Seattle Met - Ben’s Bread Will Bring Its Loaves and Cookies to Phinney Ridge
By Allecia Vermillion for Seattle Met.
The family bread business finds a permanent home for its loaves.
BEFORE BEN CAMPBELL built a reputation as a savant of Washington grain, he was a line cook at Lark, trying to wrap his culinary brain around an unfamiliar assignment: start an in-house bread program. He had no experience with sourdough starters or the finer points of shaping loaves. Clearly, the learning curve didn’t faze him—two years later, Lark was making 10 different styles of bread in house.
He went on to found the Ben’s Bread popup, remaining a farmers market and preorder favorite even after he worked as head baker for Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures restaurant group. Now, Campbell and his wife and business partner, Megan, are opening a bread-focused cafe in Phinney Ridge. The menu will loop Campbell’s original culinary training back into his subsequent status as part of the vanguard of local-grain breadmaking.