On the Radio    k Rebecca Sheir, impresario of WAMU’s radio show, “Metro Connection,” spoke on Friday about the opening of Bread Furst, about the apprenticeship program, and about what it means for a man to launch a new venture at an age when most people are enjoying (or not) their retirement. You can listen […]

I was to have spent this week presenting at the Worlds of Healthy Flavors, a conference held annually by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Culinary Institute of America.  I have been going to it for years and years, always to bake whole grain breads and talk about making whole grains more genuinely […]

Our building permit was issued just after the new year began and we launched as quickly as we could into the first job, installation of water lines in the trenches we had dug in the concrete floor while we waited for the permit. We were able as well to construct the rubberized barrier that will […]

Before you ask, I will confess:  We are not going to offer gluten-free bread.  We will make breads made without wheat but we are not going to have any without any gluten. There’s no point in making bread for people who really have celiac disease.  Our store is going to be suffused with wheat and […]

Last week we had a joint meeting of the apprentices and staff. “Staff,” you might ask?  We are a couple of months away from opening but we do have staff.   Not yet on payroll, still in their current jobs – but committed to coming to Bread Furst. With all that is happening with permits and […]

I opened Marvelous Market in 1990 at Connecticut and Nebraska Avenues and if I had been smarter, it would be there still.  But I wasn’t and I lost the company to people who didn’t understand it. All the stores but one are now closed; the Dupont Circle location closed just yesterday. It’s sad for me […]

Fifteen months ago I left you in the middle of a story.  I asked for your advice and then forgot to tell you that I took it. You may recall – if you were reading these essays then – that two years ago, when I thought I had found a location for Bread Furst, I […]

By writing these little essays, I am trying to keep you informed of our progress in this process of opening Bread Furst.  But it’s a bit much to ask that you keep up as it’s hard for me, working on this all the time, every day, to juggle all the balls in the air.  So […]

We had a first staff meeting on Sunday.  It was attended by those so far selected to be on the staff of Bread Furst at opening, some professional bakers and some serious amateurs now considering career changes. A week or so before the meeting, Jack Ravelle, our pastry chef, had written to me about the […]

I step back just for today from the purpose of this Web site because it is for me so important a day. Today I send my memory of this day 50 years ago.  It has nothing to do with what I have been writing on this Website and I am certainly not the first to […]