Breaking Bread

by Andrea Damewood

Just like a sourdough starter under a cloth, some of the best baked goods in Portland are bubbling away behind the scenes, out of the spotlight. 

For many bakers, offering subscription or pop-up based carbs is the perfect way to balance work with having a life, and single-handedly reign over quality control. 

Word spreads via Instagram and word-of-mouth: Kir Jensen, she of the beloved former Sugar Cube, is back selling pies! Starter Bread’s polenta loaf and double cocoa rye cookie are divine! A sewing teacher is selling limited quantities of the best babka you’ll ever eat from her front porch every Friday!

Here’s a few standout grassroots bakers, with tips on what to try—and how to track them down. (Always check their website or Instagram for the most up-to-date info.)

Kir Jensen

Where to find: Instagram @kirjensen

What she bakes: “All things butter, flour, sugar magic (pies, cakes, cookies, tarts, high brow/low brow, nostalgic desserts).”

Kir Jensen was one of Portland’s OG food cart darlings when she opened The Sugar Cube in 2008, which eventually became a bakery on Alberta Street. Keeping a business afloat and parenting meant she decided to sell and step away for a while.

Jensen is back with gorgeous pies that she offers for pre-order on Instagram for pickup. Her Mother’s Day pie was for your mouth and eyes: silky lemon cream filling, with raspberry-rhubarb compote and rose cream filled an all-butter crust kissed with light cornmeal, topped with pink petals. 

“I’m inspired by what’s seasonal; I appreciate simple/good flavor combinations, I like to let the ingredients do the shining,” Jensen says. 

Besides pie drops, Jensen says she’ll be doing pop-ups at Milk Glass Market and Side Yard Farm. She’ll also be making desserts for Doug Adams and Whitney Burnside’s new Bitter Root Supper Club, set to debut inside their Grand Fir Brewing.

As for if she wants to go back to a brick-and-mortar bakery? “FUCK NO,” she writes in an email. “I am thankful for that experience, but full time ownership does not align with the life I’m living now. My goal is to bake, flex some creativity, collaborate with other chefs, and to give lots of food hugs.”

Starter Bread

What they bake: All things sourdough, from heirloom grain loaves to strawberry cardamom hand pies and “seasonal slabs” of focaccia with toppings.

Where to find: Subscribe for a weekly loaf, or from 10 am to 2 pm every Sunday at 7304 N Leavitt.

Starter Bread is a revelation, or as owners Matt Kedzie and Zena Walas like to say, a revolution.

The couple started making sourdough loaves out of their house in St. Johns in 2019, and offering a few dozen subscription loaves a week. But as word spread about their hefty farm boules, sprouted wheat loaves, and spelt bread scored with that '90s Stussy “S” we all know and love, so did their need for a physical location.

“We’re both hippie kids at heart, which I think is how we became obsessed with a more digestible bread,” Kedzie says. “In a time of gluten-demonization, the sourdough process hinted at a way to unlock a bread that could feed us daily without hurting our guts.”

Now, the couple spends the whole week at their physical bakery on North Leavitt, making bread for their subscription program, cookies, pie, scones, dry mixes, jams, grating cheese, and recipe testing. Starter Bread, they say, allows them to stretch and take care of their bodies, and not lose too much sleep.

Still, with lines snaking down the block on Sundays and frequent sell-outs, the couple is always battling the question of how much earlier they want to start their workday.

“It takes our five-person team all week to prepare for Sunday Bread Church on top of fulfilling subscription orders,” Kedzie says. “This feels like the model. A multi-armed bakery (subscription and retail) that is sustainable for the bakers–it has to be for us to remain present.”

Tooth Butter

What she bakes: Rye breads. From dark, dense Eastern and Northern European 100 percent rye loaves to East Coast deli ryes; Dutch crunch rolls; cardamom buns.

Where to find: toothbutterpdx.com, with pickup on Thursdays at 337 NW Broadway.

Sophia Illk Jackson, former longtime sous chef at Kachka, had been cooking for years before she realized that making bread was her favorite part about food. Jackson redesigned the bread program there, and now has a weekly pre-order model that allows her to keep her production at a level where she can keep it a one-woman show.

