News

Bread and Butler’s Kickstarter

Andy Butler was one of the first bakers at Loaf when we opened on Stirchley high street a decade ago. In 2015 he left for Deptford in London to start Bread and Butler, first baking at home for friends, then in a café’s shipping container kitchen and finally in 2018 in their own building with a team of eight.

The pandemic has been tough, of course, but an expired lease meant they also lost their home in January. Treating this as an opportunity, they’ve secured a new space and are building something new from their successes. They’re crowdfunding £30,000 for new equipment including an oven, and are at 80% in five days so they must be doing something right!

Excitingly, part of their plans include teaching which we’re naturally big advocates of. In order to teach, you need to understand your skills in deep and nuanced ways, and we’re convinced that running bread courses has made us better bakers. The more bakeries that teach the better!

One of the best things about having been around for a while is watching seeds planted at Loaf grow into mighty trees. We’re very proud of what Andy’s built and hope you’ll join us in wishing him well on this exciting new chapter.

As we approach our 10th anniversary on the high street this year we want to share more stories like this. If you’ve had a connection with Loaf which has led to something interesting, do get in touch. We’d love to hear about it!