Haven Brings Old World | Tradition to Baking | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Haven Brings Old World Tradition to Baking

Local bakery is deeply committed to wholesome ingredients and artisan expression

It started as a side project experiment five years ago. Elijah Myers and his wife Antonia got into baking through the restaurant industry and discovered they both love to bake...so much so, that in 2018 they decided to see what happened if they sold some of their baked goods at the Northwest Crossing Farmers Market in Bend. Every Saturday morning that summer they "sold out like crazy," according to Myers. "People were asking if we were going to open a storefront. We started an online shop just for our market clients who wanted to order from us," he says.

click to enlarge Haven Brings Old World - Tradition to Baking
Lane Pearson
Haven’s Everything bagel is a local favorite and available in 4-packs at local grocers.

They did the market again in 2019 while they kept building their delivery service to customers. Then last year, the Myers' had built up their business to the point that they stepped away from working in restaurants to go full-time into their project. Haven Bakery, with the tagline, "A made-from-scratch bakery, deeply committed to wholesome ingredients," focuses on local farm partnerships, sustainable ingredient sourcing and all hand-made everything.

At the heart of Haven is the traditional, handmade bagels.

"Handmaking bagels is where the magic is," Myers smiles, "but it's very labor intensive." The Haven team's days are spent making handmade bagels using all organic, non-GMO ingredients. "It's rare, not just on the West Coast, to find a bagel handmade with all organic ingredients, but also rare globally to find a handmade bagel anymore, especially one using really clean ingredients," explains Myers. "It's really art and technique, and the bagel recipe we use was passed along to us by a family member over 20 years ago. We've been making them ever since."

Personally, I have to admit that I'm not necessarily a bagel fan. Oh, give me a nice slathering of cream cheese and limited choices of baked goods and OK, I'll eat one. But I'm never rushing out to buy bagels. However, after hearing over and over about Haven bagels, I finally went in search of a bag. I got the four-pack of the Everything flavor and went home to have a taste. Let me start with the size – huge! But not heavy and dense huge, rather light and almost fluffy huge. I cut the giant cloud of a bagel in half and it still barely fit in the toaster. After lightly toasting it I spread only a smidge of butter on the bagel, not wanting to mask the taste, and oh my goodness, what a taste. It was different than any bagel I have ever eaten — lighter, more flavorful, each bite making me want another bite. I ate not just the original toasted half, but the entire bagel. I proceeded to eat a bagel for breakfast or lunch for the next several days and I immediately understood why Haven was gathering such a following.

click to enlarge Haven Brings Old World - Tradition to Baking (2)
Lane Pearson
Haven’s Sunday Roll features orange zest and crème fraiche.

While the Everything bagel is the most popular flavor right now according to Myers, the other flavors include Salt, Jalapeno Swiss, Parmesan, Cinnamon Raisin, Pumpernickel, Plain and several others, which you can see and order online at havenbagelandcoffee.com. You can also find four-packs at local outlets including Market of Choice, Central Oregon Locavore, Newport Avenue Market, Food 4 Less and Backporch Coffee Roasters in Bend, among others.

Bagels aren't the only baked goods Haven is turning out. They're making other rustic breads and reimagined pastries, honoring old-world traditions and classic technique. Offerings include Morning Glory muffins, Iced Lemon Cake, Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread, Babka Rolls, Pain de Campagne (a classic French country bread), and Maple Cinnamon scones, among others. There's also a very unique, eye-catching Sunday Roll made with orange zest and crème fraiche that you can order online in an 8-pack. I suggest ordering at least two packs.

Myers says building a wholesale bakery business wasn't the original plan but it's been a good foundation. "It just worked out that way and we've worked really hard with the wholesale so we want to keep doing it but we also want to open our own artisan cafe." With seven artisan bakers currently on the team and the entire Myers family involved, including their 16-year-old, who, according to his dad, is "quite the baker," Haven has plans in the works to open a brick-and-mortar sometime later this year. There are plenty of local Haven fans, including this one, who simply cannot wait.

Haven

Donna Britt

Food writer, food stylist, recipe tester, cookbook editor, podcast producer/host are a few of the creative hats Donna Britt wears. Donna loves to hike, paddle board and spend quality time with family and friends. Oh, and she also collects cookbooks and cast iron cooking vessels.
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