By Jennifer Campbell
Freshly baked bread is one of the best smells in the entire world, and we found one incredibly delightful-smelling bakery in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Serious Bread is one of the Gulf Coast’s locally owned gems. When traveling, you’ll find the best treats, tastes, and souvenirs come from local stores. As soon as we set foot in Serious Bread, we knew a loaf would be going home with us!
Old Town Bay St. Louis is wonderfully walkable! Serious Bread called to us as we walked from our B&B, Bay Town Inn (highly recommended), to our breakfast destination at The Mockingbird Cafe (also highly recommended!). It’s located behind Bay Books on Main Street.
At the time of our walk to breakfast, no bread samples were out just yet, so we stopped in on our way back. Honestly, the samples just made choosing a bread even harder! Everything they make is so delicious! The scones and cookies tempted us as well, but we just had to go with a huge loaf of French sourdough bread!
Serious Bread’s founder, Al Jensen, was once an oceanographer at the nearby Stennis Space Center in nearby Pearlington, Mississippi. Once retired, this oceanographer became “The Bread Man.” This new title became extremely important after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his family’s home and rental properties. Bread is quite serious when it becomes the main income.
A sign over the cash register reads, “Cheap bread ain’t good; Good bread ain’t cheap!” The slogan for the store is “All bread is not created equal.” More often than not, you get what you pay for in terms of quality. Great quality is usually found in locally owned shops and restaurants because it’s more than a job or a business; It’s a passion! At Serious Bread, each loaf is made by hand using traditional methods that include fermenting mixed ingredients for up to twelve hours!
The sweet employee informed us that the bread has no preservatives. This means that the bread is only good for a few days, so, if you’re not planning on eating the entire loaf ASAP (which we considered), you can freeze it. We were given printed instructions on how to freeze our prized bread. It’s now been sliced and stored in Ziploc bags in our freezer (except for those few slices that we ate immediately, of course!), ready to pop into the oven or toaster when we want a taste of artisan bread!
Stop by Serious Bread when in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area to find fresh bread, muffins, cookies, scones, and energy bars.
Disclaimer: Our Mississippi Gulf Coast trip was sponsored by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau, but choosing to stop and make a purchase at this location was our own choice. As always, all opinions are our own.
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