Daily Bread

St. John's Bakery
153 Broadview Avenue
416-850-7431

It’s 8:30 on a Saturday morning and Broadview Avenue between Queen and Dundas Streets is quiet — few cars, little sidewalk traffic — save for the St. John’s Bakery storefront.

A van parked out front is being loaded with box after box of the bakery’s signature organic sourdough breads while a merchant from the Beach huddles in the doorway with a bakery representative to discuss the possibility of carrying St. John’s products in her store. Apron-clad bakers bustle around an industrial oven churning out the loaves, scones, and sweets that fill the shop’s wooden racks, wicker baskets, and display case.

The first customers of the day begin to arrive, and on this, the shop’s busiest retail day of the week, their numbers will soon swell to fill the space. They know what the rest of the city has just discovered with the St. John’s win as best bakery in the Critics’ Picks section in NOW’s 2009 Best Of listing: This place is special.

Owned and operated by the neighbouring St. John the Compassionate Mission and funded in part by the Toronto Enterprise Fund, the bakery counts amongst its employees at-risk individuals who know the reality of homelessness, addiction, and mental-health issues. St. John’s provides the opportunity to learn marketable skills, including the ancient art of artisanal bread-making in the French style, in an environment that succeeds in being nurturing and supportive while also keeping its goal of being a self-sustaining business at the fore.

“I was fired after six months when I went back to drugs,” says Gordon Brown, who found St. John’s through his local welfare office five years ago, “but was rehired after getting myself together.” Since then Brown has never looked back, overcoming more than 20 years of addiction to live the life he does today working as the bakery’s sales rep and taking the early-morning baking shift two days a week. He is also a regular speaker for the United Way, sharing his story in more than 50 engagements a year, and has started teaching cooking classes for kids at the Beaches Recreation Centre.

Currently Brown is working on developing the bakery’s Winter Market Program, which helps the bakery fill the revenue gap left when the summer markets close for the season. “The retail store is a bit off the beaten track,” he says, “so we will take the bread to the people.” Brown is experimenting with selling direct to customers in corporate locations; meanwhile, the list of shops and restaurants carrying St. John’s products continues to grow.

It’s a lot to juggle, but there’s no mistaking Brown’s commitment. “I put down the crack pipe and picked up oven mitts,” he says. “I believe in the bread — the bread is the star of the show.”

Brown goes on to explain St. John’s slow-food approach to baking. With levain acting as leavening agent and proper time given for the dough to rest after being mixed and shaped by hand, the bread develops complex flavours and a satisfying, sturdy texture. Organic flours made from locally grown grains further enhance the craftsmanship of the bakery’s baguettes and olive-cilantro, walnut-raisin, Celtic, rye, and red fife (to name a few) loaves.

“There’s something about the concept of making bread,” says Brown. “This work opens doors for people on the margins of society. Not everyone makes it in the program, but the bakery is here for those looking for an opportunity to work on their personal obstacles.”

Others are drawn to St. John’s simply because it allows them to practice their craft in a different way. “I was ready for a change of pace,” says Flavia Poon, who has been the bakery’s pastry chef for three years. “I had always worked in the restaurant business but it’s hectic and there’s a lot of stress. Here, I have the freedom to be creative while sticking to the French theme. I bake smaller amounts but it’s all about good quality — the ingredients are local and organic wherever possible — and good taste.”

Poon varies the flavours of her tarts with the seasons and keeps the counter displays laden with sweets such as madeleines, galettes, bouchons, scones, and Breton cakes. With the holidays approaching she will also be baking up seasonal favourites such as Christmas cakes, shortbread, nut bars, and Florentine cookies, studded with nuts and candied fruits. But perhaps most popular of all is Poon’s bread pudding, a Saturday specialty that loyal customers snap up the moment it hits the front of the house. “It’s popular,” Poon says modestly.

Brown promptly corrects her, his voice booming from a back corner of the kitchen. “The bread pudding is beyond popular,” he boasts.

There’s a palpable camaraderie here, and it includes patrons. After just a few visits it’s hard not to feel part of this social enterprise, which is extends past the wares for sale. St. John’s Bakery serves up finely crafted daily bread, to be sure, but also so much more.

Jodi Lewchuk is an editor by profession and a writer and cook by passion. She also writes about and photographs food for her personal blog, Cursive Mechanics.