A top local bakery just expanded in Raleigh. Here’s a sneak peek of the new digs
After nearly a decade in a small beloved bake shop on South Street in downtown Raleigh, the acclaimed bakery Boulted Bread has moved into larger digs up the road.
Boulted, an artisan bakery owned by Josh Bellamy and Sam Kirkpatrick, opened its new bakery May 19 at 328 Dupont Circle in the heart of Raleigh’s Boylan Heights neighborhood.
“The most important part of its identity is it feels like Boulted,” Kirkpatrick said. “But the whole space feels like you have room to breathe.... It’s a lot more of what we do.”
How it started
Boulted opened in 2014 with a one-year lease on a space on South Street in Raleigh, founded by Sam Kirkpatrick, Fulton Forde and Josh Bellamy. Forde had made the mill, which was a focal point of the bakery, and the oven and other equipment were bought used.
“We thought, what would it be like to move back home and bake for our family and friends,” Kirkpatrick said. “It turns out it was really fun.”
How it’s going
In that nine-year run, Boulted has grown into one of the most respected bakeries in the South and was named the top bakery in North Carolina by Food & Wine. Over the last few years, Bellamy and Kirkpatrick have also launched Benchwarmers Bagels, which was named a Bon Appetit Best New Restaurant in 2019, and Bright Spot Donuts.
Boulted held its last service at the original shop April 30, following a week of forewarning so fans could bid farewell.
“It was a goodbye,” Kirkpatrick said. “It didn’t feel like the right way to leave it after nine or 10 years, to not let people say goodbye.”
The new Boulted oven
The new oven is about four times the size of the one that baked a decade of bread at the original Boulted. The walls and base are made of poured concrete, which means it ain’t going nowhere, Bellamy said. It also means the temperature barely budges whenever baked loaves are swapped out for fresh dough.
The old oven baked about 36 loaves at a time. The new Boulted can crank out 120.
Places to sit
The original Boulted had a corner where a handful of seats offered pastry fans a place to pause and pull apart the flakes of a morning bun. Those seats went away at the start of the pandemic, pausing a crucial part of the Boulted environment.
The new Boulted features a more traditional cafe seating area, expanding to tables and seats for a couple dozen people. The seats themselves are a mishmash of styles, from thrifted and vintage pieces, pews, a rounded multicolored banquette and a bench of Eames-style fiberglass seats.
While seats played a small physical role in the old Boulted, to Bellamy and Kirkpatrick they meant an outsized deal, pointing to every-week-regulars and couples who stopped in on a third date and now bring by their second kid.
“It was such a super meaningful part (of Boulted),” Bellamy said of regulars. “We’re excited to revisit that again.”
The mill room
Boulted is famous for breads made from in-house milled flour. After crunching some numbers, Bellamy estimates that in the nine years of Boulted, the bakery has milled a half million pounds of grain, or a cool 250 tons.
Like everything else, the bakery has expanded its capacity for milling. Mirroring the original shop, a new enclosed mill room was built. It currently features a much larger mill, where whole grains are crushed and ground by a giant circular stone.
The former Boulted mill will also join the party, but it is currently in Vermont being reconditioned. And a skylight above is sure to catch flour floating through some sunbeams.
Pastry counter and espresso bar
A new 20-foot counter divides the cafe part of Boulted from the expanded work space.
The counter itself has been built out of reclaimed lumber from Wake County. On that counter, visitors will find the familiar pastry setup, where the day’s morning buns and pinwheels and croissants will be piled up behind glass. One big addition is a full espresso bar, expanding the drink menu to all the lattes and macchiatos out there.
But for those craving the simplicity of the old Boulted, it’s still there.
“If your thing is a croissant and drip coffee to go, nothing has changed for you,” Kirkpatrick said.
This story was originally published May 16, 2023 at 5:30 AM with the headline "A top local bakery just expanded in Raleigh. Here’s a sneak peek of the new digs."
