Next month, Oak Cliff Bread will graduate from a home kitchen to a new space inside Tyler Station. It will operate from the former home of the cake and coffee operation Crumb and Kettle, which will give owners Tyler Rooney and his wife Chayanne more space to perfect their menu of plump sourdough loaves and flakey croissants.
“The space was fully equipped—they had a grease trap, they had a hood vent,” Tyler says. “We were like, ‘let’s go for it.’”
Tyler got serious about bread baking in 2015 when he created his first sourdough starter while the couple was living in Austin. He worked at the downtown restaurant Parkside and practiced making baguettes and laminating croissants on the side as an “obsession.”
The couple moved to Dallas after having their two kids to be closer to family. During the pandemic, they were furloughed from their restaurant jobs. Tyler and Chayanne decided to start Oak Cliff Bread out of their home. He said he saw the success of the neighborhood bakery model through Instagram and decided to try it out.
Oak Cliff Bread sells country and multigrain sourdough, rotating special breads, croissants, Danishes, baguettes, and more. Tyler places a heavy emphasis on using local grains, and he’s been using wheat from Barton Springs Mill since he started baking in 2015.
“That’s one of our big focuses, investing in local grain economy,” he says. “[We’re] basically getting people to have a closer relationship with Texas farmers and heirloom grains and local millers.”
Under the neighborhood cottage bakery model, Tyler said he was limited to two bakes a week. On Wednesdays, customers placed orders online and picked them up from the family’s porch while Chayanne made deliveries. On Saturdays, Oak Cliff Bread had a stand at the Dallas Farmers Market, for which Tyler would bake for eight hours a day. Equipment began spilling from the kitchen to other parts of the house. It was time to find a bigger space.
With this new store, they’ll be able to expand to three bakes to keep the bakery stocked and open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They still plan to do some deliveries, but mainly to help customers who are elderly or can’t leave their homes. Once they add employees, they’ll continue to operate a stand at the Farmers Market, Tyler says.
Oak Cliff Bread will begin by perfecting what they have in their new home. Tyler says he wants to eventually build out the menu to include a regular ciabatta and brioche, but that will come later. He’s mostly excited turning about the tiny cottage bakery into a neighborhood destination.
“The dream was to be able to take bread out of the oven and put it on shelves, and it just seemed like the coziest, most beautiful thing,” he says. “I guess it’s always been part of the vision from the beginning but it just seemed so insurmountable, such a big step. It was intimidating. And, yeah, I mean, the timing just worked out.”
Oak Cliff Bread’s last home bake will be Aug. 30. The new location will open in September inside Tyler Station at 1300 S. Polk St. Follow their Instagram for updates.
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