Wild Yeast Bakery opens new brick-and-mortar location in downtown Corvallis
By Alex Ozeran, OMN Photographer
Bakery owners, April and Craig Hall Cutting, posing together in Wild Yeast Bakery on Second Street, on Nov. 28. The two recently opened the bakery together in downtown Corvallis and focus on locally sourced, artisanal products.
After over nine years of business at farm stands, Wild Yeast Bakery officially opened its doors to the public at the end of November, at its brand-new brick-and-mortar location on SW Second Street in Corvallis.
Right now, you can visit the bakery Wednesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wild Yeast Bakery’s main line is their bread, and they will feature different bread options daily. In addition, the bakery sells pastries, rolls, scones, muffins, cookies, tarts and galettes.
The small bakery started out in the home of its owners, April and Craig Hall Cutting, who at the time were looking for a new start.
“I was ready for a change of career, and we had the idea of doing artisan baking,” said April Hall Cutting. “We didn’t imagine having a big business at that point, but it just felt like a very natural hands-on thing to do and would allow us to learn about baking with sourdough and the burgeoning artisan bread movement.”
Hall Cutting said it was slow going at first.
“It took a long time,” she said. “I’ve always said, our business is slow to grow like the fermentation of the sourdough. We were invited to sell at a farm stand one day a week and that worked.”
The bakery was doing well at the farm stands, but through word of mouth, the business began to grow.
“We just gradually got a little bit bigger,” said Hall Cutting. “We went from eight loaves to 12 to 16. And then we began doing subscriptions along with the farm stands.”
As the years progressed, so did their sales, and soon they realized that they needed more space.
“We had seven people working in a tiny house,” Hall Cutting explained. “It just became crazy, and we didn’t have a facility to bake as much bread as was being demanded.”
I’ve always said, our business is slow to grow like the fermentation of the sourdough. We were invited to sell at a farm stand one day a week and that worked.
— April Hall Cutting, co-owner of Wild Yeast Bakery
The Hall Cuttings tentatively started looking into brick-and-mortar spaces around Corvallis. They knew they needed a site with plenty of visibility and access. They met with the owner of the building on Second Street, who had just renovated it with the historical design provided for a diner.
“We were excited about being in a newly renovated building,” Hall Cutting said. “It was empty so we were free to do what we needed to do. We hired a great contractor and designer and got really good results.”
With the new location now up and running, Hall Cutting said there are many options their customers can choose from.
“We are organic,” she said “We have a very European style. It’s a firm loaf. We don’t do white bread. We feature our local grains. More than 75% of the flour we use is milled in Eugene.”
Their products are nutritious because they use whole grains, Hall Cutting said.
“Our organic ingredients reflect our commitment to the health of the earth,” she said. “Organic practices make such a huge difference in not damaging the ecology.”
As the bakery is in the process of hiring a full staff, they are still operating on soft opening hours.
They are also currently looking to hire an experienced barista and welcome all email inquiries at [email protected].
