Stuart Howe has been busy over the last couple of months.
As the owner of Saint John Bakery, he has been gearing up to open a location inside the Saint John City Market.
That work will finally take shape on June 22.
“This is going to be the coolest bakery, I think of the four that we will have at that point,” said Howe in a phone interview Friday.
“On the right-hand side, we’re going to have retail, and the left-hand stall is going to be the kitchen with a see-through glass wall, so people will be able to sit and have their lunch and look through the glass wall at a full production bakery.”
Howe said city market staff first approached him about the idea of opening a stall back in early January. The bakery has searched for an uptown location for quite a while, so Howe admits that the expansion is a long time coming.
It is with the goal of making the uptown location the flagship for its stores in Grand Bay-Westfield, East Saint John and West Saint John.
“We’ve come up with two large installs at the top of the market, which should be open for us in a few months,” said Howe.
“In the meantime, we have a really great spot between Sisters and the Wild Carrot Cafe, where we’re going to set up a retail space and supply it from our other bakeries for the time being until this space is ready.”
Howe likes the idea of a soft launch in the market because he said it allows staff to learn what products customers want while the permanent space is being built.
Howe said the city market location will be a full-production facility for its other bakeries around town. Each location contributes certain goods – Grand Bay-Westfield takes care of the doughnuts; the pies from both Saint John stores, for instance.
The location will be home to the bakery’s old-fashioned doughnut production, which Howe said is one of Saint John Bakery’s top products. Eventually, every doughnut sold at its four stores will come from the market.
Howe said he has received great support from the community and the City of Saint John, so he is excited to get it off the ground.
“I can’t wait to meet the customers that live and work uptown,” he said.
“Now we’ve got east central and west kind of covered for folks, and that’s a really cool feeling for me.”
