This month's latest COVID-fueled business involves a scrumptious bakery project and an east end bar-turned-bottle-shop, slinging cookies, donuts and sourdough-based pastries for pre-order and weekend takeout.
Breadhead Bakery is the result of pastry chef Lucy Kirby's near ten years of professional baking experience, combined with her desire to launch a pandemic-friendly service to dole out her treats while supporting her local community. She started her company when the hospitality sector essentially shut down back in March, and what began as a casual Instagram post turned into a growing number of delivery orders for her baked goods and now, a popup project where she sells her goodies on weekends out of the east end's Vatican Gift Shop. As with any successful bakery that draws in customers with well-executed and delectably delicious pastries, Kirby eventually found that she could no longer keep up with the demand out of her own kitchen -- and so, the Breadhead web store and popup shop were born.
Starting on the first weekend of December, she took up real estate at The Vatican Gift Shop, a bar at Gerrard and Jones that was forced to close down but operates as a takeaway-only bottle shop as of recently. Setting up a makeshift kitchen there means Kirby can offer her croissants, baguettes and sourdough loaves out of the shop, plus bake up some weekend specials that are available for pre-order on her website and can be picked up from the Vatican.
Her rich and doughy cinnamon rolls are made with a sourdough base and topped with a thick layer of sweet frosting. Her flaky scones are stuffed with caramelized onions and a generous handful of cheddar that gets perfectly crisp around the edges when baked. Her chewy chocolate chip cookies benefit from a hint of miso paste and whole grain rye flour for a delightfully complex flavour and rotating donut flavours source fruits from local destinations as part of her efforts to support her neighbourhood and community. Lucy's baked goods rotate weekly based on what she feels inspired to make (which sometimes means cronuts!), but you can always expect to find unique sourdough-based goodies that are carefully crafted and always mouthwateringly delicious.
Pre-ordering is available via her website, for pickup the following weekend. The next Breadhead web-shop launch will go live on December 16 at noon, with extended holiday pickup days from Saturday, December 19 to the 22 at the Vatican Gift Shop. Walkups are also welcome this weekend, so stop by to get your hands on these tasty baked goods and support a wonderful local business at 1047 Gerrard St E.
