LOCAL BUSINESS ★ by Laresa Watkins
The Bread Shop
John Toogood
P hotos by
Martha Manning
A
s you are walking through downtown
Pittsboro, you may occasionally get the
distinct whiff of bread wafting through
the air. “Where is that coming from?” you will
wonder. It is probably coming from The Bread
Shop, located in a small, nondescript building in
the downtown area. There are no
signs or advertisements, so you will
have to follow your nose to find it!
The Bread Shop, which originally opened in Chapel Hill in 1975,
moved to Pittsboro in 1978. It has
been owned by John Toogood and his
wife for almost eleven years now. Mr.
Toogood, a native of California, lives
in Holly Springs with his wife, Paula,
three children, and two dogs. Mr.
Toogood, who grew up in the restaurant business and has opened and
managed restaurants of his own, says,
“Paula and I wanted to be connected
to the food business without the
restaurant hours. The bakery being
a wholesale bakery was a perfect fit.”
Helping to run the bakery is Brenda George, who began working at
The Bread Shop in 1992. Says Mr. Toogood, “She is the person responsible for keeping everything flowing and keeping our quality to the highest standards.” Mrs. George gave me a tour of the bakery, showing me
the process of making a loaf of bread, from the bags of flour that they
begin with to the machine that slices the bread. She took me into the
rising rooms, which are kept at a humid 95 degrees, and the room full
of large ovens where the bread is baked. It is obvious that Mrs. George
loves her work at the bakery, saying, “I love to cook and I love to bake!”
The bakery produces a huge variety of bread including muffins, sub rolls,
Kaisers, all sorts of loaf breads, hot dog buns, and some specialty breads like beer