48 Hills writers and editors are choosing their Best of the Bay Editors’ Picks for our 50th anniversary Best of the Bay edition. See more great profiles here, and stay tuned for our Best of the Bay 2024 Readers’ Poll results coming in September!
There’s good and bad news for anyone who has indulged in pastry chef Brian Wood’s buttery, flaky, caramelized croissants known in France as kouign amann, not to mention his Starter Bakery’s divine passionfruit-glazed madeleines, tender ciabatta, crusty sourdough breads, chocolate decadence flourless cake, fruit-forward pies, and other treats.
Bad: if you’ve had a taste, you are now probably now addicted. Multidimensional sensorial highs resulting from the consumption of products from Wood’s ovens have proceeded unabated since 2010, thanks to the business’ pop-up and wholesale forms alike.
Good: you are not alone.
After first opening in a 13,000-square-foot production facility in West Berkeley, Starter Bakery gained a following by distributing its wares to local farmer’s markets and dozens of coffee shops, groceries, and co-ops. The availability of wholesale, catering, and online pick-up orders built sturdy relationships with pastry fans, even during the height of Covid. In 2024, Wood opened his first bricks-and-mortar shop and café in the East Bay’s Rockridge district.
The café offers perfectly balanced sandwiches, salads, and savory pastry quiches that demonstrate how high-quality ingredients need never shout. Instead of one-upmanship, their flavor components compliment and enhance each other.
A spirit of inventiveness means seasonal and holiday-themed specials frequently delight and surprise customers with unexpected sweet-salty, chewy-melty, textured-silky or other mouth-pleasing combinations. Mainstays like mini cinnamon rolls, salted chocolate chip cookies, mille feuille, sourdough miche, and those darn kouign amann also go straight to one’s pleasure receptors.
But what has truly landed Starter Bakery a spot in our 2024 Best of the Bay Editors’ Picks hearth is the company’s business ethics. Wood says protecting workers shares priority at Starter with popping out flavorful food. Sure, it’s all about butter and flour and berries and technique, but employee safety, well-being, and sanity are what keep these ovens lit. Starter’s labor protections include adequate rest breaks, machines that preserve employee’s hands and arms by dividing and pumping out cookie pucks and muffin batter, and super-sized dishwashers that can accommodate items that would typically have to be cleaned by hand. Wood keeps a close watch on new technology that help staff to devote as much time as possible to building long-term business relationships, marketing and baking skills, rather than say, scrubbing floors.
It all adds up to guilt-free, if carb-heavy dining opportunities. So the next time you’re craving a taste of France, a savory sensation featuring the freshest seasonal produce, or a wedge of cake that’s like chocolate heaven on a plate, start your engines.
STARTER BAKERY 901 Gillman, Berk. More info here.
