 | |
| Founded | 2005 [1] |
|---|---|
| Founders | Gail Mejia Tom Molnar [2] |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Number of locations | 131 (as of August 2024) [3] |
| Website | gails |
Gail's (styled "GAIL's") is a British bakery and coffee shop chain headquartered in London, England.
| | |
| Founded | 2005 [1] |
|---|---|
| Founders | Gail Mejia Tom Molnar [2] |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Number of locations | 131 (as of August 2024) [3] |
| Website | gails |
Gail's (styled "GAIL's") is a British bakery and coffee shop chain headquartered in London, England.
The bakery opened it first shop on Hampstead High Street in 2005 and their 100th in East Sheen in 2022. [1] [4] [ better source needed ]
In 2021, all Gail's branches were within a 55 mile radius of its central bakery and kitchen in Hendon. [5] It subsequently expanded to Altrincham, Chester, Didsbury, Knutsford, Manchester, and Wilmslow.
Gail's has launched various initiatives to reduce food waste, such as selling a sourdough loaf made partially from leftover bread. [6] It partnered with Neighbourly to distribute surplus food in 2023. [7]
In August 2024, some customers criticised Gail's for selling their leftover "twice-baked" chocolate and almond croissants and indeed their almond croissants for £1 more than their fresh counterparts. The day-old pastries are "soaked in demerara syrup and topped with [their] homemade frangipane spread, alongside crunchy almonds." Gail's market their twice-baked pastries as part of their "Waste Not" range, with the objective being to combat food waste. Another customer stated that it is "standard" for how almond croissants are made. [8]
In August 2024, residents of Walthamstow Village petitioned to "prevent Gail’s from establishing a store on [its] high street." The village is known for its antiques shop, its tapas deli, and its independent cafés. The petition originator said the brand brought "a risk of overshadowing our much-loved local stores" and that the residents should "together safeguard the soul of our beloved neighbourhood." [3]
"Does it have a Gail's?" became a political bellwether for the Liberal Democrats in the lead up to the 2024 general election. The political party received their best-ever general election result by "ruthlessly targeting" Conservative constituencies. One metric was the "Does it have a Gail's?" question. [9]
In 2024, Gail's won the Best Coffee Shop/Café Group award at the MCA Hospitality Awards. [10]
Pastry refers to a variety of doughs, as well as the sweet and savoury baked goods made from them. These goods are often called pastries as a synecdoche, and the dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
A croissant is a French pastry made from puff pastry in a crescent shape.
A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based baked goods made in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, doughnuts, bagels, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who wish to consume the baked goods on the premises. In some countries, a distinction is made between bakeries, which primarily sell breads, and pâtisseries, which primarily sell sweet baked goods.
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.
Kouign-amann is a sweet, round Breton laminated dough pastry, originally made with bread dough, containing layers of butter and incorporated sugar, similar in fashion to puff pastry albeit with fewer layers. It is slowly baked until the sugar caramelizes and the butter expands the dough, resulting in its layered structure. A smaller version, kouignette, is similar to a muffin-shaped, caramelized croissant.
Pain au chocolat, also known as chocolatine in the south-west part of France and in French speaking parts of Canada, couque au chocolat in Belgium, or chocolate croissant in the United States, is a type of Viennoiserie pastry consisting of a cuboid-shaped piece of yeast-leavened laminated dough, similar in texture to a puff pastry, with one or two pieces of dark chocolate in the center. The chocolate usually has a slight bite to the texture.
Greggs plc is a British bakery chain. It specialises in savoury products such as baked goods, sausage rolls, sandwiches and sweet items including doughnuts and vanilla slices. It is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Originally a high street chain, it has since entered the convenience and drive-thru markets.
Bizcocho is the name given in the Spanish-speaking world to a wide range of pastries, cakes or cookies. The exact product to which the word bizcocho is applied varies widely depending on the region and country. For instance, in Spain bizcocho is exclusively used to refer to sponge cake. In Uruguay, most buttery flaky pastry including croissants are termed bizcocho, whilst sponge cake is called bizcochuelo. In Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Bolivia bizcocho refers to a sweet dough (masa) baked with local ingredients, similar to the bizcocho from Spain. In Ecuador the dough of a bizcocho can either be sweet or salty. The US state New Mexico is unusual in using the diminutive form of the name, bizcochito, as the name for a locally developed and very popular cookie.
The City Bakery was a bakery, cafe, chocolate shop, caterer and wholesaler. Its first location opened in Lower Manhattan of New York City in 1990. There were eight City Bakery locations in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. City Bakery Detroit was its last expansion. City Bakery also owned and operated six eco-minded bakeries called Birdbath Neighborhood Green Bakery in New York. The City Bakery closed on October 20, 2019 due to debt-related financial difficulties.
Korean baked goods consists of either snacks or bread. Examples include bread, buns, pastries, cakes, and snacks.
Roman Candle Baking Co., or simply Roman Candle, was a bakery and pizzeria–restaurant in the Richmond neighborhood of Portland, Oregon. Duane Sorenson opened Roman Candle in 2013, with a menu offering wood-fired pizza and other Italian cuisine, including sandwiches, breads, green salads, pastries, and baked potatoes. Dan Griffin and Joshua McFadden served as the baker and chef, respectively. The bakery started supplying select menu items to Sorenson's Stumptown Coffee Roasters locations in late 2015. Roman Candle received a generally positive reception, with the pizzas and kouign-amann receiving the most praise. The restaurant closed in April 2018 for renovations, ahead of a rebrand as a gluten-free and vegan cafe called Holiday, which Sorenson launched one month later.
Bread Ahead is a chain of bakeries that also provide baking classes in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2013 by Matthew Jones in London's Borough Market. Under Jones' guidance as founder and head baker, it has specialised in doughnuts, using British sourced ingredients from traders in Borough Market and Chelmsford in Essex. It also sells sourdough breads, cakes, pizza, coffees and pastries.
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Bakery Nouveau is a small chain of bakeries in the U.S. state of Washington.
Saint Bread is a bakery in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington.
Temple Pastries is a bakery in Seattle's Central District, in the U.S. state of Washington. Christina Wood started the business as a pop-up in 2018, and relocated to a brick-and-mortar restaurant in partnership with Broadcast Coffee Roasters in 2020.
Moonrise Bakery is a bakery in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood, in the U.S. state of Washington. It opened in 2021, after Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. purchased Le Reve Bakery in 2020 and completed a rebrand and remodel. The shop supplies pastries and other baked goods to Olympia Coffee locations throughout the region.