Small, immaculate and intimate—that was my first impression of Granary Bakehouse. I love the first two qualities because smaller, hands-on bakeries produce the finest baked goods, and the second quality is imperative in a bakeshop as it is in any kitchen, but the third is a forecast of the future. I picture Granary filled with easy-morning people, reading papers as they sip coffee and enjoy fresh buttery croissants, but that is a scene yet to come because of COVID.
Meanwhile, owner Selma Palad fills the cases with some of the best laminated pastry in town. If you don’t know, laminated means layered, as in croissants. Butter and dough are layered over and over and over again to make those golden flakes that get all over your car because you can’t wait until you get home to take a bite.
The butter, of course, is French. “But I try to use as many local ingredients as possible,” says Palad. That even goes for the Central Milling flour and the Beehive cheese in her cheese croissants. Palad graduated from San Francisco Baking Institute in 2012, worked “for a minute” at Eva’s Boulangerie, then went back to California, before finally returning to Utah. Her twin babies put her bakery dreams on hold for a while but after some successful years at farmers markets Sugarhouse and Daybreak, she was ready to open her own place with plans to open near Laziz.
Then COVID hit. Palad decided to wait. Again.
Now you may have to wait. Because even without newspaper-reading morning lingerers in the place, “we sell out most days,” says Palad. Most of her customers are neighborhood walkarounds, which she loves. “I’d rather have one location for 100 years than expand to a bunch of locations.”
The selection is limited—about 30 products, but as Palad says, “There’s beauty in the classics.”
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