Community Spotlight: City Bakery

City Bakery has been supplying Asheville with fresh bread, pastries and their famous scallion cheddar biscuits for over 20 years. We talked with Production Manager Cori Philips about the joy of getting back to baking, and the importance of community.⁠

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"We have been partners with Manna Food Bank over the last 5 or 6 years," says Phillips, "So reached out to them and said, we want to bake fresh bread for you to get it out as soon as possible...so at this point, we're very proud to say we've reached over 5000 loaves out to them."⁠

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Fortunately, Phillips says, both the production bakery in Fletcher and the café on Charlotte Street were undamaged by the storm, and all 22 employees were safe. The only losses were the sourdough starters, which had to be thrown out after power outage. "We kind of had to start from scratch," says Phillips, "But if that's the worst out of it, then we'll gladly take it."⁠

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With fewer restaurants open, City Bakery is producing less bread than usual. Today, they're making 2200 pounds of dough compared to the 3500 pounds per day they typically produce in October. "So some people probably won't be coming back. But, it's been really great to see the community come together and just be able to get to everyone we can," says Phillips.⁠

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Right now, City Bakery bread can be found in 23 Ingles and three Whole Foods, as well as the City Bakery Café at 88 Charlotte Street in Asheville, where you can also get fresh pastries, delicious sandwiches and their famous biscuits.