Empire Baking opens second bread shop, this one in East Dallas - The Dallas Morning News

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Fans of the 29-year-old Empire Baking Company can now buy grab-and-go items directly from the Dallas bakery, where 8,000 loaves of bread rise every day. A tiny retail store opened at the front of the shop on April 26, 2021.

Sticky buns are one of several sweet treats at Empire Baking Company in East Dallas.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

Empire East, as the shop is nicknamed, is on University Boulevard, just east of Central Expressway. Customers will find a renovated storefront selling sandwiches, salads, loaves of bread and cookies.

The back of the building remains Empire’s commercial kitchen and bakery. The bulk of Empire’s business is selling loaves of bread and burger buns to Dallas restaurants and hotels such as Al Biernat’s steakhouse, the Meddlesome Moth, Toulouse, Bonton Farms and the Adolphus hotel.

For years, the only spot Dallasites could buy Empire’s baked goods was near Lovers Lane and Inwood Road in Dallas, at Empire’s standalone retail store.

Empire co-owner Meaders Ozarow and account manager Emily Hartsell had ambitions of adding a retail component to the bakery in East Dallas for years, but it took a pandemic to convince them.

“It just seemed like such a heavy lift until the pandemic,” Ozarow says. Corporate events and weddings were stalled in 2020, and to-go sales at the Lovers Lane shop were up 35%. It made good business sense to have a second storefront that sells grab-and-go food, Ozarow says.

Ham on baguette is one of the most popular sandwiches at Empire Baking Company.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

Empire East, a cozy 300 square feet, is a former storage closet. But you wouldn’t know it: It now has white subway tiles on the wall, a case full of puffy cookies and glistening croissants, and a commercial fridge where customers can grab their own sandwiches.

The two most popular sandwiches are ham on baguette and smoked turkey with Granny Smith apple.

This isn't Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. That's reporter Sarah Blaskovich behind one of the giant mixers at Empire Baking Company in 2018. The bakery remains on University Boulevard in Dallas, but it added a grab-and-go store in April 2021.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

Unlike the store on Lovers Lane, this one doesn’t have pasta, cheese or espresso. They’re almost exclusively selling items that are made in-house, just behind the swinging door that separates the shop from the team of bakers mixing dough.

“People always want to know, ‘Where’s it made?’” Ozarow says. This is that place.

Given that Texas is “iced tea country,” she expects to sell a lot of unsweetened black currant iced tea, a popular item at the Lovers Lane store. Empire East will also sell Noble Coyote drip coffee. And bags of chips to go with the sandwiches.

It’s a simple little place — one that at least a dozen customers had already discovered on opening day.

Empire Baking Company East is at 5614 E. University Blvd., Dallas. The wholesale bakery, which is not open to the public, remains at the same address. No indoor or outdoor seating.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.

(From left) Meaders Ozarow, Emily Hartsell, Malina Pearson and Tarrie Hoffman created and operate the new Empire Baking Company. (Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

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Empire Baking opens second bread shop, this one in East Dallas - The Dallas Morning News
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