ABOUT US

Bread & Friends is a bakery and restaurant in the Old Port neighborhood of Portland, ME whose mission is to foster community through delicious food that is meant to be shared.

Founded in 2021, Bread & Friends started as a farmer’s market bakery specializing in naturally-leavened bread, laminated pastry, and jams, pickles, spreads and butters meant to pair with bread.

In April 2023, Bread & Friends opened their brick and mortar location on Fore Street, expanding into a bakery & restaurant offering brunch and dinner in addition to pastries, bread, coffee, and beer & wine.

Bread & Friends is owned and operated by a double husband and wife team - Jess Rattey & Jeremy Broucek and Maggie & Tanner Rubin.

Portland Press Herald
Best 75 Restaurants in Greater Portland 2024

Eat Drink Lucky
Must Eat List, Portland ME

Yelp
25 Hot & New Women-Owned Restaurants 2024

RECENT PRESS

Portland City Lifestyle
The City List,
Best Bakeries

Eater Boston
The Best Dishes Eater Boston’s Editor Ate in September

Portland Press Herald
At Portland’s Bread & Friends, slow and steady wins the race

StarChefs
Coastal New England Rising Stars, Class of 2023

Portland Press Herald
Eat & Run

Bangor Daily News
Feature

StarChefs
On The Ground

Meyer lemon tart with a grahahm cracker crust and salted coriander whipped cream.
House-made ricotta cheese with hazelnuts, pickled mustard seeds, and jamon iberico. Typically served with a side of our focaccia bread.
Spartan Sea Farms grilled oyster with shiro dashi pearls, pickled green apple, kelp butter & shiso.

BAKERY

M - Th, 8 - 1
Fri - Sun, 8 - 3
Dine in & take out

Our bakery specializes in sourdough bread made with house-milled flour and artisan pastries inspired by riffs on nostalgic flavors and seasonal bounty, and is complemented by a beverage program emphasizing house-made specialty beverages. We are proud to partner with Enjoy Coffee Roasters and Rare Tea Company for our coffee and tea offerings.

Online ordering is available for pastries & bread.

We accept pre-orders placed up to 1 day in advance - if ordering the day before, we suggest placing your order after 4PM for the most accurate availability.

Looking for bakery catering or an order of 12+ pastries? Please visit our Events page for more information.

our bread

SOURDOUGH

Naturally leavened is our specialty; it tastes better and is better for you.

STONE-MILLED

We source regional grain and mill the majority of our flour in house on our New American Stone Mill for maximum flavor.

WOOD-FIRED

Slow food the way it has always been made - with fire, in our rotating deck brick oven from Spain, made by Ipsor.

BRUNCH

Daily, 8:30 - 1
Dine in & take out

Alongside the bakery offerings, our brunch menu offers seasonally-inspired plates to share, influenced by classic American favorites combined with Japanese and Mediterranean flavors, with an emphasis on house-made components and unique preparations.

We accept walk-ins only for brunch, and take names in person, first-come, first-served.

Take out is available for select brunch items, and we accept same-day online orders.

DINNER

Th - Sat, 5:30 - 9
Dine in

Our dinner menu hones in on local ingredients, technique-driven preparations, and the seasonality of Maine, with an emphasis on hand-made pasta and wood-fired meats. The elevated sharing plates menu is complemented by a natural wine-focused beverage list.

We accept reservations for dinner through Resy. We do save space for walk-ins, both in the dining room and on our patio.

Please be sure to book the appropriate dining area (inside or outside) with your reservation if you have a preference.

Meet the Founders

  • Jeremy Broucek

    EXECUTIVE CHEF

    Growing up in the small town of Shutesbury, MA, Jeremy’s love of food and cooking blossomed under the influence of his parents, both at home in the garden and kitchen, and through the natural granola company they owned and operated. Certain that cooking was his destiny, he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY after working in a few local restaurants in Western Mass.

    His professional career started in the kitchen at Barbara Lynch’s No. 9 Park in Boston, first as an extern and then working his way through each station, an experience that he credits most heavily for laying the foundation of his cooking skills. Jeremy joined his mentor, John daSilva, as the Sous Chef at Spoke next, where he also met and worked with his now wife, Jess. Eager to further their careers and mountain bike year round, they relocated to San Francisco in 2014, where Jeremy would spend the next six years working at the James Beard award-winning and Michelin-starred restaurant The Progress, eventually becoming the Chef de Cuisine in 2018.

    Respecting the integrity of the highest quality ingredients, seasonality, and Mediterranean/North African, Japanese, and Korean cuisine all influence Jeremy’s cooking deeply, and form the foundation for the culinary program at B&F.

  • Jess Rattey

    SERVICE/BEVERAGE

    Jess, affectionately known to her close friends and family as “Rat,” is a native of Rhode Island, where large family gatherings centered around eating first sparked her love of food and hospitality. Jess attended Emmanuel College in Boston, and then served, bartended and managed in various restaurants, bars, and cafes in the area, including Green Street and Spoke. In those years, she cultivated her passion for creating warm, welcoming spaces for people to come together, have fun, and eat delicious food.

    After moving to San Francisco with her husband, Jeremy, she spent over five years at the James Beard award-winning and Michelin-starred restaurant, State Bird Provisions, and learned all she could about hospitality, service, viticulture, and seasonally-focused local fare. She transitioned to working with dough during the Covid-19 pandemic, building her pastry skills alongside Tanner and infusing the classics with her creativity and penchant for nostalgic flavors.

    After the opening of B&F on Fore Street, Jess moved to a front of house role, where she manages the restaurant day-to-day, including service and the beverage program.

  • Maggie Rubin

    OPERATIONS/BUSINESS

    Master organizer and leader of all things technical, Maggie is our fearless spreadsheet warrior. Her love of systems stems from her first love, music. She spent her childhood in Colorado and young adult life in Washington state cultivating her classical music career, eventually moving to San Francisco and graduating with her Masters Degree in Opera Performance from the SF Conservatory of Music. She started working in restaurants during graduate school to supplement her opera gigs, but found that her love of food, hospitality, and restaurant operations outweighed performing.

    Maggie spent two years working on the Guest Relations/Operations teams at State Bird Provisions and The Progress restaurants, learning the foundations of hospitality and a deepened love of food that inform her still today. She channeled her interest in curating experiences further as the Casual Events Manager for San Francisco restaurant institutions Quince, Cotogna and Verjus. She believes that nothing can bring people together or tell a story better than food, and hopes that you can feel the passion behind every bite.

  • Tanner Rubin

    HEAD BAKER

    Tanner’s love of food began at an early age; growing up, Tanner’s mom said he could “live off of bread.” Influenced by both his Waldorf education and garden-loving foodie parents, Tanner eventually landed on baking after a stage at Publican Quality Meats in his native Chicago.

    After spending time baking in both Chicago and Portland, OR, Tanner moved to San Francisco in 2014, where he completed the Professional Baking Program at the San Francisco Baking Institute. Afterwards, he spent time baking at numerous Bay Area bakeries, including Josey Baker Bread, Backhaus Bread, Tartine, and with his mentor, Mac McConnell, at The Midwife and the Baker. Working with a variety of fresh milled whole grains completely changed his idea of what bread could be, and forms the groundwork for the baking program at Bread & Friends.

    Never not eating ice cream out of a mug, Tanner is also passionate about finding the best Craigslist deals and his dog, Piper.