Hot Bread Kitchen

:)
Killer msemens & bialys, and that is that.
Great service.
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I have to preface this review by saying I love Hot Bread Kitchen’s product and their mission. I’ve never gotten bread from them that I didn’t enjoy. But this Unilocal page is for their brick-​and-​mortar location in La Marqueta, so I will be reviewing that. I hate writing this because the girls that work there are sweet, but this place is, to quote a previous review, «an operational disaster». Is it because they are putting so much effort into the greater reaches of the organization that they can’t be bothered to do anything with this little counter?
The coffee is terrible. It’s 2016 and they don’t have any non-​dairy milk for those that are lactose intolerant or dairy-​free. It’s often stale.
The sandwiches are prepared differently every single time I go — training the counter staff on consistency does not seem to be a priority.
I’ve shown up an hour past opening and no one was there, and the security guard who works in La Marqueta could only give me a shrug.
*HBK! COME ON!* Having a stall like this in La Marqueta is incredibly important for this neighborhood. You could have the best coffee and snacks in the neighborhood — your product is already fantastic! You are clearly the only destination stall in La Marqueta, make it count! It’s offensive that us East Harlem residents are treated to this when you are clearly putting so much more effort into how the product is marketed at the Greenmarkets! Some suggestions:
— Get a locally roasted coffee! What about Uptown Roasters?
— Update your menu and teach the staff how to make an avocado toast! (If you’re gonna have avocado toast on your menu, it’s weird to serve it as a mashed avocado sandwich served between two cold slices of bread. Virtually unheard of.)
— That amazing jam you’re selling below the register? Can you serve it on one of your amazing breads?
— Offer slices of all of your product! This is your flagship. Allow people to try everything you make so they will remember how amazing the bread is and buy it the next time they pass through a market. Offer slices for $ 2, even, toasted with butter. Anything that allows us to taste your product without having to turn it into a grilled cheese.

i love the concept behind this project — a non-​profit incubator for women from many different parts of the world to develop their recipes. all of the baked goods i have tried are amazing. they also give things out for donate-​what-​you-​can after 3pm.

I have never been to the brick-​and-​mortar bakery/​shop so this is a review of HBK’s products and delivery service. I don’t know anything about the coffee or their counter service.
BUT THE BREAD. Before my wedding I started methodically going through all my favorite challahs in the city and trying all the ones I’d heard good things about but never gotten around to myself… HBK was far and away my favorite challah in New York. I’m not going to say a bad word about any other bakeries — and hey, there’s non shortage of good bread here — but I liked Hot Bread Kitchen’s original challah enough to order more than 20 loaves of it for my wedding and everyone loved it. I still buy a loaf almost every Friday at the Union Square or Rock Center greenmarket.
Also, they delivered our wedding loaves free of charge, fresh and delicious. Great service, great prices (when ordering a bunch at once), great freaking bread.

I regret waiting to try HBK until I visited their production/​retail location up here, as they offer no benefits over the greenmarket outposts (couldn’t slice? really… stuff advertised outside produced elsewhere and prepackaged… bread not hot, and some even packaged*), and even offered the added downside of the aroma of a burnt grilled cheese on a panini press. They get a pity extra/​3^rd star for the friendly staff, the product, and the mission of the business, but an operational disaster.
I’ll grab a bialy next time I’m in the U Sq greenmarket instead.
*Pay what you can after 2 for the unbagged items because they’ll be donated otherwise. The rest lives to see another day.
Challah Traditional Braid — Pk
$ 5.50
Nan-​E Qandi
A rich, creamy persian sweetbread made with milk and honey. Ideal fr breakfasts or afternoon tea.
$ 3.00
Pepita Multigrain Loaf
The perfect sandwich bread proudly made with organic NYS wheat flour, wheat germ and brown rice, our multigrain loaf is one of our most…
$ 5.00
Grindstone Rye
Our take on a traditional German Vollkornbrot, this exceptionally moist and hearty rye is packed with local flour, whole grains and seeds…
$ 6.00
Total
$ 19.50

Hot Bread Kitchen makes really great breads, and is a great nonprofit incubator. The grindstone rye, raisin breads, pepita whole wheat, conchas, and bialys are favorites. I treat their La Marqueta outpost as a bakery, not a café, so that’s what the review is for. Name your own price on loaves after 2pm.

I heard of Hot Bread Kitchen through their kickstarter. I was really excited to support such a great not for profit cause! As park of my reward for backing them I got the classic corn rye and grindstone rye. They were both DELICIOUS! I invited friends over to help me with the bread and we made a grilled cheese party out of it. The grindstone rye with brie, apples, and balsamic vinaigrette was my favorite creation.
The price point may seem high, but think of the higher premium as a donation. And the bread is AMAZING!

