by David Nitkin
Thanksgiving cooks looking for deals on day-old bread may be disappointed to learn that an iconic Baltimore source – the H&S Bakery Outlet in Fells Point – has shut its doors for good.
“However will we make stuffing now?” lamented Baltimore Sun columnist and writer Jean Marbella on X, formerly known as Twitter, posting a screen-shot from a Yelp page with a headline “Yelpers report this location has closed.”
A visit to 1616 Fleet St., with smells wafting from the sprawling main H&S bakery nearby, confirmed what social media had to say: the outlet store is gone. Signs have been removed. Windows are covered from the inside.
No more loaves at two for a dollar. No more discount brioche buns and potato rolls. Gone is the “one-stop shop for your bakery needs,” as Yelp reviewer Maggi R put it in 2019. “If you have never stopped into the outlet store, you should. The smell of baking bread will draw you in, and you will not be disappointed.”
The Paterakis family, owners of H&S and major landowners and developers along the eastern Baltimore waterfront, hinted that the outlet store had fallen out of favor earlier this year as they prepared for the opening of their newest venture a few blocks away.
As they assumed roles in the family business, a younger generation of Paterakises found the outlet store “shabby and borderline embarrassing,” according to the Baltimore Banner. “They wondered how the company’s only retail presence was ‘an old thrift store,’” as one family member put it.
That’s different today. While the outlet store is closed, a few blocks away is Kneads Bakeshop and Café, a large, airy space in Harbor East with a café, a retail shop and a 13,000-square-foot commercial bakery that turns out 171 different products.
“Go to Kneads to buy your bread, pies, and Thanksgiving meal!” said Kira Paterakis Nissley, a founder and co-owner of Kneads, in response to a Baltimore Fishbowl question (well, actually Marbella’s question) about where Baltimoreans should go for stuffing ingredients.
So we stopped by to review the offerings, and were promptly guided on an impromptu tour by sales manager Kristin Graham. She described with pride the equipment needed to create artisanal breads, including conveyor lines specially constructed for the business and giant mixers that get their flour from rooftop silos that hold 10,000 pounds and get loaded with vacuum pumps.
“Sticky dough needs extra love,” Graham said, describing why machinery needed to be specially ordered. “We took the old world and the new world and put it together.”
Employees of the outlet store found a new home at Kneads. Theoni Cornias, who worked for 20 years at the discount shop, is the packaging manager.
At the old store, “it was knowing everyone,” she said. Customers would tell her that their grandmothers bought bread from the store. “It is different,” she said. “It was more mom and pop.”
Kneads is a much bigger operation, with more than 130 employees. It fits in seamlessly with the shine of Harbor East.
Unsold Kneads goods are donated to food pantries and elsewhere, Graham said. There are no more fifty-cent loaves. The bread on the shelf at Kneads retails for $9 a loaf.
Perhaps you get what you pay for. Kneads bread has no additives or preservatives, unlike the day-old commercial loaves of Sunbeam, Schmidt and Holsum at the outlet.
The Paterakis family is not ready to announce its plans for the now-shuttered 1616 Fleet St. shop. But this much is certain: there will not be another outlet store, Paterakis Nissley said.
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David Nitkin
David Nitkin is the Executive Editor of Baltimore Fishbowl. He is an award-winning journalist, having worked as State House Bureau Chief, White House Correspondent, Politics Editor and Metropolitan Editor...More by David Nitkin
out with old in with the new generation and new technologies
Like anything …. Greed and Profits are the Guiding conscience of many Titans. That was a landmark and served the community of Baltimore for Many Many years, not the Rich but the less than average Baltimorian Family’s. Sometimes profit are not measured in a Board Room P&L sheet but by your impact on the Community as a Stewart of Humanity…Sorry to see this Epic Landmark closed because of Profitability or Charity perception by Golden Spoon Kids…
When the bakery outlet ope Ed it was Miss Liberty running it, she was the wife of Harry. I loved them both. She was so proud of that store.
Miss Liberty ran the store as Uncle Harry ran distribution . She was so proud of that store , it’s a shame the grands didn’t refurbished store in honor of all the founders as they were proud of all their hard work.
Alas! Another piece of old Baltimore (and the Point ) is gone. The ‘Hard & Stale ‘ store was part of my Baltimore National Heritage Area Walking Tour of Fell’s Pt, as was the Meyer Seed Company. Let’s hope that the glitz of Anywhere, USA -Harbor East, does not infiltrate this empty store.
I loved the old bread outlet. For years I was a regular. But didn’t it close a year or more ago?
It does seem to have been closed for a while — but that closing appears to have been unreported, and H&S now confirming that there is no outlet coming back.
With those prices, they won’t last a year, even the young yuppies in the surrounding gentrified neighborhood won’t pay $9 for a loaf of bread.
Greed kills…
Yes the family has increased their greed by closing the outlet and selling higher priced goods
I’m so sorry that this outlet has closed, and a little hurt that the Paterakis family thought the store was “shabby.” It was a favorite of my dad’s, a special place that we visited together after his chemotherapy sessions at Hopkins. My dad passed away from Leukemia in 2016, and I’ll always treasure the memories of those trips to pick up rye bread, rolls, and always a pie. The photo in your article brought back vivid memories of our visits, including the magical smell. This store was a part of Baltimore history and tradition, and while I certainly respect and understand the business decision to close it, it’s a shame for it to have such an ignominious end.
Thank you for taking the time to share this special memory.
Fresh rye bread, Italian loaves, sausage buns= the heart of lower Fells Point. Everybody has a sandwich tradition—hot dogs and ketchup, salami and cheese, corned beef, meatballs—both with yellow mustard. Anybody who has spent any time at all trudging along Fleet Street should know we’ll just have to get our dough elsewhere.
I honestly thought it closed several years ago. It’s a shame that it is gone for good though. I remember shopping there as a kid with my mom and then as a teenager and into my 20s while I still lived in the city. We’ve been living in the Middle River since 2005 so it’s been at least that long since we went there. I figured it would go away at some point but didn’t anticipate it being replaced by such a high end retail shop and cafe.
$9 / loaf of bread? I don’t need bread that badly.
I had Kneads for breakfast once. Those hair nets weren’t doing their job that day. I had a long black hair in my eggs. I have short blonde hair.
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