One of Dallas' best bakeries is graduating to a new location: Kuluntu Bakery, which currently operates as a cottage bakery in Oak Cliff, is moving into the East Dock, the innovative new mixed-use hub at 900 E. Clarendon Dr. near the Dallas Zoo and Halperin Park.

Founded in 2018, Kuluntu is the cottage food bakery that has been selling breads and pastries from an Oak Cliff home. Despite not having a brick-and-mortar location, the bakery has racked up numerous awards including an impressive ranking on a Food & Wine list of the Best Breads in Every State, a 2023 nomination for a James Beard Award, and a CultureMap Tastemaker Awards nomination for co-founder Stephanie Leichtle-Chalklen for Best Pastry Chef.

Well, now they will have a brick-and-mortar location.

Their current menu changes weekly, but includes breads such as country sour and lemon-lavender-walnut sour; their signature granola; cinnamon rolls; and pastries such as almond & lemon croissant, cheesy artichoke galette, salted rye chocolate chip cookie, and carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream. They send out an email to subscribers every week listing the latest offerings. (To get on the list, email kuluntu@kuluntubakery.org.)

"At the new location, we will be expanding the menu quite a bit," Leichtle-Chalken says. "It will include items that we’re currently baking plus South African dishes for lunch service."

They're hoping to be open by the end of the year, and once they do open, they'll close down the cottage operation.

But Leichtle-Chalklen says this new location will be more than a bakery — it will be a community hub that centers women’s experiences and builds collective power through education, health & wellness, and equity initiatives.

She already operates Kuluntu as a non-profit, with a goal of co-creating a more equitable food system and community by connecting the food industry, consumers, and partners to center women and humanize all food workers.

Sustainability and taking care of the planet is a practice that threads throughout their organization: whether that's using Barton Springs Mill organic flours and Cedar Ridge Egg Farm free-range eggs, or whether it's following zero-waste baking by recycling, composting, and using environmentally friendly packaging.

They'll fit right in at East Dock, a project being led by Proxy Properties, an Oak Cliff real estate group famous for breathing new life into vacant and often historical buildings.

East Dock is intriguing both for its history and its location. Built in 1915, it has served over the decades as an ice factory, book manufacturing site, and producer of airplane parts, but has been vacant for more than seven years.

Proxy envisions the space as "an 18-hour campus," with coffee and athletic businesses open in the morning, followed by daytime operators such as offices, studios, and restaurants, then bars and entertainment in the evening.

On July 12, Kuluntu will host "Reimagining an Inclusive Restaurant in Dallas," where attendees can learn about the lived experiences of women food workers and how we can humanize the food system, as well as re-imagine what an equitable and inclusive restaurant could be — sharing your experiences, ideas, and perspectives to shape Kuluntu Bakery into a true community space for all. Pastries and beverages will be included.

The session will take place at East Dock, allowing a preview of the site which will be under active construction. Get tickets here.