WORCESTER—A Worcester restaurant known for its creative menus and homemade noodles will soon add “Bakery” to its name.
Wooden Bar on Knowlton Ave is in the process of becoming Wooden Bar and Bakery thanks to a collaboration with B.Food out of Milford.
The bakery made the announcement on its Instagram page Thursday.
“Many of you know that we have been looking for a larger kitchen space for a while, so our production will be moving to Worcester, hopefully in February,” the post reads. “Wooden Bakery in Worcester will open shortly after that.”
While production will move to Worcester, the B.Food location inside Hickey’s Wine and Spirits in Milford will remain open, according to co-owner Daniel Bourget.
Bourget, who used to work at Birchtree Bread Company with Wooden Bar co-owner Chris Ly, in 2019 opened B.Food with his wife Helene out of his uncle’s liquor store.
Business had been growing steadily for them, but there was a big surge in demand in 2021 when their bakery was featured on the WCVB show “Chronicle,” and they’ve been looking to expand ever since.
Bourget said he, his wife, Ly and his business partner Spencer Mewherter all enjoy working together and are passionate about food.
“Food, craft, and culture are things that are very important to all of us and how we approach space, how we approach what we do,” Merwherter told the Worcester Guardian Friday. “Finding someone who’s on the same page, that we know well, it’s a pretty rare thing and we thought it was a good opportunity to make something special.”
Wooden Bar’s hours are Thursday to Saturday 5-10 p.m., while B.Food’s hours are 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday to Saturday and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. The two businesses’ opposite hours will make for maximum utilization of the space in Worcester, Bourget said.
Bourget brings his international experience as a chef to the bakery. He lived in the United Kingdom and France for five years each, and customers in Milford have seen that in the form of meat pies and pastries served at B. Food.
The croissants they offer are his personal favorite, Bourget said. B. Food serves plain, chocolate, and almond croissants, and also uses croissant dough to make things like chocolate twists.
B.Food also serves artisan breads such as sourdough loaves, and will offer quiches and pizza depending on the day, according to Bourget.
The bakery’s options will expand once they move production to Wooden Bar, since they currently have limited space working out of the back of the liquor store, according to Bourget, and the offerings will eventually be available at the Wooden Bar and Bakery.
When making the pastries, Bourget said they strive to use organic or local flour. One of their suppliers is the Hadley-based Ground Up Grain.
Bourget said they expect to start making their products out of Wooden Bar by mid-February and hope to open the bakery there by March or April.
Opening a location in Worcester is coming “full circle” for Bourget, who was born in the Heart of the Commonwealth before moving down to Florida.
In addition to having the connection to Wooden Bar, Bourget said they chose Worcester for a second location because the food scene is on the rise (no pun intended, or maybe it was) with a lot of opportunities for businesses.
Bourget is excited to be in the same space as Merwherter and Ly and collaborate with them on this project because “they’re doing really cool stuff.”
Wooden Bar opened in May 2022 after operating as the popup Wooden Noodles.
The journey since Wooden Bar opened more than a year and a half ago has been exciting and rewarding, according to Merwherter. Throughout this time, they’ve been deliberate in shaping the business, fostering the growth of their staff, and refining their menu.
“It’s a very exciting time to be cooking food in general and cooking food in the city,” Merwherter said.
He also expressed gratitude for their customers and staff.
Merwherter said he sees opening up the bakery to reach more clientele, offer a few more dimensions to their business, and keep on changing the game a little bit.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
