Ken's Artisan Bakery

A levain starter and a nine-ton oven

The bread came first here and it still sets the terms. Ken Forkish opened Ken's Artisan Bakery on Thanksgiving Day 2001 in a converted carpet warehouse in Portland's Northwest District, having left a technology career after a magazine article about a celebrated Parisian baker pushed him toward baking. He installed a nine-ton steam-injecting Italian oven, a French mixer and a retarder for slow fermentation, then built the loaves on organic flour, French sea salt and a levain starter. Forkish uses the word levain rather than sourdough on purpose: he wanted the balance of French country bread, not a pronounced sour edge. An early country blond loaf set the pattern, and the racks grew outward from it into baguettes, brioche, French rye and a dark-crusted three-kilo boule.

Croissants on a three-day schedule

The pastry side runs on the same patience. Croissants are built over three days and come plain, almond, chocolate, and ham and cheese. The morning bun is the other signature, plump and fragrant with orange, and the case fills out with fruit tarts and seasonal macarons. Lunch uses the same bread. Sandwiches are made on house loaves with fillings such as turkey and fontina, ham and cheese, and tuna, and there is soup and a grilled cheese for anyone eating in. Coffee is a practical companion rather than a separate programme, an Americano or a house cup to go with a pastry or a bowl of soup.

A neighbourhood room now in employee hands

The room is casual and bright, smells strongly of baking and keeps the pace of a working bakery rather than a restaurant. Loaves come out through the day, the counter stays busy, and the storefront has the cheerful look of a French patisserie dropped into a Portland residential block. Forkish stepped back in 2021 and sold to two longtime employees, the pastry chef who had been there almost from the start and the general manager, which kept the name, the production habits and the levain routine with people who were already running them. The bakery's influence in Portland came from the bread rather than the pastry, and the racks still show it, with country blond, country brown, baguettes and rye stacked behind the counter while the pastry case works the front. Arrive earlier in the day for warm pastry and the widest choice of bread; come later for a sandwich cut from whatever is left on the rack.