You can check out this latest article from Baltimore Business Journal about the commissary.
Some big news is baking in Columbia. Roggenart European Bakery, Bistro and Café is turning the former Hysteria Brewing Co. building on Berger Road into our new central commissary and headquarters, and we could not be more excited to share it.
This will not be a small addition. The new facility comes in at 11,000 square feet, joining our current production space at Savage Mill, which has served us well at about 4,500 square feet. Owners Nem Popov and Brody Tennant have been searching for the right spot since last year, and after working through permitting, they are ready to break ground in the coming weeks. The buildout is expected to take three to four months, and once it is done, this space will become the heartbeat behind everything we bake.
Right now, Roggenart operates 12 locations across Maryland, Virginia and Chicago. With this new commissary, we are setting our sights on 30. As Nem put it, “The key to everything is this new central bakery.” It is what will let us grow while still doing things the way we always have: from scratch, in small batches, with the same care every single day.
The commissary will also create 20 new jobs, adding to our team of 170 employees companywide. Beyond supplying our cafés, this space will help us show up at farmers markets in D.C. and Virginia, and we are looking forward to welcoming culinary students from Howard Community College to learn and bake alongside us.
We have spent the last two years quietly building. We returned to Baltimore City with our Mt. Vernon shop, opened new locations in Virginia and Chicago, and brought two beloved bakery spaces in Hampstead and Catonsville back to life. Nem called it “the year of our internal focus,” and now we are ready to turn that focus outward. New cafés are on the horizon in Bel Air, Baltimore City and the D.C. suburbs, with a Montgomery County location planned before the year is out. Franchising is also on the table as we look further down the road.
From our first bakery on Falls Road in 2017 to today, Roggenart has always been about bringing people together over something made with care, whether that is a warm loaf of rye or our newest creation, the Bunssant. This commissary is the next chapter, and we cannot wait to bake it with you.