Bell Street Bakery
Location: 173 W. Bell St.
Owners: Russ and Linda Lewis
Phone: 797-5983
Hours: 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday beginning April 2
After several years of being closed, the Bell Street Bakery now has new lease on life through experienced artisan bread baker Russ Lewis, an October 2015 transplant to Sequim from upper New York state, and he is excited.
“The people of Sequim are so, so nice, so different than back East … I feel my stress has lifted and feel, ‘Wow, I made the right decision!’ The kindness from complete strangers has been overwhelming to say the least.”
Long story, short — one of Lewis’ friends moved to Sequim last June, saw that the bakery was for sale and connected him with the owners while Lewis vacationed on the peninsula with his wife, Linda, and son Silas.
“We found out about the bakery and made a major life change overnight like flipping a switch. It’s do or die for us — we have no choice but to make it work,” Lewis said.
The 45-year-old Lewis is no stranger to baking or owning and operating bakeries. For more than 25 years honing his craft in Pennsylvania, Vermont and New York while working for others and also owning and operating two bakeries, Lewis knows a thing or two about what to do with flour, yeast, salt and water — and a myriad of other tasty ingredients.
The state-of-the-art bakery is, Lewis said, “a baker’s dream, so my dream is coming true for me.”
Currently, Lewis is renting both the bakery and the adjacent retail store, where he envisions customers leisurely enjoying coffee with his made-from-scratch pastries, including raspberry streusel and maple walnut sticky buns dripping with authentic New England maple syrup.
Fear not, if you can’t or don’t want to eat gluten, he will set up a separate, contained mixing area that’s gluten-free so there will be no cross-contamination for gluten-free breads and pastries.
Lewis said he knows the bakery is outfitted like a big city bakery for volume but is encouraged because he already has made a deal with Sunny Farms to carry his artisan breads. “I’m more than pleased with the feedback,” Lewis said.
“My specialties are European crusty breads, like hearth breads, that are baked directly on the hearth or stone in the oven and not in a pan,” Lewis said.
“I make toasted almond flax, maple walnut whole wheat, Challah (a Jewish braided bread) and Portuguese sweet breads plus spinach, onion and mushroom French bread and jalapeño cheddar wheat. I make and sell a lot of whole grain and multi-grain breads and another specialty is fruit breads, such as cranberry, cinnamon, raisin French bread. That’s just a small repertoire of what I’ll have.”
Lewis explained, “Artisan breads are made from scratch with no mixes. The shape varies slightly due to the many variables in the factors of artisan baking. They also have a long fermenting time, 3-6 hours, to develop the flavor. Generally, the average size of an artisan loaf is 1.5 pounds and is cut in one-half-inch or three-quarter-inch slices. The retail business also will have scones and pastries.”
Asked if he will make New York-style bagels, Lewis said he knows how and would like to but he doesn’t have a large kettle to boil them in. Maybe down the road, he said.
Bell Street Bakery will have a soft opening from 5-8 p.m. during the First Friday Art Walk on April 1 and will be open for retail sales Saturday, April 2.
The bakery will be hiring in early May and Lewis said, “I want people I can train because sometimes no experience is the best experience. I just want someone with the willingness to work hard.”
Lewis said wistfully that his family, some 3,000 miles away in upper New York state, will join him in early April. In the meantime, he’s meeting as many Sequim residents as he can and intends to become involved in the community.
