Bridge Bread Bakery is expanding its footprint beyond Cherokee Street, with a second location set to open Jan. 31 in the Delmar Loop at 616 N. Skinker Blvd., on the northeast corner of Skinker and Delmar boulevards.
Founded in 2011, Bridge Bread is a nonprofit social enterprise bakery, focused on restorative employment for people experiencing homelessness. For more than a decade, the organization has paired paid work with job training and housing support, helping participants build stability and long-term economic mobility. The new Loop location marks both a physical expansion and a strategic next step for the program.
“This location creates a clear pathway for our bakers,” said Teddy Key, bakery manager. “People can start at Cherokee Street, gain stability, and then come here to advance their skills and work on more complex, artisan baked goods.”
Unlike the Cherokee Street facility, which halted retail service during the pandemic, the Loop bakery brings Bridge Bread back into a full retail setting. The new space spans three adjacent storefronts and is designed to rely heavily on foot traffic, with baked goods made fresh daily and sold in a grab-and-go format. The menu will include sweet and savory items alongside coffee and bottled beverages, aimed in part at the area’s high concentration of Washington University students and neighborhood visitors.
Key said the Loop bakery will allow bakers to work with more technically demanding products, including Japanese milk bread and sourdough craft bagels, such as the bakery’s French onion soup bagel. Product development at Bridge Bread often comes from a mix of partnerships, experimentation and ideas from the bakers themselves.
“Some recipes come from partners like AB Mauri, while others are born through trial and error,” said managing director Mike Heeley. “Sometimes the bakers come to us with ideas, and we figure out how to make them work at scale. That collaboration has always been part of who we are.”
Last year alone, Bridge Bread baked more than 85,000 items. Since its founding, roughly 150 people have gone through the program, with about 75% maintaining housing after leaving Bridge Bread, according to Heeley.
The Loop opening also represents the first phase of a longer-term growth plan, though Heeley said recent lessons have prompted a more measured approach.
“We’ve learned a lot during the construction of Bridge Bread – The Loop, which has made us reconsider how many locations we can realistically open in the next five years,” he said. “Our next step after The Loop is to install an oven at our space inside Soulard Market so we can sell fresh-baked items there, not just packaged goods. It’s still my hope that we’ll have several satellite locations open by 2030.”
Heeley said Bridge Bread felt confident moving forward with the Loop project despite broader challenges in the restaurant industry, citing both donor support and continued demand for fresh-baked goods.
“We fundraised at our galas in 2024 and 2025 to open this location, so we were fortunate to have construction and equipment funded by generous supporters,” he said. “There’s still a strong market for fresh bread, bagels and pastries, as seen by the number of bakeries that have opened recently. And we know there’s a real desire in St. Louis to support our mission.”
He added that Bridge Bread’s existing presence inside the Grand Hall at Soulard Market saw double-digit growth in 2025 compared to the previous year, even amid a wave of restaurant closures.
For Bridge Bread’s leadership, the Loop bakery is as much about opportunity as it is about expansion.
“Every product sold here helps someone without safe and stable housing move toward being a valued, contributing member of our community through meaningful work,” said board chair Jessica Bailey-Wheaton. “We’re excited to deepen our roots in St. Louis and show what restorative employment can do.”
Bridge Bread estimates that every $25 in sales funds one hour of paid labor for its bakers. Heeley said the new location will allow the organization to hire additional participants and expand advancement opportunities within the program.
The bakery’s growth has been supported by a mix of individual donors and corporate partners over the years, including AB Mauri, which has collaborated on recipe development and sponsored Bridge Bread’s annual gala, along with organizations such as the Daugherty Foundation, Royal Banks and Chase Park Plaza.
Bridge Bread Bakery in the Loop will be open Wednesday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. A grand opening and ribbon cutting is scheduled for Jan. 31 at 10 a.m.