Nia Pell
Head baker
Nia loads the oven at five and still argues with the starter about hydration. She has been here since the first week.
Since 2016
The bench, the jar, the lane.
We are a small bakehouse that takes bread seriously and itself a little less so. The oven is older than the sign. The sign is fine.
Who is here before you are
Jonah Hart
Pastry
Jonah laminates whilst the rest of us are asleep. He judges a croissant by the sound it makes, which is annoying and usually right.
Samira Cole
Coffee and the counter
Samira runs the dial-in and remembers who takes oat milk. If the queue is long, she is the reason it still feels calm.
What we keep doing
Local flour
Our country loaf starts with flour from a mill we can drive to in a morning. The bag says the field, not a slogan.
A long ferment
The dough is mixed the afternoon before. Nobody rushes it. That is the whole trick, and it is not a secret.
Neighbours first
The counter is for the lane. Workshops, cake orders and the Saturday queue all fit around the people who walk here.
A few figures
Sample figures, not a report
- 2016Doors opened (sample)
- 24hIn a country loaf (sample)
- 5 a.m.First oven (sample)
Since the first key
- 2016Nia unlocks 14 Fennel Lane with a second-hand oven and a starter in a jar.
- 2018The starter gets a name (Doughreen) and a feeding chart on the wall. The chart is mostly ignored.
- 2021We switch the country loaf to the local mill and stop pretending the other flour was fine.
- 2024Saturday workshops start. Eight people, one bench, a lot of flour on the floor.
- 2026Order-ahead begins, so the 8 a.m. queue can wait on the pavement a little less.
Questions we get
Do you bake everything here?
Bread, pastry, cakes and the savouries, yes. We do not pretend the butter is churned on Fennel Lane. The flour for the country loaf is from a mill we can name if you ask.
Is the starter really that old?
Yes: a jar on the bench since 2016. Nia feeds it on the same schedule, even on Mondays when the door is shut.
Can you leave the nuts out?
Say so when you order. Almond croissant and pecan slice always contain nuts. Carrot cake has walnuts unless the order says otherwise. The bench is not a nut-free room.
Why are you closed on Mondays?
The dough still works on Sunday night, but the people do not. Monday is for the mill order, the starter, and not talking to anyone.