. The bread in Richmond—from a little french bakery in Carytown—was not as good. The bread I found in Chicago was simply amazing. One shop made a fruit and nut loaf that was the best breakfast bread and bread pudding bread I have ever, ever had. The other shop we used made bread for slicing and it was simply fabulous. Some of the best bread I’d ever had at all. The bread here in Pittsburgh comes from Allegro Hearth, a local bakery, and it was so good I told my fiance or his roommate (I forget which) that I’d actually found bread to beat out the Chicago bread.
While these breads aren’t what I think of as tradional French styles of bread, that’s also not what I was looking for. The one time I did get a baguette from Bennison’s (the fruit-nut folks) it was great, but that’s just not my favorite style of bread.
I will now admit that both Pittsburgh and Chicago are noted for large Jewish and Polish populations. And both places had Kosher breads.
Re: coffee, again it just depends on where you are. There should be a local roaster wherever you are that makes a fine coffee. If they make an Italian roast, it is probably worth checking out. My personal favorite roaster is Metropolis in Chicago. They do a French roast and an Italian roast. I like their other coffees so much that I never quite got around to trying those.