Hartford Baking Company – Artisanal Quality and Locally Made


Forge in particular – and grew into a tiny café location on New Park Avenue, West Hartford in September of 2010. The fi rst day of operations, the company baked 24 loaves of bread. Now, they bake thousands of loaves of bread nightly, distributing the same artisanal quality of the original pro- duction to two café locations, in addition to multiple local restaurants from Massa- chusetts to the shoreline. So how do you grow a company, over the course of eight years, without compromising quality or values? We sat down with President, Scott Kluger, to fi nd out more.


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NN: What inspired you to bring artisan bread to the Hartford community?


SK: I’m originally from Hartford County


and West Hartford is my hometown. I have a great love of simple, quality foods, and I wanted to bring this here.


NN: What makes your bread special and unique?


SK: The danger of growth is that you can compromise quality. But in our case, it’s actually the opposite. When we started, it was trial by fi re. In the beginning, we didn’t know how to properly manage fermenta- tion. Flavor was inconsistent, and we weren’t able to manage, for example, sour- dough starters. Sourdough starters ferment for a very long time, creating fl avor and


12 Natural Nutmeg - October 2018


artford Baking Company started from a series of farmer’s market stands in Hartford – at Billings


texture. Our starters have improved, and we can do a 20-hour fermentation, giving the bread much more fl avor, consistency, and quality. Flour, water, salt, and yeast con- tinue to be the only four ingredients in the majority of our breads. There are no artifi cial fi llers here, no cost cutting procedures. Just great bread, that is easier to digest, as it’s not fi lled with preservatives, and the gluten breaks down naturally during the fermenta- tion process.


NN: Tell us more about your café loca-


tions, and what you serve at them? SK: The cafés are so much more than


just bread. We have an incredible sand- wich menu on our artisan breads and the bread really makes the sandwich. Trust me, anytime you’ve had an incredible sandwich, you’ve actually had incredible bread. We are expanding our menu to include beer and wine at our Farmington Avenue loca-


tion, and a late night bar menu, which will include items such as a house burger, grilled vegetable street tacos, and cheese and charcuterie boards. Of course, you can’t go wrong with our signature brioche giant pretzel with house grain mustard and a local craft beer, especially at this time of year.


NN: What inspired you to create a bri-


oche giant pretzel? Sounds very intriguing. SK: A big foundation of Hartford Baking


Company was my experience traveling in Europe and learning and observing tradi- tional baking methods. The HBC signature giant brioche pretzel is actually a hybrid of classic French brioche technique and the traditional German giant pretzel served dur- ing Oktoberfest. Our version is buttery, light, decadent, and very addictive.


NN: What else can we fi nd at your café locations?


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