Founded by George DePasquale in 1994, Essential Baking Company was the first local, certified oraganic artisan bakery in Seattle. It now operates two cafes: one in Wallingford and the other in Madison Valley. It also supplies fresh baked bread and baked treats to a number of outlets on the Hill including Madison Market , Trader Joe’s and most recently – the 15th Avenue Starbucks . In fact, on a tour of their bakery in Wallingford, we learned that they daily go through a ton of starter to meet their obligations to restaurants and grocery outlets in town. To celebrate their 15th birthday, Essential is offering a free taste of chocolate hazelnut cake all day today at both of their cafes.
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So they stopped branding the bread as Essential Bakery but the olive bread, the baguettes and the rosemary bread still tasted the same…I was wondering. (since the other Trader Joe’s “artisnal” bread really isn’t that great…
Remember, there’s also a nice Essential location on Eastlake — on the east side of the street, closer to the southern end of what I think of as the Eastlake neighborhood. Never all that busy and quality is great.
I think you are actually thinking of Grand Central Bakery next to Essential Fitness (I used google maps to figure this out since Essential’s website only lists their Gasworks-area and Mad Valley cafes).
an official no comment from Essential but I agree with you that the TJ’s bread is eerily reminiscent of Essential :)