Night Moves bread
SOUTH PORTLAND, ME
Night Moves Bread was designed and built in tandem with the bar Lambs, both moving into neighboring sides of a recently vacated auto mechanic’s shop.
The journey to this space was a long and meandering one, with a few false starts at different locations along the way. All was not lost though, as ideas generated from each design iteration helped inform the bakery’s current design. And now that Night Moves has been up and running in it’s new home for over a year, it’s clear that this spot by the water was worth the wait.
This project took the form of an interior gut renovation, working within the existing building’s footprint and volume. The design aimed to improve the building’s overall energy performance, find flow for customers and staff within the tight space and create connection and views to the outdoors and immediately adjacent water.
You enter through a custom built mahogany storefront system, which replaced an old garage door. A monolithic counter with soft rounded edges runs the length of the front of house space where customers line up to order coffee, baked goods, bread and softserve, often spilling out onto the original concrete loading ramp. From the counter you can catch glimpses into the glassy milling room and bright bakery space beyond. In the bakery, which is closest to the water, tall ceilings plus two new banks of glider windows help the room feel larger than it is and give the unique experience of a working kitchen that’s flooded with natural light.
Through another new full light garage door you can glimpse the bakery’s huge 8’x12’ deck oven, which essentially required a room of it’s own. A long and narrow walk in cooler was slid into an adjacent courtyard space, providing ample storage for dough and ingredients, while a service kitchen tucked behind the coffee bar rounds out the space. It was a task to fit the project program into the compact 1,400 SF building, but in a fine orchestration of rolling racks, the space buzzes with the warmth of freshly baked bread and community.
PROJECT INFO:
Photos by: Myriam Babin Photo
Built by: Jimmy Rodney
Structural Engineering: Structural Integrity
