M. H. Bread and Butter Bakery Headed for San Anselmo
If the name Devon Crosby-Helms ring a bell, it should. Crosby-Helms made headlines last month when she became the . Now she's set her sights on a new finish line - opening a bakery in San Anselmo next March.
M. H. Bread and Butter is the brainchild of Crosby-Helms and her husband Nathan Yanko. Yanko is a master baker, having served as the lead baker for Tartine Bakery for the past eight years. Crosby-Helms has worked as a personal chef, and classifies her interest in baking in terms of how to fuel herself as a runner.
"I wanted to know how to cook nutritious food that tasted amazing," she explained. "I also wanted to know how to navigate various personal dietary special needs [Crosby-Helms is gluten intolerant]. I learned how to create amazing, healthy, delicious meals and started being a personal chef a few years ago."
Asked how M. H. will distance itself from competitors like Royal Sweet Bakery and Sweet Life, Crosby-Helms says the differences start with the bread.
"There are very few places making the quality of bread Nathan will be baking," she said.
M. H. Butter and Bread will also employ a wood-fired stove, allowing them to offer pizzas on select evenings. Crosby-Helms stressed that the bakery's concept is centered around being local and community driven.
"We are really crafting our menu to not only reflect us as inviduals, but to also reflect our community. Our food will be honest and thoughtful."
In order to ensure their visions reached fruition, the couple started a Kickstarter campaign. Their goal was to raise $30,000, and on August 13 they hit the mark. Crosby-Helms told me that the Kickstarter was more about spreading the story of M. H. and getting the community involved than the dollars earned.
People who backed the campaign were rewarded with offers including a picnic lunch for four and private baking lessons with Yanko.
Now that the funds are secured, all that remains is the work of getting the bakery ready to go. M. H. will occupy the space at 556 San Anselmo Ave., and with a tenative opening date of March 2013, there is a lot to be done.
Ultimately, Crosby-Helms and her husband look forward to the day they can welcome patrons to the place they have spent so long planning.
"We want our space and food to be like coming to the table at a good friend's house," she said.
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Local Architect Brings Bike Mosaic to Fairfax
Morgan Hall is a man of many titles. He makes his living as an architect, he served as the former president of the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce and now he is undertaking an art installation to celebrate the role of cycling in Fairfax’s history. From Biketoberfest to the beginnings of the pastime on fire roads off Pine Mountain, Fairfax has long been associated with cycling.
“Mountain biking was born in Fairfax,” Hall confirmed. “The first downhill mountain bike races occurred in Marin in the 1970’s.”
To celebrate the rich history of cycling in Fairfax, Hall is spearheading a bike mosaic project. The installation is underway on Bolinas Road. Tiles, many illustrated by local schoolchildren, will cover walls and a bench. Included in the space is a wall dedicated to personalized sprocket moldings that patrons can buy and customize to assist in the project’s price tag. The sprockets cost $150 each, while five unique clouds to be featured on the mosaic bench are available for $1,000.
Starting with roughly $4,000 in seed money saved by the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce for such a project, Hall has raised nearly $14,000 from sprocket sales and donations. While he encourages parties interested in purchasing a sprocket or cloud to contact him, he is confident the remaining money needed to complete the project will be collected in the next month.
While Hall had visions of making something to celebrate bike culture, the idea to do a tile mosaic came from local artist Tilly Nylin. Hall met her sister at an open house for a remodel he had recently completed, and when Nylin’s talents with tile came up, he seized the opportunity. Now with a conceptual artist and some seed money, Hall was ready to map out the project. To help with the process, he turned to an icon of the craft.
“The idea came to me from Antoni Gaudi, the wildman architect from Barcelona. There’s a park [in Barcelona] where everything is tiled, so we played on that," Hall said.
For those interested in seeing the mosaic and learning more, two blocks of Bolinas Ave. will be closed on August 26 from noon to 4 p.m. for a. The event celebrates a nonauto-centric mentality, which fits perfectly with the mosaic’s intentions. The project should be entirely completed before the end of September, leaving Hall to continue work on other ventures, including the Fairfax Diner remodel discussed in .
To purchase a sprocket or learn more about Morgan Hall’s architectural offerings, please contact him at (415) 455-8464 or send emails to morgan@morganhallarchitect.com.
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