Baking is a passion like no other, and Hewn Bread bakery has arguably elevated it to a new level in Evanston, Illinois: an artisanal bakehouse run by Ellen King and her wife Julie Mattheis, this is a place that finds itself in – and benefits from – a welcoming and diverse community.
Hewn’s co-owner and head baker Ellen King may laughingly protest that it’s been a long time since her partying days in Chicago – “These days I’m just a suburban mom trying to get my son off to college, you know?” – but once she starts reminiscing, the memories come flooding back. “Single and gay in the Nineties… fun times. My favourite regular spot was The Closet on Broadway. Lesbians and gay men mix there more than most other bars, and most of my friends were gay men. Northalsted Market Days was a blast,” she says of the annual weekend-long queer street festival in the city’s Boystown area. “And we had Sidetrack, and Roscoe’s Tavern, all these dance clubs. Big Chicks was really fun. They’re all still open.”
Today, Ellen and her wife Julie Matthei run a small empire of neighbourhood artisanal bakeries, headquartered in a 650 sqm/7,000 sqft space on Central Street, Evanston, a vibrant college town in Chicago’s North Shore area, with two other newer outlets in nearby Libertyville and Winnetka. Hewn’s rolling daily menu of fresh-baked organic speciality sourdough breads, pastries and cakes has grown the business, from its 2010 origins in Ellen’s home kitchen, where her pre-school son Asher would help her distribute loaves to an “underground bread club” of around 100 friends and neighbours, to a well-loved high street staple in three communities that currently employs around 40 local people.
Moving back to Illinois after studying at a culinary college and a sustainable farm school in Washington state, Ellen was shocked to find that, in the very heartlands of American arable farming, high-quality locally milled flour simply wasn’t available. “There was no good bread here back then, no such thing as 100 per cent sourdough. I really missed it. So I started working with local farmers, helping them refine their milling process and so on, and now they are our suppliers. Grown here, milled here – there’s a real difference in the taste. And as a local business owner, it’s really important to me to support local farmers.”
And Ellen says she couldn’t have wished for a more receptive and supportive customer base. “Evanston is a really diverse community,” she says. “Northwestern University down the street contributes to that, and to making the culture here really rich, with awesome music and theatre. And the business culture is very independent, with lots of interesting, unique restaurants and stores. The support and warmth we’ve been shown by the community has been unbelievable, people here are really proud of their local entrepreneurs. It’s very humbling and we love it.”
Photography by John Lee Pictures and courtesy of Hewn Bread
