One of Dallas' best breads in town has found a home: Bresnan Bread and Pastry, a mom-and-pop bakery known for its artisanal European-style baked goods, is opening a location in McKinney, in a super-cute storefront at 301B E. Louisiana St., where it will sell its trademark breads, pastries, cookies, and pies.
With luck and a little help from their friends, they're hoping to be open by November.
Bresnan is from Matt and Jenna Bresnan, who launched their baking business in January 2020, with Matt overseeing the production and Jenna handling the people side. They started selling at farmers markets, and do wholesale baking, as well.
They also do a weekly bake in Dallas, where you order online and pick up your order on Saturday morning at Brown Bag Provisions.
They rotate their offerings weekly from a selection of breads that include sourdough, seeded multigrain, golden raisin fennel, toasted sesame, olive walnut, green chile cheese, marble rye with toasted caraway, and brioche.
Pastries include croissants in varieties such as ham & Swiss, chocolate, and almond; kouign amann; and Danish, including cream cheese Danish. They also do chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, and seasonal hand pies.
The McKinney shop will offer grab-and-go items as well as coffee, but it'll also become their production headquarters, Jenna says.
"It'll all be open so that, when you walk in, you can grab coffee and a Danish and watch the process of a loaf of bread from when it starts to when it comes out of the oven, you can see the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into it," she says.
Construction has been beset by the obstacles facing every startup right now, although they're almost within reach. They need last-minute plumbing and electrical, floor work, oven installation, and coffee equipment, and have launched a gofundme to get them over that final hump.
The European-style breads they make do not have a long tradition in Dallas. It's only been in the past few years that there's been a market for the kinds of hearty crusty breads that the Bresnans and others make.
"We're excited to see that the bread culture is slowly changing here," Jenna says. "We're connected with other bakers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we're kind of a new wave, making this Old World style of bread, with quality flour from Barton Springs, because flour is where it starts."
"Our customers say things like, 'I haven't had pastry like this since I went to Paris,'" she says. "With the kinds of goods all of us bakers are making, I feel like we're changing people's minds about quality baked goods and what that can be."
