Less than a year after opening in Upper Arlington, Littleton’s Market is expanding, taking over the longtime Omega Artisan Baking space in the southwest corner of downtown North Market!
Littleton’s Market Bakery occupies the large corner where Omega has been baking breads, cinnamon rolls and scones for more than 20 years. The space has been transformed to reflect the Littleton brand.
Now the windows are full of gorgeous pastries and breads!
Market Bakery is helmed by head pastry chef Aaron Close on the pastry side and executive baker Desi Vazquez. Aaron will be familiar to visitors to Columbus from his time in local restaurants, starting the pastry program at Parable Coffee and now as the pastry chef at Littleton’s.
Aaron said he’ll keep 25 different pastries lined up in the boxes, from croissants to scones to these cookie/tart hybrids.
It became famous for entering the trend of round croissants, also known as supreme croissants. It will usually have three large and two small varieties, with the flavors changing seasonally.
He also mixes it up between sweet and savory bites. On our last visit, we saw ham and cheese croissants, sweet corn croissants, and asparagus and cheese tarts.
Desi brings years of experience working for Whole Foods, Rocky Mountain Regional Bread Program, San Francisco Baking Institute and Breadman Baking Company in Houston.
It includes sourdough breads for their program.
And she uses a new Polin oven that allows her to bake 100 loaves at a time.
During our visit, she talked about how ovens formed the center of communities thousands of years ago, with locals bringing their own dough to a communal oven to bake. She appreciates how Market Bakery’s oven is visible to guests. “I want to bring the oven back to the center of the community,” she said.
And indeed, she already pumps out a variety of gorgeous breads, many of which use ancient grains.
Between the expert pastries and breads, I think Littleton’s Market Bakery will become a hit with the community. I love how residents and visitors relate to Aaron and Desi’s work in the North Market.
Aaron is also great at keeping up with confectionery trends around the world and he brings a lot of new ideas to Columbus.
And it’s all delicious to boot!
Littleton’s Market Bakery will debut on Friday, August. 30.
Littleton’s Market Bakery
59 Spruce St. (inside Severniya Pazar)
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Web: littletonsmarket.com/littletons-market-bakery
FB: Littleton Market
IG: @littletonsmarket