We will be opening our shop doors officially this week! We will now have a public opening on SATURDAY 29th MARCH.
We hope that Rex Artisan Bakery will make our local community an even better place to be, and as we move into the final throes of preparation, we have lots of opportunities to stay true to that cause. It’s true that many of the supply decisions are about standard bakery equipment available only from specialist national & international firms. We have tried very hard to economically fit out a best in class working bakery that everyone who visits the shop will be able to see working – here’s the Rex Baker unveiling a new mixer & others:
However, here are 6 decisions we have carefully made which are celebrating the best of what we could find locally:
- Benches. High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire used to have a reputation as furniture & cabinet makers to the country. It’s where Ercol was originally located & full of carpentry craftsmen. We were very excited to track down an artisan woodturner in nearby Prestwood, who we commissioned to make 6 x oak benches from reclaimed wood to go round our big oak table in the cafe area. We think this will be a fantastic social way for people to have a coffee & a bun together, mixing in with the local community.
- Jam. The Rex Baker could & will probably make some of his own, but given he wants to focus on baking he 1st tried the local WI groups to source a great jam-maker who might want to supply a local business like ours. But sadly there was no lady forthcoming, they must just save their yummy homemade produce for their own families! However, he has found an artisan jam maker in Aylesbury who has supplied a range of delicious jams for us to try (tough job but someone has to do it…) and they are currently researching the seedless raspberry jam the Rex Baker requires for his Benedict Bars (oooh, remember them?!). These jams will be available for sale in the shop 🙂
- Milk. We do like our Milk in the Rex Baker family, wading through litres upon litres of supermarket organic milk every week. In the business, we purposefully wanted to avoid conventional milk in our coffee, we wanted to source the best milk we could find as it such a nutritious & potentially delicious whole product all on its own. We are thrilled to have found a local farmer with a breed of Guernsey cows, to supply sustainable rich Guernsey milk to Rex Bakery.
- Soft Drinks. We have joined Bucks Business First, a helpful organisation that makes the link between various start-ups & have been a kind sounding board during our (ongoing…) utility company sagas. Through them we found out about a group of local ex-Challoners boys who have established an artisan home-made drinks company and we hope to sell their drinks in Rex Bakery for those that don’t want a coffee. Although the Rex Baker’s wife finds it hard to believe their home-made lemonade is better than hers, so let the battle of the lemonades commence!! One thing’s for sure, we won’t be selling those canned fizzy drinks that are getting such a bad press for their impact on our teeth & health….
- Grocery. We are loyal to local Prestwood friends who handmake & will deliver our selected sausagemeat for the eponymous Rex sausage rolls & various charcuterie for our sandwiches, and with the quite-close Heathrow greengrocery serving local markets & suppliers we are assured of excellent fruits for our cakes & buns and salads for our cafe. We have sourced fresh organic eggs from Seer Green – we will be using a LOT of eggs in the bakery!!
- Staff. We have a lovely team of 4 to work alongside the Rex Baker through the week, and several more Saturday helpers. Whilst we had enquiries for the baker vacancies from all around the UK and indeed all the way from France, Cyprus, Portugal… we are very excited to be welcoming experienced baker, patisserie chef, cafe & barista staff from Chesham, Watford & right here in Little Chalfont!! The Rex Baker’s wife & oldest daughter have been the face of the Saturday morning pop-ups for some time, but will be handing over to the experts. Although expect to see the family in the beginning Saturdays to help with the handover, and from time to time thereafter as we enjoyed meeting all the local Friends so much!It must be coming together in the way we hoped because 1 kind Friend said on Facebook this week: “It’s looking SUPER-COOL in the parade, looks like it’s from Marylebone not Little Chalfont”. We are very chuffed! Because, we love Marylebone, it’s only 35 minutes away on the train and – why not here in Little Chalfont???See you in the shop from Saturday 29th March!
