Shaped, not stamped
Our bakers score every loaf and laminate every croissant by hand. It takes longer. It tastes like it.
Our story
We believe in
We believe in
making good bread.
That belief is the whole of it. Everything else — the pastries, the cakes, the coffee, the bakeries themselves — grows out of the simple, stubborn idea that bread made properly, with care and time, is worth the trouble.
We take the time to make our bread, pastries, cakes, breakfasts and lunches as we always have — with care, by hand, and according to the season. We’re ordinary people, but we want to make extraordinary things.
Everyone is welcome in our bakeries. We believe in the power of a good loaf to gather a neighbourhood around it — the daily chats with regulars, the queue that turns into conversation, the child sent in for a cinnamon bun. Though we’ve grown over the years, our philosophy hasn’t changed: make good food that people love, and build bakeries they want to keep coming back to.
How we got here
Thirty years of good bread
- 1990s
The Bread Factory
We began as a wholesale bakery, supplying London’s best chefs and restaurants. The name was a quiet joke — nothing about it was ever factory-made. Everything was, and still is, shaped by hand.
- 2003
A new chapter
Tom Molnar and Ran Avidan joined the business, sharing a stubborn belief that a proper neighbourhood bakery — the kind that anchors a high street — was worth building.
- 2005
Hampstead opens
Our first bakery opened its doors on Hampstead High Street. Bread in the window, coffee on the counter, and the smell that pulls people in from the pavement.
- Today
Over 170 bakeries
From Hampstead to Bristol, Brighton to Manchester — more than 170 GAIL’s, each one baking through the day. Bigger, but baked the same way: by hand, by the season.
“Second only to the love for our mother doughs, we take the most joy from daily chats with our regular customers.”
— From the GAIL’s bakers
What we hold to
Four things we don’t compromise on
Menus that move
We cook with what’s good right now — Datterini tomatoes in summer, quince and chestnut when the year turns.
Starters we’ve raised for years
Our sourdough begins with living starters, fed daily. Second only to our regulars, they’re what we’re proudest of.
Good food, going further
Yesterday’s loaves are milled back into today’s. Surplus goes to local charities, not to landfill.
Giving back
Our community gives to us every day. We give back where we can.
Surplus bread goes to local charities near each bakery, not to waste. Our packaging is recyclable or compostable. It’s not a campaign — it’s just how a neighbourhood bakery ought to behave.
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