Hattiesburg American
It all starts with a sack of flour.
“That’s where the magic begins,” said James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Martha Foose. “Every day I come in here and look around, and I think, ‘Wow. All of this started from a sack of flour.'”
Foose is talking about Loblolly Bakery, opening soon.
The brainchild of Hattiesburg restaurateur Robert St. John, Loblolly Bakery has been a year in the making. But the idea for the bakery, led by Foose, has been a dream for much, much longer.
“I’ve wanted to do a bakery for a long time,” St. John said. “I’m a huge bakery fan. Always have been. And I’m a big fan of Martha Foose and Donald Bender. I’ve been working on (Foose) for about six years, trying to get her down here.”
Foose and Bender moved to Hattiesburg from Greenwood once they accepted St. John’s proposal and have been here for the last year, testing, retesting and ironing out the details for the baked goods with St. John as the bakery was taking shape around them.
“I got into cooking by working at Square Books,” Foose said.
Her job back then was to read through the cookbooks that came into the Oxford bookstore, then cook something from them.
“I fell in love with cookbooks,” Foose said.
Foose’s career path became etched in the flour as she made her way across the country, working at various restaurants. She eventually began working with another James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton at Silverton’s LaBrea Bakery.
Foose went to France, where Silverton had gone, to perfect her pastry skills at Lenotre Ecole des Arts Culinaires.
She eventually struck out on her own and opened Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, where Foose and Bender met and later married.
The couple was recruited to open Mockingbird Bakery at Viking Range Corp., which brought them to Greenwood.
For the last 10 years, Foose has been working in the cookbook publishing industry, so she is excited about getting back into the service side of the business.
“It’s just been so rewarding how excited everyone is about the bakery,” Foose said.
In addition to baked goods, Loblolly will feature a dining area where guests can come in for a latte and muffin or an iced coffee with a breakfast sandwich. Patrons who are in a hurry can pick up something for breakfast or a casserole for dinner at the drive-thru window.
Some of the other items that will be on the menu include breads, croissants, cookies and cakes.
Loblolly will incorporate Southern ingredients folded into classic baking techniques, company officials said in a news release.
“Guests can anticipate enjoying sugar-lump biscuits, butter-pecan eclairs, and take-home items like cheese straws, casseroles and so much more,” the release said.
The bakery exudes warmth. Its walls are decorated with rolling pins, wooden dough bowls and murals by River Prince of Prince Sign Co. depicting the Loblolly logo and a colorful rainbow.
Employees are being trained at the bakery, but St. John hasn’t set an opening date yet.
“I don’t want to open until we’re 100% ready, until we get it right,” he said.
St. John has opened around two dozen restaurants during his extensive career in food service. Loblolly will be his first bakery.
He owns numerous restaurants in the Hattiesburg and Jackson areas, including Crescent City Grill, Mahogany Bar, El Rayo and Tabella, all at Midtown Market; The Midtowner at The District; and Enzo’s in Ridgeland.
Some of those restaurants will benefit from Loblolly’s opening, since the bakery will provide bread for sandwiches, hamburger buns, pies and other desserts to the local eateries.
St. John also is a managing partner of the Capri Theater complex in Jackson, which includes the Highball Lanes bowling alley and Pearl Tiki Bar.
The entrepreneurial restaurateur does nothing without lots of planning, even to choosing the name of the restaurant. For those who haven’t lived in the Pine Belt long enough to know, a loblolly is a yellow pine tree that is native to south Mississippi. It has a tall, graceful trunk ending in a puff of pine-needled branches.
To learn more
Loblolly Bakery will open at 3207 Hardy St. An opening date has not been set.
For more information, visit loblollybakery.com.
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