JASON BAKERY

From a small artisan bakery and coffee shop to one of the world’s best bakeries. Since 2011, Jason Bakery has been baking sourdough, a variety of bread, viennoiserie and offers incredible breakfast and lunch options. As the pioneers of artisanal baking in Cape Town, they’ve featured in local and international articles, like Food Network, Travel Channel and Paul Hollywood’s Great City Bakes, and had visits from Yotam Ottolenghi and Australian Master Chef judges. The bakery was also voted as one of the top 23 Most Perfect Bakeries in the world by Qantas.

Starting only with 6 staff members and then expanding across three stores with 60 employers, now all the baking takes place at their Greenpoint store. Jason Bakery wants to keep baking great bread, cooking and serving excellent food.

Tell us a bit more about your business and what it offers?

We are a small artisan bakery/coffee shop baking sourdough and similar loaves of bread and Viennoiserie. We bake today for today. We also offer incredible breakfast and lunch options.  Our coffee is outstanding.

What important role does your company play in Cape Town, and abroad?

We are the pioneers of Artisan baking in cape town. Our little Bree Street store has become an institution in Cape Town.  It is also recognised oversees as being one of the world’s best bakeries

When considering Cape Town, what factors made you choose to start here?

Why Cape Town and what prompted the decision? I moved to Cape Town in 1999 from Pretoria partly for a lifestyle change and also to start my career as a chef as Cape Town is the culinary hub of South Africa. I didn’t think twice about whether or not to open the bakery in Cape Town.

What do you enjoy most about operating your business in Cape Town? What are the benefits of running a business/investing in Cape Town?

Because Cape Town is the culinary hub of South Africa we have a lot of Foodies both local and tourists that understand what it is we do and appreciate the hard work that goes into baking and running a successful business.

What are the highlights/success stories you can share since starting your business in Cape Town?

We started as a hole in the wall in Bree Street, with 6 staff members, a single deck oven and a rolling pin to laminate the croissants.  We now employ 60 staff members and have 3 stores. The original hole in the wall still exists, we just expanded into the rest of the building.  Now all the baking takes place at our Greenpoint store. We have been featured in many articles both local and overseas as well as the Food Network, Travel Channel and Paul Hollywood’s Great City Bakes.  We shot an episode at the bakery and I showed him how we make our Doughssants.  We have had visits from Yotam Ottolenghi and the Australian Master Chef judges.   We were in Wallpaper Magazine as one of 20 reasons to visit Cape Town.  We were also voted as one of the top 23 Most Perfect Bakeries in the world by Qantas.

What challenges, if any, have you experienced in setting up your business?

There are always challenges, it’s how you deal with them that counts.  Delays in builds and shopfitting. Power requirements. Delays in liquor licencing. etc

Have you had any interactions, positive or negative, with the City of Cape Town in setting up or running your business?

Other than the application and requirements for a Business Licence, no not really. They were pretty efficient.

How has doing business in Cape Town, or with City of Cape Town, been different to anywhere else?

I have only ever had a business in Cape Town so can’t answer this one.

What’s next? What is the future of your business?

Keep baking great bread and cooking excellent food. Basically be the best we can be.  Never get complacent.

If your best friend was on the fence about opening a business/investing in Cape Town, what would you tell them?

I guess it depends on the type of business they were looking at opening.  If it suited Cape Town then I’d suggest they look into it.