London's Favorite Bakery To Open Upper East Side Outpost

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — London's Bread Ahead bakery — known for its sourdough loaves, hearty doughnuts and hands-on baking classes — is heading across the pond to Second Avenue and East 82nd Street this summer.

The team is currently aiming for an opening date of Aug. 17, with the understanding that it may begin as a soft opening while the final touches are completed, owner and founder Matthew Jones told Patch.

Once open, Upper East Siders can expect an array of bread loaves, pastries, cream-filled doughnuts and coffee on the menu, with an emphasis on straightforward simplicity.

"We are really specialized in this kind of modern, I would say, indulgent bakery," Jones told Patch. "I'm really all about flavor and taste and just good, solid, nourishing food."

On the bakery counter, Jones said Upper East Siders should also expect to see a sourdough pizza, as well as Bread Ahead's signature cathedral loaf, meant for sharing.

"I love that kind of baking," Jones said. "We cut things up and share them."

When Jones started Bread Ahead in 2013 with just three people, he was more focused on good food than global expansion, he told Patch.

A former Michelin-level chef who left school at 15 to enter kitchens the old-fashioned way — through an apprenticeship— Jones says that despite crossing the Atlantic to open a new bakery, he's always been "a baker before a businessman."

"We're a family business — we don't have investors and hedge funds or private equity or any of those nasty horrors in the background," Jone said. "We are what-you-see-is-what-you-get. We're a very pure brand."

After considering roughly 20 different locations around the city, the team landed on the Upper East Side because they wanted to serve neighbors, not tourists, Jones said.

In London, Bread Ahead partners with schools for food and nutrition sessions, often hosting school groups on days when the public classes aren’t running.

They plan to develop similar connections on the Upper East Side once the new site is established, Molly O’Connor, Bread Ahead’s bakery school manager in London, told Patch.

Classes for the public include a doughnut workshop and a sourdough workshop, each a half-day lesson.

The school will run one session in the morning and one in the afternoon, with different workshops scheduled throughout the week.

The baking school classes are expected to begin in early September, following the initial bakery opening, O'Connor said.

"We just want to make people feel welcome, really," Jones said. "Pop in and say hello. It’s a very practical environment—get your sleeves rolled up and get stuck in."

The new shop will be located at 1571 Second Ave. The class schedule will go live on Bread Ahead's Instagram in May.

Know of a business opening or closing in Manhattan? Email Miranda.Levingston@Patch.com.