Snacks'N At: Five Points Artisan Bakeshop, Squirrel Hill
Strong word of mouth about distinctively tasty creations and a conservative business plan have produced quick success for Five Points Artisan Bakeshop in Squirrel Hill.
Its name comes from its location — on Wilkins Avenue, just east of where it crosses Beechwood Boulevard, where South Linden Avenue ends to create a five-point intersection.
The bakeshop has prospered making breads, cookies and other pastries and lunchtime sandwiches and by listening to its customers. It bakes no cakes, nor is owner Geof Comings interested in the “fancy” pastries such as one finds at Gaby et Jean in Squirrel Hill and La Gourmandine in Lawrenceville.
Comings is from Oberlin, Ohio, where he interrupted his college education to play in a band called Songs Ohio, which toured Iraq and later became Magnolia Electric Company. But he tired of that and completed his degree in urban studies in 2002.
He's worked for three economic-development corporations, most recently the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership for seven years, where his projects include the Paris-to-Pittsburgh grant program to help small businesses improve their facades and with the Market Square reconstruction.
“I got a bit bored with the slow pace of community-development-corporation work,” Comings says. “When you have a good idea, you have to find funding and get city politicians on board. It can take three years to come to fruition, or it can never come to fruition. In baking, you go in, work hard and have a big pile of things you've made that day.”
When the slow pace of economic-development work got to him in Ohio he worked at bakeries, an interest that intensified after tasting artisanal bread at a farmers market in San Diego and deciding that was how bread should taste.
Comings uses baguette dough for his French loaf ($3.75), which has a denser texture because it's baked in a pan. French dinner rolls are $3 per half dozen; hot cross buns are $5 per half dozen.
He says customers have been pleasantly surprised by his sourdough breads, which have a very short sourdough start to avoid the tanginess of the San Francisco style. It's available in raisin walnut ($4.50) and plain ($4).
“The only reason I wanted to open was to make bread, but I was warned that's not a way to stay in business very long,” he says. “Baguettes are daily bread, good only for toasting the next day, but loaves can last most of a week.”
Comings has been surprised by how well his cookies sell, many dozens more per day than he projected. The shop sells chocolate chip, fruit oatmeal, tahini (sesame-seed paste), ginger molasses, and chocolate rye cookies ($2 each). He says customers are skeptical of the chocolate rye only until they taste them.
When customers asked for a savory pastry during the winter, Comings turned to one of his chefs, who had a recipe for an asparagus-shallots torte with ricotta cheese ($3.50). Zapping it in the microwave for 20 to 25 seconds takes it to another level, he says.
Sandwiches come out at 11:30 a.m. and include ham and cheese on baguette, Vietnamese tofu banh mi (vegetarian), and fresh mozzarella with whatever's freshly growing ($6.50 each).
It pays to shop early in the day, because by mid-afternoon, many items are sold out.
Five Points Artisan Bakeshop, 6520 Wilkins Ave., Squirrel Hill, is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays, closed Mondays. Details: 412-521-2253 or fivepointsartisanbakeshop.com
Mark Kanny is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7877 or mkanny@tribweb.com
