Our story
A cobbler’s shop, one oven and a jar of starter.
BAKING SINCE
2011
MARKET LANE
14 Market Lane. Bicycles optional, queue likely.
How it started
We kept the shoe shelves.
In 2011 Ingrid and Tomás took the keys to a former cobbler’s shop at 14 Market Lane. The lasts and polish tins went. The wooden shelves stayed, and a secondhand stone-deck oven came in through the front window because it would not fit through the door.
Ingrid had spent ten years laminating croissants in other people’s kitchens. Tomás wanted bread with a crust you could hear. They opened with four things on the counter and sold out by half past ten. Fifteen years on there are eleven of us, the oven is the same, and the alarm still goes off at 3:30.
“We never set out to be fast. We set out to be ready at 7:30, every single day, with something worth getting up for.”
Ingrid
Head baker and co-founder
The slow part
Three days for a croissant.
Every croissant on the counter this morning was started two days ago. Slow is the point: the cold rest builds flavour, and patient folding builds the layers.
Overnight in the cold
Mix and rest
Flour from upriver, milk, a little sugar and a spoon of the starter. Then the dough sleeps in the cold so it tastes of something.
Three folds by hand
Fold and roll
A slab of co-op butter goes in, then three folds with a rest between each. If the butter gets warm, everyone waits.
First tray at 7:00
Shape and bake
Shaped before dawn, proved slowly, then into the stone-deck oven. The smell does all of our advertising.
Along the way
A short history of early mornings.
Same lane, same oven, a slightly longer queue. A few dates we still bring up at staff dinners.
2011
The cobbler’s shop
The lease is signed, the shoe shelves stay and the oven goes in through the window.
2014
The weekend queue
The Saturday line reaches the corner. A second oven shift, and the starter we still feed today.
2018
Catering
Offices start ordering pastry boxes by the dozen. We buy a very small van.
2021
Order ahead
Order by 8 pm, collect from 7:30 at the side window. The queue gets a little shorter.
2026
Today
Eleven people, one oven, the same jar of starter. Still gone by noon.
The people
Eleven of us, mostly awake.
Bakers, baristas and one very punctual delivery rider. Here are three of the faces you will see before 8 am.
Ingrid
Head baker and co-founder
Laminates every croissant by hand and will happily explain why the butter matters.
Tomás
Bread and the oven
Feeds the starter twice a day and knows every hot spot in the stone deck.
Noor
Front of house and coffee
Remembers your order by your second visit. Pulls a very good cortado.
Close to home
Where it comes from, and where it goes.
We buy from people we can visit on a bicycle, and nothing we bake ends up in a bin.
Local flour
Heritage wheat and rye, stone-milled on a farm upriver and delivered every Tuesday.
Co-op butter
Cultured butter from a small dairy co-op. It is most of the reason a croissant is worth eating.
Coffee two streets away
Roasted in small batches around the corner, so the beans never sit for long.
Nothing wasted
Whatever is left at 4 pm goes to the Riverside food bank. Every day, no exceptions.
Jobs
We are hiring early risers.
If 4 am sounds like an adventure rather than a punishment, we would like to meet you. Paid training, breakfast on every shift, and you clock off when everyone else is thinking about lunch.
Morning baker
Full time, starts at 4:00
Weekend barista
Part time, Saturday and Sunday