no more coffee & toast in a tent – we’re closed til we’re *O*P*E*N*

my my my

today was a special day – it was our last day serving coffee & toast out of our little tent inside of the construction site that is soon to be The Mill. we heard from many of our regular customers that they didn’t want the tent to go, that they’d come to love the tent vibe, where they’d eat their toast & coffee while leaning next to a sack of concrete, all to the soundtrack of chainsaws in the backyard. but friends, all things must pass, and so today we said goodbye to the tent. hopefully this wonderful little lady will keep coming to visit us, even though we’ll be tent-less.

but why why why, why is the tent going away?

because we’ve got a frikkin cafe bakery to open dudes, and we can’t do it with a tent plopped right down in the middle of the space.

so here we go, for real this time – we’re closed to finish the build out, and we’re gonna open up that whole sucker at the end of the month. 

but since i have you here, i’d love to share a bit with you about what i’ve been doing for the last month or so. mostly i’ve been at The Mill, test baking up a storm, but also setting a loooooooot of tile on the walls and counters. mind you, i had no idea how to set tile a few weeks ago, but truth is, you can do anything if you put your mind to it. check it out! ain’t it purty?

but make no mistake, i haven’t completely given up adventuring outside of the bakery, oh no. just last weekend i had the pleasure of going on a moonlit trip to a secret lake, where me and my man love Rafi had ourselves an extremely brief night swim. i even did a front flip off a rock into the water, which made me very proud of myself. check out our cute little butts:

i hope Rafi doesn’t mind that i’m showing you his bum.

i’ve had to stop delivering bread for the time being, as i am just too darn busy with the build out. regardless, i got a glimpse of what it’s like to be one of those lucky bread loaves, as i did find time to give my good friend Ben Hardy a ride around the Mission in my bread trailer.

i’ve also really been exploring my hippie roots, making breads like this one, which was a 100% whole grain sourdough loaf, made with a blend of red wheat, white wheat, and spelt, then covered in wheat bran and oatmeal. i mean, come on, it doesn’t get much more crunchy than that, but what can i say, i LOVE it.

expect a lot more of that stuff once we get rolling. and baguettes! i’ve fallen in love with making baguettes. and people tell me that they taste pretty fine. expect to see a lot of these once we’ve opened up, too.

and, well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so i will let you figure out what the heck is going on here:

soooo, i’ll see you on January 30? i hope so. just a quick sneak peak about what we’ve got in store beyond the bread: toast out the wazoo, a few cookies for you to munch on with your afternoon cup of joe, perhaps a brownie or two spiked with some FourBarrel espresso, oven-baked oatmeal w/ maple syrup, house-made granola w/ yogurt, cornbread w/ crumble top, and maybe just maybe we’ll have some afternoon *P*I*E* for ya. only time will tell now won’t it.

really cannot wait y’all, so pumped to share this with all of you.

loves yas

<3 j

 

 

 

are you that special someone?

listen up kiddos – we are gonna open this frikkin bakery in a few weeks, and i am looking for that special someone to round out the JBB team. specifically, i’m looking for a part-time baker (20-25 hrs/week) to help out with the pastries for the cafe.

are you that special someone???

only one way to find out… you just might be a good fit if:

• making freshly milled cornbread & oven-baked oatmeal makes you smile like a fool, and bonus if you’re obsessed with cookies
• you’re a “morning person” and can handle getting to work before most people have woken up – shift will start at 5am, 3 days/week
• you’ve got experience working in a bakery/went to school to learn the ropes of working in a bakery
• if this has got all you pumped up, prancing around your house saying, “holy crap, holy crap, that’s me! i wanna be on team JBB!!!”

so quit prancing around and reach out – send an e-mail with resume to:

jobs@joseybakerbread.com

thanks dudes, talk soon

j

i guess i am an adult now (??)

holy crap, the last few weeks blew my mind:

• i handed in the manuscript for my friggin cookbook!!
• thanksgiving bread was nuts – 500 loaves in 3 days (the most everrr)
• i turned god damn 30

let’s unpack each of these just a little bit… but first check out my homeboy Max, getting wayyy down on some toast w/ almond butter:

so rad.

cookbook. i’ve been working on this with every little bit of free time i’ve had over the past year. i am most definitely NOT one of those people that can procrastinate and then spend the week before something is due just staying up all night to get it done. no way. instead i have been steadily chipping away on this puppy since i first got the book deal last fall. and by golly, when November 8 rolled around i had 50 recipes, 50,000 words, and a big weight off my chest. we will be photographing the book in the Spring, and it should be out by next Fall. i still can’t really believe it, but it is TRUE.

thanksgiving. 500 loaves in 3 days.

first of all – T H A N K   Y O U to all of you wonderful folks that chose to spend your Thanksgiving with me, i was beside myself with joy that so many people wanted my bread. makes me even more pumped for what’s to come. but 500 loaves!!! now i know that this is child’s play for most “bakeries,” but dudes, i ain’t most bakeries. silly (or stupid) enough, i had actually planned on doing it all by myself. i woulda been fully effed if i’d stayed the course, so thank the almighty bread gods that my main man Ryan (one of the handsome and talented bakers who will be on the starting JBB crew at The Mill) and main lady Wendy (our ridiculously hard-working and talented head baker) came to the rescue. you’re probably all like, “what’s the big deal, 500 loaves, stop whining baker boy.” i’m not whining, i’m just sharing… we hand mixed it all. so ha! yeah, we hand mixed it all in little tubs and then shaped it into breads and then i baked those suckers. i heard people liked em, and that warms my heart.

i turned 30. these say it all…

oh yeah, The Mill will be open December 30. get ready to party.

