Artisan bread-focused bakery opens anticipated, quaint storefront this week
You may have seen, bought, and tasted Liz Brett’s citywide famous artisan sourdough loaves at The Bexley Farmers Market or Clintonville Farmers Market these past couple of years, wrapped and topped with her iconic 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.”
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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.
There’s absolutely nothing boring about her bakery, 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.
Brett is opening the Yawning Bear Bread Co. storefront this week at 999 Mt. Vernon Ave., in the space that once housed Three Bites Bakery before they moved Downtown. From 10am-4pm this Saturday, November 2, stock up on baguettes, ciabatta, focaccia, and other fresh breads, plus hot coffee and merchandise!
Yawning Bear Bread Co. will also eventually serve as 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,” said 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.”
“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.
Follow along on Instagram to check out their house-made offerings!
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