Breads are exceptional. Most if not all made on premises in the kitchen in back of La Marqueta.
We tried the m’smen, ciabatta, raisin roll, grilled cheese sandwich — everything was delicious and fresh.
And I love the social mission of empowering women from many cultures.
An amazing addition to East Harlem and worth a trip from any NYC neighborhood.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR COFFEE ONLY! The bread is amazing but I just am going to review my latte.
When I pay $ 3.50 for a latte I expect that the high price is paying for a quality machine, beans, and barista. None of those things are present at the coffee bar here.
Their machine is a standard Williams-​Sonoma Breville at-​home espresso machine which any coffee person worth their wits knows does not brew real espresso. It also does not steam the milk appropriately for a latte. So even though I ordered a latte, I got a bad cappuccino.
They don’t have a sweetener station so the barista/​counter person asks your preference and puts it in herself. She made mine too sweet.
Speaking of the counter person… she was lovely and recommended wonderful breads but she really didn’t know anything about coffee. I asked her what roaster they used and she didn’t know.
When will they open a decent espresso place in El Barrio?

I got bread here, but sadly, it wasn’t hot.
It was still pretty good though. This place is a little counter in the larger La Marqueta building, which is just like the Essex St. Market, and even has a Beurre & Sel cookie counter just like it.
They have a bunch of different kinds of bread, as well as two different kinds of sandwiches, one of which they were didn’t have. The other option was a grilled cheese, so instead I went for some Peanut Butter on Walnut Raisin Bread ($ 2.50). Peanut butter can pretty much make anything taste amazing, so I wasn’t really that impressed that this little sandwich happened to taste good. It was still disappointing though that the bread was not hot.
The bread here all looks really good. I guess I might be more inclined to come back if I could try a sandwich or some kind of bread that lives up to the name of the place.

Stopped in today with the intention of getting a baguette and a latte. I saw that the baguettes were $ 4 (a little too rich for my blood considering they’re $ 2 at fairway) so I just got a latte, $ 3.50. The latte was decent but I probably wouldn’t go here for coffee again. The reason I gave this place high marks is because there really isn’t any other place like it in the neighborhood. I just wish that their coffee was a little better and bread was a little cheaper.

If you know me, you know that in a previous life, I was the Pilsbury Dough Boy. Why? It’s simple; I love me some hot bread.
The name here says it all.
Hot, delicious bread baked on premise by a fantastic group of culinary, philanthropic individuals, all with a smiling face to boot.
If you find yourself around La Marqueta with a hankering for carbs… Be sure to grab a bialy and a hot apple cider and enjoy life the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
Crumb on my face?

It’s a very small café located at the front of the La Marqueta market (lots of history here). It’s underneath the raised rail road tracks. It is the café part of the bakery, which is located at the back, It has a beautiful view and free WiFi. Lastly and MOST importantly it is a non profit that is focused on helping the community.

For whatever reason, there are two Unilocal places for the Hot Bread Kitchen, and they do not link to each other. I added the business soon after it opened up, and reviewed it after a few tries:
Since this is the place that Unilocal is sending Unilocalers, here is my review:
This is a new bakery in the neighborhood! Fantastic source for artisanal bread, baked daily from baguettes, to sourdough bread, to multigrain bread, to challah, to bialys, to tortillas, and much more. Really fantastic quality bread that until now had been only available wholesale in some of the fanciest NY restaurants. Try it! Support it! To boot, it is a non-​profit!
It’s on your left when you enter La Marketa.

Hot Bread Kitchen now has its own store! If you can’t make it to one of their greenmarkets, here is another location to find a full selection of their breads. They also have a small menu that of hot foods (including daily lunch specials).
The Tuesday lunch is currently tlacoyos (described as like a Mexican empanada); the mushroom one was flavorful and not fried or heavy at all. Definitely add the sauce and cheese. From the breakfast menu, the Bialy al Burrio is a tasty take on a more traditional egg-​and-​cheese preparation.
This is a small, casual, friendly space with a few small tables for seating. If you’re in the neighborhood, it’s worth a stop. This also is a great place to try products from participants in their culinary business incubator program.

On Saturday mornings, Fort Greene has a local farmer’s market right at the mouth of Fort Greene Park. When I am up early, I always make it a point to go to the Farmer’s Market and pick up some seasonal fruits and vegetables.
I always find myself admiring HBK’s breads. I mill around their counter and always end up buying some bread. This morning, I chose two raisin walnut rolls and also the Moroccan M’smen. I really like the M’smen. It is a flaky flatbread and reminds me of a Chinese scallion pancake minus the grease and salt. It is made with semolina, wheat flour and butter. I like to eat it with some dip and also with cheese.
They don’t have a store, but the bakery is in Harlem and they sell at all the local farmer’s market. You can go to their website and see where they are selling their bread.
Delicious, high quality bread with a mission to empower low-​income women. Social responsibility at its best. Does it get any better than this?

This place has incredibly lovely bread.
That is on top of their awesome mission to help low-​income women learn the skills needed to start a business and its focus on breads from all over the world.
The bread is not too expensive, actually, and they are made incredibly well and, they boast, «authentically.»
Wednesdays, they’re at the Union Square Market.