Abigail Hebert

Honey walnut, sourdough and country rye—the smell of fresh bread is a stark contrast to the snow that raged outside Brunswick’s newest bakery, Porteur Breads, this week.

Porteur Breads opened its doors to the public for the first time on November 12. The bakery is nestled in the Tontine Mall, home to Brickyard Hollow and Eveningstar Cinema. The mall is also the former home of Wild Oats Bakery and Café. While Wild Oats relocated to Brunswick Landing in 2021, Porteur Breads continues the legacy of bakeries at the location, according to owner Kyle Rogers.

“This building has [a] history of having bakeries in it, which predates my time here,” Rogers said. “People are used to having a bakery here, and people still wander in looking for the old bakeries. And we’re here instead.”

Rogers, originally from Iowa, has been baking all his life. He worked at bakeries throughout his time in college and continued baking after moving to Maine. Prior to the opening of Porteur Breads, Rogers worked at Nomad Pizza up until its closure in November 2024. At Nomad, Rogers had a pop-up on Tuesday mornings baking bread using the pizza restaurant’s wood-fired oven.

“I’ve been a baker for about 20 years, more or less my entire adult life,” Rogers said. “At some point, you’ll think, ‘Oh, you know, I’ll get a real job instead.’ [But] I just never left.”

During his time at Nomad, Rogers’s pop-up went by the name “The Bread Pedlar,” which stemmed from his love of bicycles. The name “Porteur Breads” was born out of the same love as a reference to porteur bikes.

The bakery is open Wednesday through Sunday and operates on a monthly bread schedule where they offer a set selection of breads each day. Some breads, like sourdough, are currently offered every day, and others, like Italian, only once per week.

“My favorite [bread] that we make here is actually our honey walnut. We do it usually on Fridays,” Rogers said. “We do a fruit or nut bread on the weekends.… Usually it’s just a little bit different from anything you’re gonna find anywhere else.”

The changing monthly schedule of the breads allows for the bakery to include some creativity while maintaining consistency. Rogers builds in time into the weekly schedule to be more experimental with the breads being baked.

“We’ll have a slightly different [schedule] for March, but Thursdays are the experimental day of ‘What bread do we want to try? What do we want to come up with?’” Rogers said.

Along with bread, the bakery offers a selection of pastries and beverages. Many of the ingredients that go into Porteur Bread’s creations, whether that be the drinks or baked goods, are locally sourced.

“We use as much local stuff as we can. We source a lot of our flours from Maine Grains. So it’s grown in Maine. It’s stone-ground up in Skowhegan. It’s very high quality,” Rogers said. “We get all our coffee from Tandem Coffee Roasters in Portland.… [They are a] little bit lighter roast, which I’m a fan of. ”

Rogers expressed gratitude in being a part of the community of stores and establishments along Maine Street.

“It is nice to feel like becoming part of the community. That’s what our idea is, and that’s where we’re headed,” Rogers said. “It’s nice to see Bowdoin students out and about and finding us and discovering us. That keeps me down this road.”