Kathy and Steve Stone have announced opening dates for their two Breadsmith locations in Wilmington, one at 5226 S. College Road in Monkey Junction and another at 820 Town Center Drive at Mayfaire.

The Monkey Junction location will hold a soft opening Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by the grand opening Sept. 23 at 6:30 a.m. The Mayfaire Town Center location is scheduled to hold its grand opening Sept. 25 at 6:30 a.m.

All of the proceeds from the soft opening will be donated to the Good Shepherd Center. Breadsmith locations across 16 states donate their unsold baked goods at the end of the day to local nonprofits and shelters.

“One of the things that spoke to us about Breadsmith was their commitment to community involvement,” Kathy Stone said.

The Wisconsin-based franchise specializes in European-style artisan breads and bakes all of its breads and sweets from scratch each day, without the use of any additives or preservatives. Each loaf of bread is shaped by hand and baked in a 5-ton, European hearthstone oven.

They utilize a programmable water meter and mixer to ensure that each of Breadsmith’s 300-plus recipes are prepared exactly the same way each time they bake them.  

“We’re strictly a bread bakery and we’re really good at it,” Steve Stone said.

That being said, Breadsmith does offer several sweet treats such as cookies, brownies, muffins and scones. The bakery offers eight “daily breads” everyday, with selections such as whole wheat, sourdough, French baguettes and rustic Italian, as well as several other rotating specialty breads. A copy of the baking schedule is available at the stores, as well as online.

Breadsmith also offers select specialty breads each month. For the month of October, they will feature pretzel bread, sauerkraut rye and a beer cheese bread.

The Monkey Junction location will serve as the main production facility, delivering daily to the smaller Mayfaire location, as well as to restaurants and other wholesale accounts. The Mayfaire location will bake it’s own selection of daily sweets.

Breadsmith serves and sells packaged coffee from Island Roast Coffee of Carolina Beach, and is also stocked with jams, jellies and preserves from Garnet Gals of Sanford, Cloister Honey of Charlotte, oils and vinegars from Brovelli of Raleigh, and pecan preserves from the Great San Soba River Pecan Co. of Texas, where Kathy Stone is from.

Both Breadsmith locations will be open Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

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