Artisan bread-focused bakery opening in Columbus this summer
What do you want to be when you grow up? While most of us probably answered “an astronaut” or “singer” while now sitting at a desk all day, Liz Brett always responded “baker.”
Not only is Brett now a baker decades later, but she’s opening her own bakery this summer, too.
You may have seen Brett’s artisan sourdough loaves at The Bexley Farmers Market or Clintonville Farmers Market these past couple of years, wrapped and topped with her adorable logo of a sleepy, yawning bear.
Back in 2021, she was selling pies for a friend around local farmers markets, and an organizer was striking up a discussion with her about the lack of bread offerings around the market. “I told her, ‘I can do a couple of loaves on the side,’” laughed Brett. “I brought 7 loaves and wasn’t expecting so many people to be so appreciative of the bread. Everyone was placing such importance on getting fresh local bread, and it honestly shifted my perspective of local bread access and local food.”
At first, she was only baking for friends and her upstairs neighbors, then shifting fully to local markets. “It was nuts. I basically converted our kitchen into a microbakery,” she laughed.
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There’s absolutely nothing boring about Yawning Bear Bread Co., despite the name and logo. The loaves are thoughtfully made using Local Millers stone-ground flour sourced from local regenerative farms, resulting in breads that are highly digestible, flavorful, and even nutritious. Flavors range from traditional sourdough, to Rosemary Garlic, Seeded Rye, Honey Pistachio Whole Wheat, plus ciabattas and baguettes, and more.
We’ll be able to snag some loaves at the farmers markets this summer still, but Brett is opening up her own space in mid-June or early July, located at the space Three Bites Bakery is moving out of, at 999 Mt. Vernon Ave. “I have so many big dreams for the space,” Brett said.
The new bakery will serve as a kitchen and storefront, where Brett will bake all of the fan favorites, plus some options that her cottage bakery wouldn’t allow, like Roasted Veggie Focaccia and Jalapeno Cheddar Sourdough. “I can finally be extra creative in the culinary sense,” she explained.
Yawning Bear Bread Co. will also be a space where guests can pick up their own loaves, or even grab a piece of sliced toast with local preserves and butter if they’re not wanting to take home whole loaves of bread. “I’m still flushing out the details with what will be possible,” laughed Brett. “But I know I want to collaborate with a local soup maker, and offer bread workshops and classes, and even sell sourdough starters…and long-term, I’d love to mill my own flour.”
Brett emphasized that she’s not interested in turning the bakery into a “local Panera,” or anything of that sort. It will be a cozy, comfortable, quaint bread-focused bakery that allows customers to truly connect with the food they’re consuming in a quick and easy way. “I really want to be able to highlight produce that I find at farmers markets and use them in my bread,” she said. She plans on incorporating local vegetables, herbs, honeys, and garlics, sourced by farmers she’s gotten to know over the course of running her own booth at the farmers markets. “My plan this spring is to go around Ohio and visit some of the farms, and see the flour I use before it’s turned into flour, when it’s five inches tall and still in the ground,” said Brett.
Brett recognizes that supporting local farmers and local farmers market booths is a full-circle moment for her, for one of the reasons she can open her own bakery is because of the people that supported her at these markets. “I owe it so much to those places,” she emphasized.
In the meantime, until Yawning Bear Bread Co. opens this summer, you can still order loaves of bread online and pick them up at Three Bites Bakery every Thursday, and her booth will still be at Bexley Farmers Market and Clintonville Farmers Market this spring and summer.
Follow along on Instagram to stay updated on their journey!
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