Mixing, kneading, and baking bread is not for everyone. Which is why many restaurants seek out local bakers for their bread needs. Bringing in outside baguettes, brioche, and buns ease the burdens of their kitchens while furthering the commitment to local food. The makers gain more avenues to showcase their goods. Diners reap the benefit too. Overall, the community is enriched. You’re probably already eating bread from many of the city’s best bakeries, but just never knew it.
BRIGHTSIDE BAKESHOP | brightsidebakeshop.com
Wholesale has helped Brightside Bakeshop grow at a manageable rate while giving Andrea Borchers the chance to test different products to see what sells best. And, in sweet and savory iterations, her brioche rolls rule. She supplies Three Corners Coffee, Headquarters Coffee, and Meet + Greet with her confections.
“I left my other full-time job three months ago, and would not have had the confidence to do so without the support of wholesale,” she says. “It is a part of the business that we are always looking to grow.”
Back in the late ‘80s, Sam Tucker got his initial training at Great Harvest Baking Company under Don Stephenson, who instilled the business principle of balance: “Wholesale is a necessary evil.”
That balance, Tucker allows, can be tricky to achieve. These days, his business is exclusively wholesale; he bakes breads, rolls, and pastries for Salt&Vine, answer, Café Roze, and Bare Bones Butchers, to name a few. While he misses the personal contact he enjoyed at his prior retail operation in the Nashville Farmers’ Market, he derives similar pleasure in the partnerships he forms with his wholesale customers.
Well-regarded for her luscious array of made-from-scratch cakes, muffins, croissants, cheesecakes and pies, Nichole Wolfe feels fortunate to have accounts with The Post, Porter Road Butcher, MEEL, and The Food Company. “The wholesale portion of my business keeps me busy year ‘round,” she says.
She appreciates the network of other producers that help make her baking the best. “I use Tennessee Real Milk and buttermilk, Weisenberger flour and cornmeal, sausage and bacon from Wedge Oak Farms. I get eggs and honey from Nashville Grown and cheeses from The Bloomy Rind,” Wolfe says. For her chicken potpies (which she makes for MEEL and Porter Road Butchers), she sources both poultry and stock from Porter Road. “I also use their leftover stock and lard so the whole animal is truly used. It’s a symbiotic relationship that benefits us both.”