The Daily Scoop / November 2009 / Underground Baking Company Opening on Main Street

Underground Baking Company Opening on Main Street

The smell of fresh-baked bread will soon be wafting through the air along South Main Street.

Professional pastry chefs Matthew Hickman and Lisa Hoffman have teamed up with Square 1 Bistro owners Joe and Lindsay Lewis to start the Underground Baking Company in downtown Hendersonville. The bakery, located in the space adjacent to the bistro at 111 South Main St., should be open for business early next month, serving up pastries and other treats in the morning and fresh bread in the afternoon.

The Lewises' collaboration with Hickman and Hoffman began when the two couples broke bread together.

"I met Matt and one day he came in and brought me this beautiful loaf of awesome bread, and I told him, 'Man, as soon as you get that bakery going, I want your bread,'" Joe Lewis said. "We kept throwing ideas back and forth, and I had the extra space in the kitchen. It's kind of evolved into more of a cooperative than a partnership."

Hickman added, "We'll do all the bread for Square 1 and then we'll focus on some retail and see where it goes. I think we're going to start with definitely some really nice, fresh pastries in the mornings and then the bread as an afternoon kind of thing. We'll put a lot into the breads, European style, overnight fermentations, sourdoughs, ciabattas, things like that."

Hickman said he and the Lewises share many of the same philosophies when it comes to food. Both strive to use foods and ingredients that are local and regional. Joe Lewis said the majority of the produce his restaurant uses comes from Henderson and nearby counties. His seafood comes from the North Carolina coast, and his proteins all come from within the state.

Hickman said his business will be no different. The flour the bakery will use is 100 percent organic and is produced by a North Carolina-based company. "A lot of the wheat that they are milling is from North Carolina, so it's definitely regional as far as the wheat, and the milling is all 100 percent North Carolina. The organic flour, as far as the bread goes, it makes a big, big difference in the breads," Hickman said.

Hickman and Hoffman said they will keep things small starting out. They plan to produce two to three types of breads a day and introduce different kinds each day until they get an idea what their customers prefer. Hickman said some people may be quick to label the business as an artisan or gourmet bakery, but he doesn't see it that way.

"My philosophy as a baker is that I'm taking techniques that are hundreds and hundreds and thousands of years old, so there's nothing new about it. We're not trying to market ourselves as an artisan bakery. It's just a really great neighborhood bakery with products made by people who have been in the business a long time and really care about what they are doing," he said.

Asked what he would consider his best bread, Hickman said it would be a French-style sourdough. He said it's a very labor-intensive bread, but one that he considers to be delicious. Cooking it, he said, involves a three-day process.

"It's a very mild sourdough, but it's a wonderful bread," he said.

Hoffmann and Hickman both met in culinary school and have worked as pastry chefs for 14 years at various locations across the U.S. at hotels and resorts. Although this is their first true business venture, they have produced dozens of wedding cakes over the years.

It was Hoffman who came up with the name Underground Bakery when they were living in Boone. She explained that much of their baking has often been done "under the radar." More often than not, she said, sales of their baked goods and wedding cakes have been through word of mouth.

"We never even passed around business cards or done any advertising, and we built this pretty sizable wedding cake business up in the mountains. We named it that and liked it," she said.

Hickman added, "We're pretty confident that if we focus on doing what we really love doing, (the business) will be there. We know that what we are doing here is unique."

To learn more about Underground Baking Company, call (828) 674-7494.