bake - November 2017 - 19

Columbia City Bakery

For decades, Seattle has enjoyed the status

the edge. We want it to be the best experi-

of being home to some of America's greatest

ence for the person who came into buy our

bakeries. Columbia City Bakery owner Evan

bread that day."

Andres, a three-time semiﬁnalist for James
Beard's coveted Outstanding Baker award,

His ingredients are simple: ﬂour, water, salt

knows the Seattle scene well after baking

and starter. They start baking at 4 a.m. every

bread here for the past 20 years. He baked

morning, seven days a week. Bread is deliv-

for Macrina and Tall Grass Bakery prior to

ered daily to restaurants downtown and in the

opening Columbia City in October 2005.

Ballard neighborhood of northwest Seattle.
Wholesale accounts represent roughly 90

His shop may be small, but it continues

percent of total sales.

JOHN UNREIN

to produce some of the best bread in the
country. Bon Appetit magazine heralded

"Walk-in bread sales have never caught on

Columbia City's baguettes for being among

like I thought it would," says Andres, who

the top 10 best in America, and locals voted

grew up in Berkeley, California, where he

their baguettes as best in Seattle in the city's

learned an early appreciation for great bread.

ﬁrst-ever French Fest in 2013. "We really try

"Overcoming convenience is pretty hard, and

to push that line everyday with what the ﬂour

people are only going to pay so much for a

can handle," Andres says. "We try to take it to

loaf of bread."

1900 Barker
When bread fans talk about local food, it

business, after years of working to perfect

does not get any more local than the current

pizza doughs and pastries in his early career.

arrangement at 1900 Barker, a bakery that

Growing up in Paola, Kansas, near Kansas

opened in June 2015 in the contemporary

City, he gained an early appreciation for

college town of Lawrence, Kansas. Owner

great food working as a pastry chef for

Taylor Petrehn, who exhibits a knowledge

Kansas City's acclaimed Parisi Coffee. Also,

and passion for bread baking way beyond his

one of his key mentors was the executive

youthful age of 25, is buying certiﬁed organic

pastry chef at Dean & DeLuca, where he

Turkey Red wheat that is grown 1½ miles from

worked for six years.

his bakery at Moon on the Meadow, a small
farm in Lawrence owned and operated by Jill

When asked how one develops a keen palate

Elmers.

at such a young age, Petrehn says much of

JOHN UNREIN

the credit goes to working in productive
"Their grain tastes amazing," Petrehn says of

surroundings and learning to develop strong

Moon on the Meadow, "which is huge because

opinions about the details of what goes

the farm is so close to me. How cool is that?

into producing great ﬂavor. "Having strong

Wheat that is grown, milled and baked within

opinions has led me to be a better baker,"

about a mile of each other."

he says. "That has helped me consciously
improve my palate. When I taste a croissant,

Petrehn started 1900 Barker with his brother

I'm always thinking about what it needs.

Reagan, who is an award-winning coffee

Dissecting the crust and the crumb, and

expert and runs the beverage side of their

thinking about the hydration."

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