Dayton man’s homecoming leads to new bakery inside South Park Food Hall

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

One of the first secured tenants in the yet-to-open South Park Food Hall is a Dayton-area-born baker who returned home to share his passion.

Andrew Fisher is the founder and owner of the new Good Hands Bread Co. that will be located inside the South Park Food Hall at 735 Wayne Ave. in Dayton. The food hall will span the entire block between Hickory Street and Buckeye Street and is tentatively planned to open by late summer this year.

Good Hands Bread Co. will be ready to hit the ground running as soon as the food hall opens its doors, according to Fisher.

The bakery will occupy a 500-square-foot space in the rear corner of the building. At least four other businesses will join the bakery inside the food hall, including the CheezCake Lab LLC.

Born and raised in Kettering, Fisher has lived and worked in the Columbus food and restaurant industry for the past 10 years, the most recent five years being at the now-closed Baba’s in Columbus’s Old North.

When the homemade, breakfast and lunch restaurant was forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher, his wife, Morgan Shope Fisher, and their two young daughters decided to move back to Dayton to be closer to their families.

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

“The minute we moved back, I started baking out of my house and selling to St. Anne’s Hill neighbors of mine,” Fisher said. “It’s just been growing interest ever since then.”

Good Hands Bread Co. has already made its first public appearances at a few farmers markets in the area. On May 8, Fisher will make his debut at the 2nd Street Market in downtown Dayton and if all goes well, Good Hands Bread Co. will be there every Saturday through the market’s summer season.

At Baba’s, Fisher made sandwich buns and other baked goods from scratch. Since putting his bread out there, Fisher said it’s been getting good reception.

“I’ve always been really interested in fermentation as far as like, brewing beer and making sodas, and sourdough is just another form of fermentation,” Fisher said. “So I kind of naturally focused on naturally leavened breads. … I’ve been focusing on baking bread without using commercial yeast. I really like naturally leavened bread, so that will definitely be the focus of Good Hands Bread Co.”

The main component of the bakery will be the retail sale of bread at the food hall, though Fisher will also sell wholesale to a number of Dayton’s local restaurants.

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

In the short time since returning to his hometown, Fisher’s dough has already begun to spread throughout Dayton, as he’s given his bread starter to at least a dozen people. Thankfully, Fisher said, he has been baking long before 2020, but baking bread has seemed to pique people’s interest ever since families were stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Lending bread starter to customers and friends is something Fisher would like to continue once settled into the food hall space. Once opened, people can also look forward to possible baking classes at the Good Hands Bread Co.

The name of the bakery, Good Hands Bread Co., coincides with the bakery’s logo, a close-up photo of Fisher’s own great-grandmother making bread with her hands. A blown-up version of the photograph has been hanging in Fisher’s parents’ home his whole life.

Visit goodhandsbreadco.com to learn more about the new bakery.

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

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