Industry | Bakery |
---|---|
Founded | Seattle, Washington (1972 ) |
Founder | Gwenyth Bassetti |
Number of locations | 11 (2014)[ needs update ] |
Area served | Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington |
Number of employees | 225 (2012)[ needs update ] |
Website | grandcentralbakery |
Grand Central Baking Company (d.b.a. Grand Central Bakery) is an American bakery chain with locations in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington and their metropolitan areas. It was founded in Seattle's Grand Central Hotel building, originally as The Bakery and later becoming Grand Central Bakery. [1] The bakery is known for its artisan breads. [2]
Grand Central was founded in 1989 by Gwyneth Bassetti in Seattle, beginning the local artisan bread movement in that city. [2] [3] Her son later opened Grand Central Bakery's first Portland location in 1993 on SE Hawthorne Boulevard. The company has grown to about 370 employees since then. [4] Today, Grand Central Bakery has 11 cafes and two wholesale bakeries in the Portland and Seattle areas. It sells its baked goods in dozens of retailers across the Pacific Northwest. [5]
As of June 2018, Claire Randall has been Grand Central's CEO. [6] Grand Central's head baker is Mel Darbyshire, [7] overseeing the company's bread production in Seattle and Portland. In a move designed to shield the 33-year-old company from any future sale and protect its mission in perpetuity, [4] Grand Central Bakery announced plans in May 2022 to create a perpetual purpose trust, [5] a new type of corporate structure. As a purpose trust the bakery will no longer be owned by family and longtime employees but by the trust, which the company says will preserve independence, values, mission and company culture. [5]
Grand Central has four shops in greater Seattle, [1] in the Eastlake, Wedgwood and Wallingford neighborhoods as well is in Burien. [3] In Portland, they have shops in the Hawthorne, Woodstock, Beaumont Village, Multnomah Village, Sellwood and Mississippi district neighborhoods as well as in Cedar Mill, an unincorporated area in Northwest Portland. [8] They plan to open a shop in Hillsboro, just outside Portland, in 2023. [9] The Portland wholesale bakery voted to unionize with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 114 in 2019 [10] and the union and company have negotiated 2 contracts since, one in 2020, and one in 2021. [11]
New Seasons Market is a chain of neighborhood grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and southwestern Washington. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northwest, but conventional groceries are also sold.
The King Arthur Baking Company, formerly the King Arthur Flour Company, is an American supplier of flour, ingredients, baking mixes, cookbooks, and baked goods. It also runs two baking schools, one at its Norwich, Vermont bakery and the other in Burlington, Washington.
Bob's Red Mill is an American brand of whole-grain food marketed by employee-owned American company Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods of Milwaukie, Oregon. The company was established in 1978 by Bob and Charlee Moore.
The Acme Bread Company is a Berkeley, California-based bakery that is one of the pioneers of the San Francisco Bay Area's "Bread Revolution", which in turn created the modern "artisan bread" movement in America, and remains a "benchmark" for commercial handmade bread.
La Brea Bakery is an industrial baking company started in Los Angeles, California. Since opening its flagship store on 624 S La Brea Avenue in 1989—six months earlier than Campanile, the restaurant it was built to serve—La Brea has opened two much larger bakeries in Van Nuys, California, and Swedesboro, New Jersey, to serve wholesale clients. La Brea Bakery is one of the largest sellers of artisan bread in the US. In 2001, La Brea was acquired by Aryzta AG. In 2021, Aryzta sold its interest in La Brea Bakery and its other North American brands to Lindsay Goldberg. In May 2021, Aryzta North America was renamed to Aspire Bakeries.
The history of California bread as a prominent factor in the field of bread baking dates from the days of the California Gold Rush around 1849, encompassing the development of sourdough bread in San Francisco. It includes the rise of artisan bakeries in the 1980s, which strongly influenced what has been called the "Bread Revolution".
Ken's Artisan Bakery is a bakery in Portland, Oregon's Northwest District, in the United States.
Handsome Pizza was a pizzeria in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the business closed in August 2022.
An Xuyên Bakery is a bakery in Portland, Oregon.
Oyatsupan Bakers, or simply Oyatsupan, is a Japanese bakery in the U.S. state of Oregon. The original bakery opened in Beaverton in 2016, and second location opened in Tigard in 2019.
Twisted Croissant is a bakery with two locations in Portland, Oregon. Owner Kurt Goddard began selling pastries at farmers' markets in the Portland metropolitan area before opening the first brick and mortar bakery in northeast Portland's Irvington neighborhood in 2019. A second bakery opened in southeast Portland's Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood.
Farina Bakery is a bakery and cafe in Portland, Oregon.
Steeplejack Brewing Company is a brewery with three locations in the U.S. state of Oregon. The business operates in Portland and Hillsboro, and has announced plans to expand to Manzanita.
Seastar Bakery was a bakery in Portland, Oregon, United States. Annie Moss and Katia Bezerra-Clark owned and operated the business, which shared a space with Handsome Pizza in northeast Portland's Vernon neighborhood starting in 2015. Seastar served breads, cookies, pastries, and toast, among other baked goods. Despite garnering a positive reception and being deemed one of the city's best bakeries by Eater Portland and Portland Monthly, Seastar closed in August 2022.
JaCiva's Bakery and Chocolatier was a bakery and chocolate shop in Portland, Oregon. The business closed permanently in 2024.
Tanaka is a small chain of Japanese restaurants in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. The original location has operated in downtown Portland since 2022. A second location opened in Bridgeport Village in 2023, and a third followed in Gresham in 2024.
Saint Bread is a bakery in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington.
Tabor Bread is a bakery and restaurant in Portland, Oregon's Sunnyside neighborhood, in the United States. Tissa Stein began operating the business at the intersection of 50th and Hawthorne Boulevard in 2012, then relocated to Belmont Street in 2022. Rebecca Tosdevin has owned the bakery since 2023, following Stein's retirement. The bakery has garnered a positive reception.
Dos Hermanos Bakery is a bakery in Portland, Oregon. It was established in 2018 and moved from the northeast Portland part of the Boise neighborhood to southeast Portland's Buckman neighborhood in 2023.