Along with her pre-orders, her excellent rye bun serves as the foundation for the flagship burger at the new 82 Acres restaurant on Southeast Clinton. Jackson bakes out of a kitchen in Old Town, where she also has pickups every Thursday. She also sells at the King Farmers Market and at Trough Bar and Billiards on SE Hawthorne, where her husband works.

“Not having to work true bakers hours is also a huge driving force for this model,” Jackson says. “It's less secure than a brick-and-mortar business, but for now the schedule flexibility, and not having to start my shift at 12 am, is worth the uncertainty.”

Beautifully braided babka from Bisl Bakery.Andrea damewood Bisl Bakery

What she bakes: Fantastic babka

Where to find: Instagram @saramoskovitz

I met Sara Moskovitz while taking her intermediate sewing class at Portland Community College, where she’d bring loaves of fresh-baked whole grain challah for the class, so I was lucky to get in on the ground floor of her burgeoning babka biz, Bisl Bakery. 

Moskovitz, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust and left the former Czechoslovakia, says there is a saying in Judaism that no meal is complete without bread. Having a weekly pop-up allows her to do “an intense amount of momming” while experimenting with flavors. Moskovitz grew up with a foster sister from Vietnam who loved to bake, so she’s constantly adding flavors like ube jam, milk tea, or mochi bits to her European breads.

Right now, she does fewer than 25 loaves a week, available for $15, with Friday pickups from her porch in North Portland. Her Instagram is the place to score a weekly hit of some of the best babka I’ve ever tasted. 

Based on boatloads of brown butter, the babkas are moist, dense and pack a flavor punch that makes it easy to eat a half a loaf in a flash. Flavors have ranged from an intense dark chocolate with candied orange, to a recent cinnamon and cardamom babka dusted with pistachio dukkah and washed in magnolia petal syrup. 

Moskovitz’s babka-making practice is close to her heart. “The feeling of dough in my hands and between my fingers makes me feel close to my grandmothers, both of them, to our family history, our way of building and growing and keeping community,” she says. “And eating carbs is life.”

More Microbakeries For Your Carb Checklist

The network of microbakeries is vast, if you know where to look (mostly Instagram). Here’s a surely incomplete list of other small bakeries to add to your hunt:

Koki Koki Bakehouse: Co-founded by Arissara “Bow” Prapakiet, these cookies are monumental. Riding the trend of massive, elaborate cookies, s’more and nutella lava beauties are offered alongside twists like miso black sesame, fig pecan Earl Grey cream cheese, and the roasted Japanese green tea, hojicha. Order online for shipping or pickup in Beaverton at kokikokibakehouse.com. Check their Insta, @kokikoki.bakehouse, for their pop-up schedule.

Red Hen Bagelry: Taking its name from the storied chicken who did it all, this New York-style bagel biz has been getting a lot of attention. Head to redhenbagelry.com to preorder and pick up on Sundays at Cherry Sprout, 727 N Sumner. You can also get them gussied up and with a side of queer-owned coffee most weekends at Hinterland Coffee, 7112 NE Glisan.

Lloyds Bagels: “Boiled and baked with love, levain and levity” in Milwaukie by photographer Michael Raines, Lloyd’s is named after the pig who lives in his yard. Keep an eye on @lloydsbagels on Instagram for where these round boys will pull up next.

Fairbanks Bread: Made by Josh Fairbanks, who trained at San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery. Sourdough breads shaped by hand and cold fermented overnight, and crunchy, chewy honey bagels are also on offer. Pre-order at fairbanksbread.com for pickups on Monday at Cafe Olli, 3907 NE MLK Jr.

Pipsqueak Bagels: Also baked in Milwaukie (what’s in the water down there?) the amount of seedy goodness Pipsqueak Bagels gets to cling to their everything bagels defies comprehension. Try them every Friday at Puff Coffee, 2816 SE Stark, or on Sundays at the Milwaukie Farmers Market. Keep an eye on their Instagram, @pipsqueakbagels, for other pop ups.