Tacoma will gain an everyday source for sourdough when bakery with loyal following opens
Tacoma’s sourdough bread drought will reach its final frontier next year, as Balloon Roof Baking Co. is set to open its first retail storefront at 1702 6th Ave.
The bakery, currently a pop-up and Saturday-only pickup situation from its production facility in Fife, has surpassed even the expectations of owners Don and Emily Broyles since it debuted at local farmers markets three years ago.
Sourdough loaves range from a classic, whole-grain varietal to boules studded with black pepper and parmesan, garlic and rosemary, caramelized onions and gruyere. They have also honed their skills in laminated pastry, creating enviable croissants and kouign-amann. The team is always experimenting with flavors and natural ingredients, resulting in the likes of rye-cacao-matcha butter cookies and a squash and pimento sesame bread.
Fans flock to the Proctor Farmers Market on Saturday, where a petite tent sells through 1,000 loaves every week. Those loaves are always fresh — as fresh as 30 minutes out of the Fife oven, said Don Broyles. They can’t bake enough overnight to satisfy demand, so they keep on baking through the morning and an employee (his teenage son!) makes real-time deliveries to the market tent.
“We just want to fix food and make bread fresh every day, in Tacoma,” said Broyles in an interview last week. “Freshness is a big source of pride for us.”
He and his wife have been carefully searching for the right storefront, ideally in Tacoma. After being introduced through a mutual friend, they found it at It’s Greek To Me, which has served Tacoma from this 6th Ave address since 2013. The restaurant — a staple of the area since 1989, when it opened across the street at what is now Memo’s Mexican — will close at the end of November.
Jim and Erin Wick will stick with the food business through their Bomb Burger truck, where a double cheeseburger runs around $6.
Wick said he was pleased to pass along the 1920s-era building, equipped with a drive-thru and a small parking lot in a convenient Central Tacoma location, to another Tacoma family.
“I think it’s gonna be a great business in a great building,” he told The News Tribune in an interview last week.
The 3,400-square-foot space has been an auto shop, a hardware supply store and at one point an aeronautical training school for women, according to Wick. His family bought it in 2012 for $475,000.
BUILDING BALLOON ROOF’S NEW BAKERY
While they are eager to spread the news of their forthcoming storefront, Broyles cautioned the transformation to full-service bakery would take some time.
“It needs a little love,” he said in a phone call. “We’re going to completely gut the building — moving bathrooms, cutting concrete, moving plumbing. No equipment left behind. It’s gonna turn into a real retail bakery.”
Though not “on our bucket list,” he continued, they will retain the drive-thru, an amenity that can be difficult to get approved anew.
Design and construction plans — already underway with Artisan’s Group, which choreographed Howdy Bagel and Olympia Coffee Roasters — include a coffee bar (featuring Olympia’s beans) and cafe seating for an estimated 30 to 50 people. They also anticipate selling grab-and-go-style sandwiches — on their own bread, of course — and larder-type goods, perhaps including pasta, granola and bread-friendly accompaniments.
The production at the new spot will focus on laminated pastry and other goodies. Broyles plans to hold onto their wholesale bakery in Fife, in part because they have already invested in a “10,000-pound oven” there and because “sourdough requires tons of cooler space.”
For now, Balloon Roof will continue to vend at the Proctor market, the only year-round one in their rotation that has also included Tacoma’s Broadway market, Puyallup and Lakewood. They will re-evaluate when those events pick back up again next summer.
Once they have access to the 6th Ave storefront in early 2025, they hope to plan some winter pop-ups and other events “to get people familiar with us and the space.”
BALLOON ROOF BAKING CO.
▪ Storefront planned for 1702 6th Ave., target opening late 2025, balloonroof.com
▪ Currently, find bread and pastries on Saturdays at Proctor Farmers Market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., and at the production bakery in Fife, 4624 16th At. E - Suite A5, 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday and Sunday
▪ Follow instagram.com/balloonroofbakingco for updates