We are very pleased to finally be able to announce that a dream we’ve had for many years and a project we’ve been working on since late 2018 is finally going to happen in 2020.
This week we have taken the keys to a 1500 sq ft site on Springfield Farm in Kettlesing which will be the location of our artisan bakery in Harrogate. It is a physical site for ‘Bakeri Baltzersen’ our bakery brand launched this time last year for bespoke cake orders. The bakery will supply the cafe as well as some new wholesale partners.
Why now?
Bread is a huge part of the Scandinavian diet. When Paul has visited family in Norway there is a loaf of bread on the table during most meals. Scandinavia seems to be blessed with bread that is very different to what many of us tend to eat in the UK, bread that feels like it’s from a different time and still produced by people with those traditional hand skills. Ever since we opened the cafe we’ve not been able to source exactly the kind of bread we wanted to serve. We’ve had a really great relationship with our current bread supplier, Bondgate Bakery in Otley, but it’s time now for us to take our own path.
Another reason we feel it’s the right time to start this project now is that we have such a great team heading up the existing cafe and coffee shop sites.
Front of House continues to be looked after by our amazing Manager Jess with her team whilst Head Chef Ben continues to drive changes to the cafe menu. It’s comforting to have a couple of safe pairs of hands looking after our guests at the heart of the business.
What will you be baking?
The bulk of our production at the bakery will be a new range of breads which on opening will include various sourdoughs, rye, ciabatta and more traditional yeasted white and granary style loaves/rolls. We expect the range to alter as we grow.
The production of all our pastries that you see daily at the cafe (cinnamon buns, cheese swirls, skolebrød, pecan pull apart, boller) will move to the bakery and will be supplemented by a new range of viennoiserie to include croissants and wienerbrød made from scratch.
Who will be heading this project up?
Baking bread is not something that can be taken lightly so we needed someone with recent experience and a breadth of skills we don’t have already in the business. We are very happy that our former Head Chef Jacob Vezey will be returning as our new Head Baker. Jacob joined Baltzersen’s in 2013 as a chef and then became Sous Chef in the team that first launched Norse at the cafe. He spent a period as our Head Chef in the cafe during 2015 before leaving to follow his own preference for baking by working at Leeds Bread Co-op and most recently Haxby Bakehouse.
Jacob will be joined by Nathan Ackroyd, who has been a chef/baker at the cafe since 2016, and also has a lot of experience in a bakery environment from his time with Bettys. Emma, another member of the chef team at Baltzersen’s with a keen interest in bread, will complete the baking team.
Rob, a familiar face from the cafe’s front of house team will become Bakery Manager and be the link from the bakery to wholesale customers and our new retail site.
Excuse me…...did you say ‘new retail site’?
Yeah we did! We’ve agreed a lease on a retail site in the centre of Harrogate, but it’s going through the process of legal work so we can’t say anything yet. Here you’ll be able to buy fresh bread and pastries on a daily basis Monday - Saturday. We envisage also having sandwiches and pastries ready to grab for lunch so we can offer some additional options for those who are always on the go.
We’ve got lots of exciting ideas for the retail site, but we’ll have to come back to you with more detail on this nearer the time.
So when’s it opening?
We have some work to do to get the space ready and equipment installed but we hope that Jacob and his team will be baking from the first week in April. Initially we’ll start baking our own supply for the cafe and coffee shop and once we have everything in place we’ll begin offering a wholesale supply to businesses within a 10 mile radius of Harrogate.
The retail site is likely to open in May, but naturally we’ll keep you updated.
Are you looking for staff?
We will be advertising for shop servers and also part-time drivers soon, we’ll post links to these positions across our social media accounts when they go live.
How can we help?
So nice of you to ask!
The best thing you can do is help us to spread the word and that’s best done by commenting on and sharing our social media posts.
We’ll be looking to supply other businesses around the Harrogate District too so you could also let your favourite cafe/restaurant/hotel know about the opening of the bakery.
Wholesale Supply
If you are a cafe, deli, hotel, restaurant, shop or any other kind of business that needs a regular supply of bread we would love to hear from you at this stage.
Just click through to our form and fill out your details so we can get in touch.
Summary
We’re really excited about this development and are ready to start getting on with the hard work that we know is ahead of us to make it a success. The wall opposite our counter in the cafe gives our mission as:
To spread ‘Hygge’ throughout Yorkshire and beyond.
This definitely feels like the next stage in delivering that plan.
If you want to keep up to date we’ll be sending lots of information out across social media and via our newsletter.
If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to post them in the comments below and we’ll endeavour to answer them.
Will you be making any gluten free bread please?
Any chance of baking a decent gluten free bread?