Orwashers Bakery is a famous

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

making

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

in New York City that has been listed among the top ten bakeries in

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Also known as A. Orwasher Handmade Bread Inc. it was established in 1916 on 78th Street in the Yorkville area of the New York City borough of Manhattan and it is now one of the last vestiges of the thriving immigrant population that lived in that area around the start of the 20th century.

History

An Eastern European immigrant himself, Abraham Orwasher opened the store in 1916, and lived in a small apartment in the back. Orwasher "used family recipes for the high-quality rye, black, and grain breads of their homeland, baking them all in a basement brick oven and delivering the loaves by horse and carriage." It soon became a thriving wholesale business with deliveries being made by horse and buggy. Abraham's son Louis would go on to take over the business from his father, owning the building the bakery was housed in. Louis would go on to perfect the formulas of his father, while reinventing the breads sold. It is claimed that it was Louis who invented raisin pumpernickel bread, at Orwasher's during World War II. Abram Orwasher, Louis's son, later took over the business, using the same brick ovens and

sourdough starter Sourdough or sourdough bread is a bread made by the fermentation of dough using wild lactobacillaceae and yeast. Lactic acid from fermentation imparts a sour taste and improves keeping qualities. History In the ''Encyclopedia of Food Microb ...

that was used in 1916. In 2007, Mr. Orwasher sold the bakery to Keith Cohen, who stated plans to expand the bakery's offerings beyond Eastern European breads, adding artisanal breads from Italy, France, Ireland and the United States.''Off the Menu''
New York Times, accessed November 27, 2007 Starting in 2009, Keith Cohen launched a new line of Artisan Wine Breads under the brand name Oven Artisans. These breads were created with a wine grape starter in collaboration with Channing Daughters Vineyard in Long Island.

References

External links

Official site
{{coord, 40, 46, 21, N, 73, 57, 19, W, type:landmark_region:US-NY, display=title Food and drink companies established in 1916 Food production companies based in New York City Category talk:Bakeries of New York (state) Companies based in Manhattan