• Coming Attractions

Temple Pastries Is Growing, and Getting Into Pizza

The acclaimed Central District bakery has big plans

As anyone who has braved its weekend morning lines knows, there’s a pretty overwhelming demand for Temple Pastries’ cruffins, croissants, and seasonal goodies. But rest assured, owner Christina Wood is working to try to keep up with that demand, which is why the Central District–based bakery is expanding into the space next door — a move that Wood says will allow Temple to go beyond pastries to bread and even pizza.

In an email to Eater Seattle, Wood says that Temple is taking over the space formerly occupied byOaky’s Tex-Mex, which opened in 2021 but since closed. “We are joining the two spaces to be one large kitchen space,” Woods says. “We have already installed a bread deck oven, and our new bread program has gotten off to a good start with country sourdough mini loaves that include whole wheat, rye, and Trailblazer flour from Cairnspring Mills, and baguettes made with spelt flour from Chimacum Valley Grainery.”

The bread is already available daily at Temple, but Wood has bigger ambitions — she wants to start making ice cream and selling it out of the sliding windows of the former Oaky’s. As soon as work in that space is done, which could be as early as the end of October, Wood plans to be offering soft serve, with ice cream bars and pints available further down the line. Around next February, Wood hopes to be serving sandwiches on Temple bread.

Temple was already a growing bakery. It recently made its pastries available at the Roosevelt location of partnerBroadcast Coffee, and you can also find its delectable jawns at Milstead and Co. and probably other pastry cases we’re unaware of.

Even further down the line are plans to transform Temple into a pizza restaurant called Sacco Bosco after the bakery closes each day. “We will offer whole pizzas for dine-in or take-out, a tiny menu of small plates, wine and beer (possibly amaro!), and of course Italian desserts like maritozzi, adffogato, and tiramisu,” Woods says. “We are hoping to open this by spring 2024.”

Temple isn’t the first bakery to make the move into pizza. The pizza by the slice at the Schumann brothers’ Sea Wolf and Oxbow bakeries is an underrated go-to lunch, and Bake Shop in Uptown serves pizza every Friday after 5 p.m. Bakers from the dearly departed London Plane have turned Post Alley Pizza into a genuine destination, and recently expanded intoFremont with Tivoli. Is pizza really just a savory pastry? Sound off in the comments below. (Comments have been disabled on this site for a long time.)

• Coming Attractions
• Seattle Restaurant News