A Promising European Bakery Arrives in Central London From Arty Restaurateurs Toklas

A new bakery from the team behind Toklas restaurant, which opened on Surrey Street in central London last month, will land a few doors down on the same street this week. Toklas bakery and grocery shop opens on Thursday 18 November, with a range of promising breads, patisserie, sandwiches and coffee from a team of bakers who’ve worked at some of the better breadmaking and sandwich-assembling venues in the city.

The bakery has been set-up by Adam Sellar, he behind Angel Bakery in Abergavenny, and previously London pioneer the Little Bread Pedlar, where he launched the bread division. Janine Edwards, previously head pastry chef at Little Bread Pedlar, will be the head baker and in charge day-to-day, with assistant head baker Sam Lowry coming with stellar pedigree, with 40 Maltby Street and Leila’s Shop at the top of his CV.

Aesthetics as well as taste will be important for Toklas, with all goods displayed in retro-style custom built glass cabinets designed to “recall European-style bakeries and pasticceria.” Cafe Deco, which together with Cafe Cecilia and the likes of 40 Maltby Street, belongs to the same fashion-and-art adjacent restaurant milieu as Toklas, features a similar display cabinet. It too recalls a European-style cafe and pasticceria with its mosaic flooring and unpretentious offerings.

Among the goods displayed at Toklas will be a selection of baked breakfast items such as hazelnut frangipane brioche, pain au citron, and spiced rice pudding quince croissants. Elsewhere and at lunch, sandwiches and savoury buns will be “filled with flavours inspired by seasonal dishes alongside interpretations of classic sandwich fillings.” Those might include smoked mackerel, horseradish cream, fermented beetroot, mustard and watercress on wholemeal; or roast cauliflower and celeriac with spiced chickpea dressing, slow-cooked onions and pickled onion squash on a white tin loaf.

The bakery doubles as a grocer, with fruits (including very special citrus from Vicente Todoli’s El Bartolí botanical citrus orchard in Valencia), vegetables, cheese, tinned and dry goods, and a small selection of kitchen and homewares. Coffee will come from Brixton-based roaster Assembly Coffee.

More soon.