Burgeoning bakery group Gail's will open their second bakery in the north of England in Altrincham later this month. The famed London bakery opened its first site in the north in Wilmslow last month sparking huge queues of hungry punters.
Now Greater Manchester will be next to sample the sourdough loaves, cinnamon buns and pastry wares of the artisan bakers. Gail's will launch its first store in Altrincham, on Shaw's Road, on Monday March 27.
After Altrincham, the bakery firm will then continue to expand with its first Manchester city centre store on King Street. No opening date has yet been confirmed for that site to open, but it is set to be by the summer.
Read more: Acclaimed restaurant in a farm barn has been operating without planning permission
The new Altrincham Gail's Bakery will open on Shaw’s Road, next to Altrincham Market, from Monday, March 27. It will then trade daily from 7am-7pm and will include a full cafe offering including hot drinks, sandwiches, cakes and breakfast items.
Bosses say 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 has since supplied artisan breads to some of the region’s top restaurants, café’s and hotels.
The new bakery stores will create new careers for people in craft baking, specialty coffee and bakery management, bosses say. They also have long-standing commitments to local charities in their neighbourhoods and say a newly-established partnership has been created with Manchester-based EatWellMCR to allow the distribution of any surplus food to those who need it most in Altrincham and surrounding areas.
Prices in the Altrincham store are likely to follow those in Wilmslow - where sourdough loaves are priced from £4. There is also a daily changing array of cakes, pastries, croissants and brownies with prices for takeaway cakes ranging from £2.70 for cheese scones or chocolate cookies and £3.95 for the likes of flourless chocolate cake, sea salt caramel and banana and pecan cake.
The bakery was first started by Yael (Gail) Mejia in the early 1990s, serving top chefs and food venues. In 2003, Tom Molnar and a few friends joined Yael’s premium wholesale craft bakery and grew the business organically.
The team moved all the baking under one roof in Hendon, north London, to provide a better shared workplace for the bakers and top standards of food safety. In 2005, the team opened its first high-street bakery in Hampstead to bring its chef-quality craft baking and craft principles to a wider audience.
Over the following six years they grew the business with top chefs and opened seven GAIL’s retail bakeries in London as the general public and restaurants began to reinvent the London food scene, and the business has continued to grow and expand to outside London in locations from Cambridge to Oxford to recently Henley and Brentwood.
The bakery has also seen several of their products win prestigious awards. In 2022, Gail's was awarded fourteen Great Taste Awards by the Guild of Fine Foods, the most respected accreditation scheme for artisan and specialty food.
Read next:
- The little Italian restaurant that Manchester City stars flock to
- Work finally begins on £250m Therme mega water park and spa
- Peaky Blinders is back in Manchester - this time with dance shoes
- The 50 best restaurants in Greater Manchester right now
- M&S Cafes launch new afternoon tea - full list of locations
