Manchester city centre is about to see what all the Gail's Bakery fuss is about - with the latest store opening on King Street. The hit London bakery chain, known for its freshly baked sourdough loaves, cakes, pastries and cinnnamon buns, opens its doors to the public on Wednesday morning at 6.30am.
The MEN got a sneak preview on Tuesday, with staff busily baking their full product range to test the ovens ahead of the big opening day. The Manchester King Street store becomes its third bakery in the north of England - following hot on the heels of Wilmslow and Altrincham.
It boasta an array of cafe seating both on its ground level and in the basement of its new home opposite Boodles on one of Manchester's most famous shopping streets. Bosses have taken over the former White Stuff fashion store - which has moved to a new unit further up King Street.
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The new bakery will serve Gail's range of sourdough breads, pastries, sandwiches, and cakes alongside its speciality house blend coffees. There is also the addition of an outside terrace to admire the views of the historic buildings along the street.
The bakery itself will open on King Street from Wednesday, June 7 at 6.30am, and will then trade every day from 6.30am -6pm. The outdoor terrace will initially be open from 11am daily.
Inside, there's a sleek new modern decor for the cafe areas - although continuing Gail's theme for recycling they have reused as much of the original building as possible. It includes reclaimed bricks for the huge cake counters, refurbished flooring and even recycled orange peel light fittings.
It's certainly not the cheapest of high street bakeries though - you're looking at paying £4 for cakes to take away like their walnut, banana and pecan cakes, and £4.80 to eat in. Sourdough loaves are priced from £4.15, and foccacia sandwiches are £5.70 to take away and £6.60 to eat in.
The opening comes amid a rapid UK expansion for the bakery chain. Next up will be the opening of Gail's Bakery in Didsbury, in the former HSBC bank building on Wilmslow Road.
It has been announced that the Didsbury Gail's will open from June 21. The opening hours for that site will be from 7am to 7pm daily.
A spokesperson for GAIL’s said: “As a neighbourhood craft bakery, we offer our customers freshly baked food, which is baked on site each day and hand roasted speciality grade coffee and we can’t wait to bring our food and passion to Manchester this year.”
The company added that the opening of GAIL’s bakeries in the region reinforces its long-standing ties to the area following GAIL’s wholesale bakery which opened in Openshaw in 2017. It says it has since supplied high quality, artisan breads to some of the region’s top restaurants, café’s and hotels.
The new bakeries will create new careers for people in craft baking, specialty coffee and bakery management.
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