Great bread comes from Fenham! 🥖
I recall, really not that long ago, getting anything that resembled sourdough in Newcastle meant Waitrose 1, or a single slice in a decent restaurant with some butter for £4 🙃
But it’s 2020! Sourdough has made its way into the nation’s zeitgeist. And let’s be honest some of it is shite — looking at you, Morrisons… But! There are a growing number of indie bakeries who are banging out some absolutely brilliant daily loaf. And I for one, never expected to find my daily flour+water+salt on Fenham Hall Drive.
Fresh Artisan Bread Bakery — FAB Bakery (36 Fenham Hall Drive, NE4 9UU) popped up as a standalone retail unit fairly recently, however the business has been around for a while.
Baker/owner Shynara has been supplying to trade under the FAB Bakery name for a few years already. You’ll have had the sourdough with your eggs at Flat Caps, or with EVOO at Zucchini Pasta Bar, for example. A fair test of any baker is ‘do they supply the best restaurants in town’ and FAB Bakery have previously been your bread course at both House of Tides and Peace & Loaf at one point. So, solid credentials…
The c-word quickly ceased that revenue stream, however, and selling DTC is really an obvious one for most business right now. The customer-facing bakery opened properly in the midst of lockdown, and has been a huge success for the area, attracting daily queues.
I mean, it’s just legit bread. Is there anything quite like it? Despite the UK’s best baking efforts through lockdown, it’s still as satisfying as ever getting some fresh and still warm sourdough from the bakery round the corner. I don’t need the smug satisfaction of feeding ‘Brian’ and tipping a load of gunge in the bin every morning when I can go and get this for £3.
We’ve had nigh on everything FAB Bakery do now and it’s all of a reliable quality. My fave has gotta be the sweet potato and rosemary sourdough. Potent with rosemary, but lighter than a regular white sourdough. You’ve just gotta try this one. Whether ‘what bread should taste like’, or ‘so good you just keep eating it until you realise you’ve had 800g of bread’, or ‘bags of flavour’ or however you wanna phrase it.
The sweet side had been done by this canny French transplant who has since left Newcastle, but just recently FAB have bought in a laminator, and have started trials of croissants and pain au chocolate. For now you get breakfast buns, creme pat filled brioche rolls (bottom), biscotti and a few other ad hoc bits and bobs. I’m genuinely excited to see what patisserie will come to the table, other than a bigger dent in my weekly outgoings here 😬
Like recently, it’s been sausage rolls with apple and fennel, and pastéis de nata… Hard to say no to.
We’ve been going an embarrassing amount since lockdown really, doing the now standard 30min queue upon opening. It’s FAB that they’re so busy, but with slightly extended opening hours now, these waits are thankfully coming down a bit. Pro tip is get there early, otherwise you’re gonna plan your day around a baguette that sold out at 10:15.
Shout out for the 50p ciabatta. Obviously high hydration as they’re super light — perfect for a monstrous-sized sandwich.
Focaccia is another favourite. The house version of chilli and sesame gives it just enough pizzaz that, before you know it, you’ve monstered the whole thing. Also makes a superb deli sandwich.
Finally, the fougasse is a thing of beauty. Kate brought some in for lunch one day and I did a drive-by nibble. Which turned into another. And another. And then I got some aioli out. And then felt the guilt/pleasure/shame of having scoffed the lot. Full sized NY rye loaf with caraway (also brilliant) — for comparison. It’s a big ‘un.
Bread can be finicky. Improperly risen sourdough, over-baked fougasse, flavourless white loaf, poorly shaped baguettes even, but everything we’ve had from FAB Bakery has been worthy of 🏆
There’s coffee, salad boxes, and a plan to branch out into a wider grocery/deli style affair which I am absolutely behind. It’s keenly priced as well.
OK one more loaf. This is the pugliese/potato bread. It’s insanely light and spongy. Still warm out of the oven for extra smugness, this + salt + butter was heavenly. The rest of it became an (equally joy-bringing) cheese toastie.
It’s all ‘just’ really good bread. To me, there’s nothing better. Freshly made bread, salt and butter. One of life’s finest little pleasures. It’s just handy now to be able to have it at my doorstep, and a great thing for Newcastle to have access to. FAB Bakery is just everything a local bakery promises to be, and fingers crossed should have an even stronger run into 2021. All the best to Shynara and her team!
Contact: fabbakery.co.uk
Food hygiene rating: Not yet rated
For now, FAB Bakery is open Wed-Saturday from 9-ish to 4-ish but check the site!
Related Posts
