R&A Bread Bakers, a bakery specializing in sourdough-based baked goods, is opening a brick-and-mortar location this fall in Lincoln Square, just a block from the Damon Brown Line station.
For co-owner Rachel Beltzman, who runs R&A alongside her husband Adam, launching the bakery feels like her career has come full-circle. She started her professional life as a dietician, then trained as a chef and worked as part of the culinary team with Italian eatery Maggiano’s. She began photographing the food as part of her work with the restaurant, and after her children were born, became a professional photographer. The COVID-19 pandemic forced her photography business to shut down, at which point she began a number of quarantine hobbies to keep her busy. One of those was baking sourdough bread.
“When I couldn’t take pictures anymore, I had to do something, so we started tinkering with bread,” Beltzman explained. “I’d never in my life made any sort of bread before, but we just kept going.”
Some initial mishaps with sourdough starter inspired Beltzman to make her own. Soon, she had more bagels and bread than she knew what to do with, so she and her husband began selling them out of their home. An investor friend urged the pair to turn their burgeoning bakery into a full-blown brick-and-mortar operation, but Beltzman was skeptical — at first, anyway.
“I said, ‘This is just flour and water. We can’t turn this into a real business,'” Beltzman recalled.
But it wasn’t long before they didn’t have a choice. Orders upon orders from neighbors and friends had led to gaggles of bagels and breads taking up every corner of their kitchen, plus fridges in their basement and garage. There was practically no room for any other food in their home, much to the chagrin of their three children. After their home oven broke, the couple began to take their friend’s suggestion more seriously.
“We got to the point that we realized this just wasn’t feasible,” Beltzman explained. “Everything was just bagels.”
They found a 1,300-square-foot space in Lincoln Square that already had a commercial kitchen — the former location of a Subway — and have spent the past few months preparing to move into R&A’s new home. With the train station down the street, she expects the bakery will cater heavily to morning commuters, but will keep an eye out for other customers too. Already, teachers from the nearby school have said they plan to stop in for lunch.
“We’re trying to cater to the neighborhood and what they want,” Beltzman explained.
The bakery will continue to carry R&A’s beloved bagels — varieties of which include poppy, sesame, everything, asiago, and chocolate chip, to name a few — in addition to its boules and deep dish “bagel pies.” The sourdough crumb cakes will turn into more-portable sourdough muffins, and bagel sandwiches with pieces of frittata different frittatas will join the menu too. Adam Beltzman’s homemade lox, pastrami and corned beef will make their way not only into bagel sandwiches, but also demi baguettes, which will also be vehicles for whitefish and tuna salads. All the breads, of course, will be made from sourdough.
“We’re trying to use every bit of that sourdough starter,” Rachel Beltzman explained. “Everything is sourdough based. That’s how we’re different from every other bagel business.”
While demand is impossible to predict at this point, Beltzman has heard lots of excitement from the neighborhood. Even the bakery takes off, she is determined to keep the its focus on a high-quality product over growth.
“We don’t want to grow faster than we can successfully maintain — we want to keep it a slow boil,” Beltzman said. “I’d rather have our product be awesome and exactly what we want it to be than growing too fast. Quality, to us, is super important.”
R&A is slated to open some time this fall. The bakery is tracking its progress on its Instagram account. In the meantime, customers can place orders for bagel delivery or neighborhood drops through the Tock app or a link on R&A’s website.
This article has been updated with quotes and details from R&A co-owner Rachel Beltzman.
