Colgate University alumni Britty and Brendan O’Connor ‘12, owners of Flour & Salt Bakery & Cafe, have opened a new bakery located in the space that previously housed their full-service cafe at 7 Maple Ave. 

The Maple Avenue location stocks standard bakery items like breads and cakes, in addition to some specialty items. According to the Flour & Salt Instagram account (@flourandsalt), the bakery will also be used as the pick-up location for special-ordered bagels, pastries and other items. In addition, items the bakery sells will be unique from the cafe located on Lebanon Street, which opened last spring in the building previously occupied by The Rye Berry Café.

“Everything we offer at the Maple Ave. Bakery is different from anything we’re selling at the Lebanon Street cafe,” owner Britty O’Connor said. “At the bakery, we sell sourdough-based breads like baguettes, levain and buckwheat as well as other breads like rosemary salt focaccia, challah and whole wheat and brioche sandwich loaves. These are specific to weekdays so be sure to check the bread schedule to see what we sell when! We also sell whole cakes, cake slices, cupcakes, macarons, whole pies, gluten-free sweets, cookies and holiday-specific items.”

With the opening of the bakery, the O’Connors now run three brick-and-mortar businesses in the Village of Hamilton. In addition to the Flour & Salt Cafe and new bakery-only satellite shop, they also helm Martha’s On Madison (MOMs), a tavern and specialty store. As stated by Britty O’Connor, the bakery is another extension of the O’Connor couple’s desire to innovate the Hamilton food scene.

“We’re most looking forward to introducing more unique and delicious foods to the Hamilton, Colgate and surrounding communities,” Britty O’Connor said. “Not only does this contribute to the staff’s professional development by offering opportunities for them to create or hone techniques, but we also get to offer products that might feel like home to a customer because of their origin.”

Student response to the new location has been overwhelmingly positive.

Sophomore Aryan Kanumuri highlighted his positive experiences with Flour & Salt as a reason for his enthusiasm about the new Maple Avenue bakery opening.

 “Flour & Salt is one of the few great places for breakfast in this town and I am extremely happy that they are opening a new storefront,” Kanumuri said.

Sophomore Alex Greene echoed this support, noting his excitement to try new bakery menu items.

“I think it’s awesome that Flour & Salt is opening a new bakery location,” Greene said. “It’s my favorite spot to eat in Hamilton and can’t wait to try what they offer.”

The bakery has been a long-time coming. It began the eight-month renovation process in May of 2022 . 7 Maple Avenue had to be redesigned to fit the new needs of the space, and transition from a cafe-style layout to a customer-facing retail bakery.

“Our energy was focused on the cafe most of last year so the bakery was purely functional and not customer-facing,” Britty O’Connor said. “Over our winter break, Etna Enterprises (the contractor who has done nearly all of the construction work at all of our businesses over seven years) replaced the flooring, added tiling in the customer area, installed some retail shelves and repainted. The Village of Hamilton and Bagnall Electric also installed a new electrical service so that we can operate integral pieces of equipment, like our dough divider rounder and our dough sheeter.”

According to Britty O’Connor, the new Bakery location is a return to her original aspirations for the brand.

“This location was what I had initially imagined Flour & Salt would be, so it feels like a sort of coming home to a dream I thought had gotten obscured by breakfast sandwiches and coffee cups. It’s a real honor to employ our staff and operate our three businesses in Hamilton.”

According to their website, the bakery at 7 Maple Avenue is open Wednesday through Saturday.