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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Baking up a taste of Europe

Common Crumb specializes in breads, French pastries

Santé husband-and-wife owners Jeremy and Kate Hansen have opened a bakeshop three blocks from their downtown restaurant.

Common Crumb specializes in European-style breads and pastries, such as baguettes, madeleines and croissants. It opened Wednesday.

The logo features a rolling pin. The name pays homage to the space and the trade.

“The building is called Saranac Commons,” Kate Hansen said.

“The crumb is the inside” – the look and texture – “of the bread,” Jeremy Hansen said. “You want a good crumb.”

The bakery is using mostly organic and non-genetically modified flour from Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill in Bellingham as well as Shepherd’s Grain in Spokane, Joseph’s Grainery in Colville, and Central Milling Co. in Logan, Utah.

“The idea is to be 100 percent non-GMO and organic within six months,” Jeremy Hansen said.

Meanwhile, look for Dutch-oven sourdough, ciabatta and focaccia, among other whole-grain and classic bread styles. Prices range from $2.90 for a baguette to $14 for a large, braided challah.

Lunch – sausages, soup, pasta salad and open-faced sandwiches from $3.25 to $9 – is slated to be served all day.

The bakery was expected to open in June, but construction delays pushed back the date. Work has been ongoing for about a year.

“Even though it took so long, it’s kind of a blessing because we’re really organized,” Kate Hansen said. “It’s not as chaotic as Santé.”

The Hansens opened the French-inspired restaurant in 2008, adding the Butcher Bar cocktail lounge in December 2013.

Common Crumb will supply bread as well as some pastries and desserts to Santé, which has been making its own loaves for the past three or so years. The bakeshop will do wholesale as well as retail sales.

“We’re trying to do really detailed work from the beginning to end,” said bakery chef Taylor Siok. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he was lead pastry cook at Daniel in New York City before returning home to Spokane last summer to work at Common Crumb.

Siok’s particularly proud of the bakery’s French macarons, which come in classic flavors like pistachio and vanilla as well as strawberry shortcake, salted hazelnut, caramel and Meyer lemon. They sell for $2.50 each.

Also in the pastry case: chocolate tarts, petits gateaux, biscotti, éclairs and handcrafted chocolates. Prices range from 50 cents to $4.50. Whole pies and cakes cost $25 to $35. Custom orders are also available.

With a blue and off-white color scheme, the atmosphere is, Jeremy Hansen said, “accidentally nautical.” There are classic porthole-style windows in the double doors to the kitchen. A staircase found on Craigslist and salvaged from a Seattle tugboat leads the way to a crow’s nest-like office space. Decorative lights above the pastry case are reminiscent of those lining marina docks. Signs identifying loaves hang in frames from ropes resembling bowlines.

There’s no seating in the bakery, but customers can share chairs, stools and benches with the brewery across the hall. Black Label Brewing celebrates its grand opening at 1 p.m. Saturday. The bakery will stay open later some nights depending on demand from its customers.

Common Crumb opens at 7 a.m. daily. It closes at 7 p.m. – except for Sunday and Monday, when the plan is to close midafternoon.

Common Crumb can be found at Saranac Commons, 19 W. Main Ave. Call (509) 315-4948. On Facebook: www.facebook.com/commoncrumb.

Black Label Brewing can be found at www.facebook.com/ BlackLabelBrewingCompany.