PORTLAND, ME — ZU Bakery has only been up and running for about a year and a half, but its recent James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards win has caused a major swing in customer traffic.
Nestled in Portland, ME’s West End neighborhood, the artisan bakery was named the winner of the Outstanding Bakery category at this year’s James Beard Awards, held June 10 in Chicago, making it the second bakery to receive the distinction.
For a small brick-and-mortar shop — the bakery itself is only 640 square feet — receiving the initial semifinalist nod came as a total shock to Barak Olins, founder of ZU Bakery.
“Without really knowing why I thought this was the case, I just assumed we were too small and off the radar to be noticed,” he said. “It was a huge surprise. Ironically, I learned about it from our mailman at the bakery. He came in the day the names were announced and said, ‘Congratulations,’ and we had no idea what he was talking about.”
Every step from that point onwards — from semifinalist to nominee to winner — drew more and more traffic into the bakery. For Barak, who has continued building ZU Bakery for almost 25 years, this achievement offers validation for the work, risk and anxiety that go into starting a business.
“That feeling of waiting is incredibly hard … so to have this recognition is the complete opposite in the sense that it gives me this kind of security that there are going to be people coming in, and I can let go of that worry every small business owner has,” he said. “It’s almost a luxury to be able to do that for the time being.”
The bakery is adjusting to its new popularity, pushing the limit on what it thought it was capable of producing since winning the award.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around what the upper limits of our production capabilities are, stick to them and not go on a continuous growth trajectory,” Barak shared. “There can only be so many people working at a time without people running into each other and there’s a limited amount of deck oven space to bake on and hours in the day.”
The James Beard Award win for ZU Bakery is a testament to the work Barak’s put into his craft and also serves as a means to honor his family, from his wife and kids who work alongside him in the bakery to his grandparents who escaped Nazi Germany in 1936 for a chance at a better life.
“It makes me feel really proud,” he concluded. “There have been many times where I thought I made the wrong choice to go into this work. It’s one of those rare moments where I feel with total clarity that this was the right decision for me.”
