Six loaves a day, baked from four, from £2.80
Sourdough and breads
The house white, a seeded, a dark rye, spelt and honey, baguettes every day, and an olive and rosemary loaf on Fridays and Saturdays. Thirty-six hours from mixing to the counter, all of it by hand.
Sourdough is slow because it has to be. The starter has been fed twice a day since the week we opened, the dough proves overnight in the cold room, and each loaf is shaped by hand before it goes into a wood-fired oven that was lit at four. The result is a loaf that keeps for four days and toasts for a week.
The house white is the loaf most people buy: an 800g boule, a blistered crust, an open but not holey crumb, a mild sour. The seeded is the same dough with sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and sesame through it and on top. The rye is a 100% Pembrokeshire rye, dense and dark, sliced thin for smoked fish and butter. Spelt and honey is softer and sweeter and the one we recommend for children and for anyone who finds sourdough too sharp.
Baguettes are made every day on a shorter prove with a little of the starter, and are best within six hours, which is why we bake them in two rounds, at seven and at eleven. On Fridays and Saturdays there is an olive and rosemary loaf, and at Christmas a stollen and a panettone that people order in November.
The short version
- Six loaves on the counter every day
- Starter fed since 2015; no commercial yeast
- Monmouthshire bread flour, Pembrokeshire rye
- Baguettes twice a day, 7 and 11
- Halves on request; sliced on request
- Day-old bread £2 by the door
Prices and when
House sourdough £4.20 (800g), seeded £4.60, rye £4.80, spelt and honey £4.90, baguette £2.80. Half loaves on request. Day-old bread £2 from the basket. Prices include VAT where it applies. Everything we bake, with prices, is on the what we bake page, the cakes on the cakes page, and the wholesale price list on the wholesale page.
Questions about breads
Can I order a loaf for collection?
Yes. Ring or use the form by 3pm the day before and it is put aside with your name on it until we close. Regular standing orders, say a seeded every Saturday, are written in the book and kept for you without asking.
Is the sourdough suitable for gluten intolerance?
No. Long fermentation makes it easier on many people's digestion, and several customers with mild intolerance eat it, but it is wheat flour in a wheat bakery and we cannot promise anything to a coeliac. We say so plainly rather than sell you a loaf.
Why is it £4.20?
Because it is 800g of good flour, thirty-six hours and a person's hands, baked in an oven that burns a tonne of wood a month. We publish the ingredients and the price of the flour on the board; a supermarket "sourdough" is a different product made a different way.
Come in early, or order ahead.
Sourdough and croissants on the counter from half past seven, Welsh cakes on the bakestone, cakes to order with three weeks' notice, and wholesale to twenty-six cafés with the price list online. Ring, or use the form; a person replies within a working day.