<3 josey

2 weeks and counting… til my birthday (OH YEAH AND THANKSGIVING TOO)

yo dudes

it’s crazy – two years ago i got a little article written about me in a food newsletter and 30 people showed up at my door on Thanksgiving morning to buy my bread.

 

i had no idea what i was doing…

well, i’m doing it again this year, but i’m going to be a bit more… professional about the whole thing.

i’m now accepting pre-orders for Thanksgiving bread. you can order to pick up the day before, or the morning of, it’s up to you.

what am i baking? i picked the 3 most delicious and Thanksgiving-y breads I could think of:

• seed feast. i mean, what the heck, the frikkin pilgrims and native americans probably ate this bread at the original feast, right? (bread flour, whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sourdough culture, sea salt)
• black pepper parmesan. the mighty return of everybody’s favorite!! i haven’t made this bread for months, but there’s no better time than now. what’s better than cheese on bread? cheese IN bread. (bread flour, whole wheat flour, parmesan, black pepper, sourdough culture, sea salt)
• whole wheat cranberry walnut. i actually haven’t made this bread since Thanksgiving 2010. i hope i can remember how it goes… jk sucka, this bread will blow your g-d mind. (whole wheat flour, bread flour, walnuts, cranberries, raisins, sourdough culture, sea salt) 

all breads are $6/loaf, available by pre-order only.

what do i think you should do? order for pick up on Thanksgiving morning, and then come hang out with me at The Mill, grab your bread, have a cup of coffee, and be eternally thankful for the miracle of life. then stuff yourself and take a nap.

(and YES, Thanksgiving is actually on my birthday this year – I am turning 30.)

if all this pre-order stuff is too much for you to handle, then worry not! i will also be selling bread at Bi-Rite Market on Tues & Wed the week of Thanksgiving. bread everywhere, so awesome.

smoochies.

<3 josey

 

from Oakland to Sac-town, the Bay Area and back down (not quite)

great news folks – you can now get your JBB fix all over the frikkin Bay Area!

yup, whether you wanna grab a loaf in SOMA, Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto, or Burlingame – IT’S ON. just order here. 

the righteous folks at Good Eggs are making it easier and easier for makers such as myself to get our goods all over the place, so that’s just what i’m gonna do. here’s what we got:

• Tuesdays – bread available by subscription around the Bay Area, or walk-in sales at FourBarrel Coffee @ 4pm
• Wednesday – bread available by subscription at The Mill (736 Divisadero) only, 7am-2pm
• Saturday – bread available at The Mill (736 Divisadero), by subscription or walk-in sales, 8am-3pm

for the time being i just make a different type of bread each day. you can suggest a type if you like, but i don’t take orders for specific types. soon my sweeties, you will have the pick of the litter, i promise.

so quit your lolly gaggin’ and start your toastin.

<3 josey

 

 

some straight up middle of the night $hit

awww mannn, would you please just get a load of this:

what the heck are those???

don’t get all worked up now. if you want to eat these gorgeous little fellas, you’re gonna have to talk with this guy:

lucky for you, he’s about the nicest dude in the whole world.

who is he? his name is greg, and he is the one and only man behind Neighbor, a radical bakery here in this gorgeous little city by the bay.

greg does his thing in the dogpatch, and he does it while you are asleep. at least, he does it while *i* am usually asleep, til i said “enough of this whole greg-only-bakes-when-i’m-asleep-thing! i am going to visit that man!” so visit him i did. and i saw lots of stuff like this:

are you kidding me??? that’s like a god damn snow kissed morning on a mountain top! (actually, it’s more like a pistachio & blackberry jam croissant.)

greg does it all himself, 7 days a week. the dude is a horse. a very sweet, knowledgable, generous horse. get a load of his blueberry sunflower muffin, just staring at you, taunting you, begging you to take a bite:

so he bakes up all these scrumptious goodies in the dark of night (while listening to fela kuti), and then delivers them to cafes around the city, such as FourBarrel (have you ever heard of these guys? i’ve got a little crush on them), Sightglass, Cafe Sophie, and Elite Audio Coffee Bar.

the dude’s got skills, and he ain’t afraid to let em shine. in fact, some people say his croissants are the best in the whole frikkin city. do you agree?

quit scratchin your chin and get your a$$ down to FourBarrel and decide for yourself. and tell em Josey Baker sent ya.

MWAH

<3 josey

 

 

 

it’s gettin hot in here

i am

gettin

too hot

i wanna take my clothes offfffff

but that was then. (last weekend awesome yuba trip w my sweet lady cathy)

THIS IS NOW:

YES! THE OVEN IS ALIVE! HOLY CRAP!!!

truth is that i can’t really use the thing just yet, as The Mill is still undergoing its totally awesome transformation. (that being said, i might have made this, just as a test, only as a test:)

even so, the fact that i gotta be good and patient to actually start using that monster oven is not gonna stop me from PEEING MY PANTS I’M SO PUMPED.

while i am doing that, my main dogs Elicia & Tim have been seriously holding down the fort at The Mill, making sure the coffee gets brewed and the toast gets toasted proper. next time you’re in there give them an extra special high-five, would ya?

and Roman and his boys Eugene, Benny & others, have been cranking on the space – look at it!

its come a looooooooong way:

can’t wait to see what it looks like 6 months from now.

we had a little bread hiatus for the past 2 weeks, but now we’re back on track, so i’ll be seeing some of ya real soon.

kisses honey pies

<3 josey