When Tissa Stein opened Tabor Bread in 2012, on Southeast Hawthorne at the foot of Mount Tabor, the bakery was one of a kind. The bread was baked in a wood-fired oven, created from house-milled whole grain flours, served with preserves on big wooden tables.
But, over time, some of the details shifted – they stopped using that oven, which took five days to come to temperature from fully cool and caused the occasional neighborhood call to the fire department, a couple of years ago, using instead a more conventional oven set-up. The focus shifted from bread to pastries. The flour started coming from local mills, instead of being ground in-house.
And then, Stein decided to sell the building and later, the business.
Rebecca Tosdevin, Tabor Bread’s general manager and a baker, always wanted to own a bakery. So, she bought the business from Stein in September.
The bakery’s old Tudor building, 4343 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., was already sold by the time Tosdevin took over – it’s expected to reopen this year as TPK Brewing, a tabletop role-playing brewpub – but the new owner was committed to keeping the bakery near its namesake mountain.
“I didn’t want to move too far for our regulars,” she said, so it took a while to find the right place. But when the former Flipside Hats location on Southeast Belmont became available, Tosdevin went for it.
“It just worked out really, really well,” she said. “The change of occupancy from a hat store took forever, but it’ll be all worth it.”
Despite the new owner and new location, Tabor Bread hasn’t lost its step since reopening in December. In fact, Tabor Bread at its new location on 4438 S.E. Belmont St. is serving up some of the best pastries and bread in Portland.
Tosdevin has already created a new neighborhood meeting spot on Belmont, even selling pastries through a snowstorm.
But really, it’s all about what’s inside the case. And those products remain consistently good, thanks to head bread baker Nicole Cappuccitti and pastry chef Erin Sosnowchik, who have both been with Tabor Bread for over five years.
In the months since Tabor Bread’s new location opened, we’ve visited numerous times and tried almost everything on offer. And we have yet to find a weakness in the bunch.
Consider the chocolate croissant, similar to the plain croissant which Oregonian food critic Michael Russell ranked fifth in the city in 2019. At Tabor Bread, everything is sourdough. That means the bread, sure, but also the donuts and the babka and even the chocolate croissants.
What makes a sourdough chocolate croissant different than standard? Mainly, Tosdevin said, it takes a day or so longer in an already days-long process that includes laminating and proofing. But the finished product is something special – the sweetness of the chocolate, the flake of the croissant and the tang of the sourdough work together to become more than the sum of its parts.
The same can be said of any of the pastries on offer. The savory danish, which changes with the seasons, mixes herbs and vegetables for a perfect breakfast bite. And somehow, the addition of whole grains and sourdough to what are usually white flour-based pastries gives them at least the air of health. The chocolate chip cookie is made with buckwheat and the brownie is made with rye.
While Tabor Bread’s new space is notably small, with just a few tables inside, the menu is extensive. You can order a bagel or focaccia or granola or a loaf of bread.
The sandwiches are unbeatable. Try mom’s chicken sandwich, which features roasted chicken, avocado, greens, aioli and potato chops all on rosemary bread studded with olives. It’s as if someone mixed all the elements from the best sandwiches they ever had and created something even better.
There are two things you should know though, before you get on your bike and pedal over to Tabor Bread: 1. It’s a popular spot and things may be sold out by the time you get there, so go early, especially if it’s a weekend. And 2. They are currently without a bread slicer, a whole drama unto itself, which means you will be slicing your own loaves at home (they do have a small, hand-cranked slicer they use for sandwiches, so don’t worry about that).
Some customers, who are used to getting their bread sliced, aren’t happy about the lack of a functional slicer.
The original bread slicer gave out around the time Tosdevin took over. The replacement slicer, which she ordered online, doesn’t work with Tabor Bread’s bread.
Resolving the issue of the bread slicer is just one item on Tosdevin’s to-do list. This week, in fact, construction is set to begin on a massive remodel of the former hat shop.
Currently, all baking is done at a commissary kitchen on Southeast Water Avenue. Every morning, the team has to bring bread and pastries from that kitchen at 6:30 a.m. to make sure the storefront can open at 8 a.m.
The build-out will include expanding the kitchen and the eating area. Her hope is to have the full remodel done by Christmas.
“The building is over 100 years old,” Tosdevin said. “I’m excited and not excited to start ripping open the walls to see what we find.”
The remodel will be a welcome change for customers who have to vie for seats in the small space but even more exciting for employees.
“It’s been a very long nine months,” Tosdevin said. “I think everybody’s really over having to work out of the commissary and go back and forth. Everybody’s so excited to work together. The front of house hasn’t seen the back of house in a year almost.”
The good news is that even as the bakery is under construction for the next several months, fans of the baked goods won’t have to go without.
“We are still going to do farmer’s markets three days a week,” Tosdevin said.
And they will get creative with selling pastries out of the back or front doors.
“We’re going to try and make it work,” Tosdevin said, “because we need it. We can’t afford to close and there’s 23 staff members who are relying on us.”
After the build-out, expect only bigger and better things from Tosdevin and her team. There will be a deck oven, which means baguettes and river bread, and a lot more seating and even a back patio. And she’s hoping to expand the food menu and be open for lunch and dinner.
One thing probably won’t change, and that’s the connection between the first owner and the second.
“She’s the best,” Tosdevin said of Stein. “She’s a grandma. she’s wonderful.”
Stein still comes by to say “Hi,” Tosdevin said, and even makes sandwiches when someone calls out sick.
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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