When James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Ellen Yin moved High Street from Old City into the corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets four years ago, she and her crew set up a small production bakery and takeout space alongside the restaurant.
Almost from the start, Yin said, the 300-square-foot bakery has been “bursting at the seams.”
The solution: Take over a storefront around the corner on Chestnut Street — also part of the Franklin Residences — to open the Bread Room. It’s a cafe, workshop, and pastry hub in a light-filled, industrial-meets-farmhouse space with 14-foot ceilings and expansive windows, designed by longtime collaborator Marguerite Rodgers Interior Design. The grand opening was Oct. 20.
The Bread Room, joining a rush of new bakeries and cafes in the region, is led by head chef Christina McKeough and head baker Kyle Wood, who are producing dozens of handmade viennoiseries and baked goods daily.
The pastry lineup includes grown-up Pop-Tarts in flavors such as strawberry, bergamot, and kumquat cream cheese; crullers topped with tahini, honeycomb, or candied fennel; and morning buns scented with cardamom and brown butter.
On the savory side are baked egg cheese Danishes, pastrami Reuben rye croissants, and sandwiches like a muffuletta on sesame focaccia, cold roast sirloin with horseradish cream, and watercress on a rustic roll. Each day will also bring a house-milled local grain miche, sold by the pound, and High Street’s whole-grain sourdough loaves.
The Bread Room’s space, which briefly was a location of Bryn & Dane’s about five years ago, “was a glorified retail space being used as storage,” Yin said.
By day, the Bread Room will operate as a bakery and cafe with vintage benches and a communal table once owned by Albert Barnes, the Philadelphia art collector and scientist. In the evening, it will become what Yin calls a community-driven workshop and event space, hosting small group classes (subjects include sourdough 101, lamination, and pizza making) and private gatherings for up to 30 people.
“We’ve had huge demand for classes — bread, pizza, lamination — and this will allow us to expand those for adults and children,“ Yin said. ”People are really looking for an experience, and this creates that opportunity.”
The Bread Room, 834 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Starting Oct. 20, hours will be 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends.