Farmers Market Find: Cenan's Bakery and 48-Hour Bread

With a bricks-and-mortar store in Vienna, a baker from spends every Wednesday at Wakefield Market.

The man who you will find behind Cenan’s booth at the farmers market is Alex Belmonle, and he has been working at Cenan’s for several years. Alex truly believes in the quality of the products that he brings to the market.

"Grocery store bakeries aren’t even in the same league," Alex said. "They mass produce, and if you look at the ingredients, preservatives are one of the first listed. We don’t use any preservatives, and we use the metric system for our measurements. Because of this, we feel that we always know what result we are going to get."

48-Hour Bread

Cenan’s offers a variety of breads and pastries that are made with a lot of care and patience, and as their website suggests, you will “rediscover quality” when tasting their products.

Not only do the employees at Cenan’s take a lot of pride in their products, but they also put a lot of time into them. “Our simplest bread takes 48 hours to make, and we bake 24 hour a day, seven days a week,” Alex said, “We do everything from scratch, and we don’t believe in using shortcuts.”

Sally Mason, a regular customer, enjoys their breads. “Their sourdough bread is delicious. I definitely miss it in the winter,” she said.

The pastries at Cenan’s get just as much attention and care as the breads. “There are 96 layers in every croissant,” Alex said, “and we use real fruit in our pastries.” He is more than willing to open a fruit croissant to prove this statement.

One of Alex’s favorite things about being a vendor at the farmers market is seeing the response from the customers. “People get excited because they not only find great products at a great price, and they are able to talk to the vendor about their product. The farmers market becomes a family event. You get regulars, and you even see people who came from out of town. I’ve even had customers who came from Alaska,” Alex said.

When shopping at Cenan’s, you never have to worry about whether your purchases will be fresh. “We throw a lot of food away and donate a lot of food so that the food that we sell is always fresh,” Alex said.

Ted Mahar, a regular at the Cenan’s Bakery Store in Vienna, just recently discovered Cenan’s at Wakefield Market. “I think it’s great that they’re at the market and that I can get their products here. I usually go all the way to their store, and this is definitely convenient,” Mahar said.

The products at Cenan’s have a loyal following with customers. Because they have a home store, if you become hooked on their products, you can head over to Vienna and enjoy them all year long. For more information, stop by Wakefield Market and talk to Alex or see the directory listing on Vienna Patch.