Blyth community bids farewell to beloved bakery
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Saturday, Blyth said a bittersweet goodbye to BRØD Bread & Pastry on Queen Street. The opening of a new business in a small village is always a bit of an event. That first day is a bit like a cross between a birthday and a blind date - there’s a shared excitement in the air between the proprietors and the public as they discover together all the little ways in which they’ll change each other’s lives.
Beginnings of things are always exciting. The closing of a business rarely generates that same sense of community spirit - we, as a species, tend to struggle with the idea of the ending of things. But the closure of BRØD, while undeniably sad, also carried with it a real spirit of celebration. There was a line out the door from the moment Blyth’s best-loved bakery opened in the morning until the moment they sold out, just before noon.
When owners Karen Middleton-Meadham and Gerrit Sepers opened BRØD in the fall of 2021, they knew they were stepping into the giant hole created in downtown Blyth when the Queen’s Bakery closed during the pandemic. Located directly across from the Blyth Festival’s Memorial Hall, the Queen’s Bakery had been a staple spot for locals and theatre-goers alike for years.
BRØD was one of three businesses that were awarded $5,000 in grant money from Huron County through the Starter Company Plus program in 2021, and, from the very beginning, the owners decided to do things their own way. BRØD wasn’t here to try and replace the Queen’s Bakery, it was here to be its own funky, fun little spot for people to enjoy. Middleton-Meadham handled the baking, and Sepers would handle the customers. Purchase wasn’t necessary if you wanted to spend the day taking up valuable real estate on the big comfy couch, even when they were busy. You could just be there, hanging out, all day. It was a perfect place to make fast new friends.
Some days, one might find world class thespians at BRØD, sipping on frothy coffees to beat the heat during their summer in Blyth. Other days, the bakery would host salons and other events. Most days, you could find local artists tucked away into this corner or that, working away at some bizarre project or another. On other days, one might arrive only to find their grand plans of devouring a breakfast biscuit dashed by a sign taped to the door that read ‘Closed Due to Epilepsy.” One of the many things that has endeared newcomer Middleton-Meadham and her family to the community is their frank and open handling of her illness, which both brought them to town and brought about the difficult decision to close her bakery.
During the reign of BRØD, Middleton-Meadham and Sepers served the sweet treats they felt like serving, played the music they felt like hearing, and refused to relent in the face of multitudinous requests that they start serving soup and sandwiches. They served one savoury snack item - it was the breakfast biscuit, and it was spectacular.
When it came to leavened edibles, BRØD’s bread was the breadliest of breads, as different in style and stature as breeds of dogs. Their traditional Danish rye carried with it the weight of ancient knowledge in every slice, while their Japanese pull-apart milk bread was buoyant with the dreams of a better future. They made a cheese challah so cheesy that you could butter a slice and fry it for a self-contained grilled cheese sandwich.
On the sweet side of things, the menu was always changing. One day, you could go in and taste the best cupcake you’d ever had, and it would never be there again. It elevated the experience beyond the everyday. Those who enjoy falling into a ritualistic cookie rut were challenged by BRØD - sure, there were always staples in the display case, like their signature “garbage cookies”, but the list of ingredients within was a veritable kaleidoscope - one day, it would be Smarties and peanut butter cups, the next, it would be Skor bits and craisins. It was a menu that often veered toward the mouth of madness, but the results were always delicious. Balancing out the avant-garde side of the pastry case were the sweet standards that had been passed down through Middleton-Meadham’s family, like the 100-year-old lemon cake recipe developed by her great-grandfather, who was a pastry chef. No matter what you ordered, it came with a slice of macabre humour on the side.
Through BRØD, Middleton-Meadham and Sepers quickly became a part of the Blyth community, along with their daughter, Lilly West.
Anybody who wandered in off the street late on Saturday morning was in for a rude awakening - all the biscuits had already been claimed by eager beavers, hours earlier. In the few fleeting hours before the display case was bare, it was stocked with all the most requested customer favourites - Brookies, Cap’n French Toast Crunch Crispies, Crunchie Bar Garbage Cookies, Lemon Cake, Eat Me Cookies, and so many more. The truly wise among us have dedicated a little space in their freezer for a mini-horde of breakfast biscuits, or cookies, or lemon cakes, so they can have a little bit more BRØD, on a special occasion in the future.
Soon, the Pine Cafe & Bistro will be opening in the spot that was once the Queen’s Bakery, and with it will come all the excitement of a brand new place. But the BRØD era, while short, was certainly a part of Blyth’s history worth remembering.