brick oven bread and cheese shoppe opens

Back in April, I blabbed over the excitement of a brick-oven bread company opening on Bridge Street in Phoenixville. After being extremely impatient for a few short months, opening day has finally arrived!

I swung by the fresh, just-opened space early this afternoon, eyeing up the gorgeous in-house constructed brick bread oven and gazing upon the crave-worthy loaves flooded throughout the bakery.

Located next door to Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, the bright yellow interior also trots an assortment of artisan breads from Sweet Water Baking Co. of Camphill Village of Kimberton Hills, as well as their deliciously-crafted granola blends.

Of course, as the name assumes, cheese will be aplenty soon in the locale's counter, although the stock is still being compiled as we speak. However, Shellbark Hollow Farm's, of West Chester, goat cheeses are already proudly plopped within the soon-to-be-booming case.

Brick Oven Bread & Cheese Shoppe, 138 Bridge Street, Phoenixville, 610-933-3003

organic whole-wheat bread of an oley valley brick oven

 

Oley Valley Organics' Mike Dietrich sparked his outdoor bake oven as early as 5 a.m. on a past Saturday morning in June, a process that would soon pleasantly provide participants of the "Back in Time" Tour of Oley, Pennsylvania, with a blasting taste from the past.

Mike, along with the help of his wife Barb and family, prepared loaves of whole wheat sourdough bread on their 1879 homestead for attendees to appropriately sample the hearty variety, one similar to that devoured years prior on the same property.

Moving onto the gorgeous estate—which the Dietrichs currently run their prosperous, certified-organic farm for asparagus, strawberries and raspberries—the couple noticed the stand-alone outbuilding aside their country home, one that once the doors were dashed open revealed an ancient brick oven. 

Through historic research and practice, the current breadmaker began to understand the skill of correctly using the brick oven. Now, several times a year, he fuels a well-maintained fire inside, plopping rounds of fresh dough within the interior until they sport a crunchy and thick, powdered crust.

The past weekend bake session, sculpted around a base dough prepared from The Oley Baker, lasted well into the late morning and early afternoon, with many visitors skipping away from the perfect Pike Township property with a toasty and crusty, all-natural fresh round—which, as seen above, included carb-crazy, lucky me.

Oley Valley Organics, LLC, 516 Oysterdale Road, Oley Pennsylvania 19547

the fork & knife life, round one: falling in love with bread

New column alert!

Each week, via one of the publications I write for, Tri-County Record, I will delve deep in her own edible adventures, journeying amongst topics of craft breweries, finer dining experiences, amateur attempts at being a chef, and as seen below, sweet successes of artisan baking.

Here's this week's The Fork & Knife Life:

I fell in love over bread.

The loaf—larger than my the width and height of my petite head, and baked in a building without electricity—was pumped with whole grains and coated with a powdery, delicate firm crust. Delicious and organic, the bread had traveled over five hours to get me to, from Northampton, Massachusetts, and I gushed over every last bite as I devoured it entirely at my Berks County residence.

Before this, I had never met a comparable loaf of dough, never one as beautifully-crafted with the extreme appreciation as that of the artisan breadmaking of the Hungry Ghost Bread Bakery. The old-world, loaf-crafters of environmentally-friendly bake shop in Northampton, Massachusetts daily produce small doses of their inventory, in an amazing wood-burning brick oven.

Redefining ancient bread traditions into modernized masterpieces, the crew at HGB sculpt a multitude of flavors from simple recipes for varieties like French, potato, rye, local wheat, thyme fougasse, semolina fennel, 8-grain pumped with chocolate, and even, a crunchy concoction of a flat bread that is pumped with local wheat, beets and squash.

The proprietors of the New England bakery, Jonathan Stevens and Cheryl Maffei, not only hand-crafted their fine breads to be eccentric easily within themselves, but the structure and representation of their cottage-like setting is additionally, very interesting.

Most likely on a visit up north, music of John Coltrane of Bob Dylan will be flooding through their airy space, and on their weekly bread schedule's handout, Stevens, who acts as the lead baker, typically prints a handwritten poem on its printed back.

Beginning last June for my birthday and now held as a special treat annually, I traveled to New England to experience firsthand my beloved bread and bakery. It's always refreshing stepping foot into any baking haven, especially this one being the country's best baked bread, with flour smeared generously inside the petite shop's walls, and bearded young men eagerly rolling huge piles of dough that will anxiously be plopped inside the warmed bricks.

There's no denying it—I fell in love at first bite.

While, at some times, it seems far, far fetched, the bakery of Hungry Ghost Bread has inspired me to set an ultimate life goal to someday own a place like theirs, taking what I dearly love from their established place and transforming it deliciously into something of our own.





Previously wrote of Hungry Ghost Bread similarly in a post here.

brick oven bread proposed for phoenixville

Aiming to compliment the local community and assist with the Phoenixville's ongoing revitalization with fresh out-of-the-oven flavor, Jerry Sheehan's store, Brick Oven Bread and Cheese Shoppe, is slated to thrust open its doors by late April.

Already a bread provider for dinner rolls and ciabatta sandwich buns for a few doors down, Marly's Restaurant, Sheehan additionally increased his one-man show to three, adding local residents Andrew Reynolds and Ariel Cantara (seen above) to his gourmet team.

Together the trio will sculpt, brick-by-brick, the location's oven, under the guidance and expertise of Sweetwater Baking Co. of Camp Hills in Kimberton.


"Making the oven ourselves represents the philosophy behind us," suggested Reynolds. "We get our hands dirty to make our products ourselves, even the oven."

Bridge Street's newest business is also inspired to be a "Phoenixville business for Phoenixville," wishing to keep everything local, especially the ingredients, as well as keeping deliveries close-to-home.

For more on the story, click here.

it's amazing bread, he said.

We fell in love over bread.

The loaf—larger than my the width and height of my petite head, and baked in a building without electronic—was pumped with whole grains and coated with a powdery, delicate firm crust. Delicious and organic, the bread had travelled over five hours to get me to, and I gushed over every last bite.

Complications do come into this relationship's making, yet with such a profound love for things in a similar fashion, those things can eventually be forgotten, and last month, one year of our courting had been marked.

Before this, I had never met another who shared my (secret) love for wonderfully-made carbohydrates, and better yet, appreciated the artisan craft of breadmaking in such an intense nature as I did myself.

It comes back to that special, environmentally-friendly bakery that first sparked our interests to one another. The old-world, loaf-crafters of Hungry Ghost Bread of Northampton, Massachusetts (which I previously blogged about here) daily produces small doses of their inventory, in an amazing wood-burning brick oven.

Redefining ancient bread traditions into modernized masterpieces, the crew at HGB sculpt a multitude of flavors from simple French, potato, rye and local wheat, to thyme fougasse, semolina fennel, 8-grain pumped with chocolate (as seen above, that i'm chomping) and locavore flat breads made with local wheat, beets and squash.

As a special threat for my birthday this year, we traveled to New England together, to experience the bread jointly for the first time, rather than the various other times, we were enjoyed the loaves together, but just through words.

While, at some times, it seems far, far fetched, but our goal is to someday own a place like Hungry Ghost, taking what we love from their place and transforming them into something of our own.