While we can’t actually gather to break bread together during these uncertain times, there are ways to sustain a sense of community and in turn be nourished—body and soul. Two of Atlanta’s favorite bakers, Erika Council and Sarah Dodge frequently held pop-ups throughout the city pre-COVID -19 and now they are making their baked delights available through pickup and delivery.
Erika Council, writer, recipe developer, and photographer runs the website Southern Souffle. “Praise the lard and pass the biscuits!” is her tagline for pop-ups across the city. For quite a while, she and Bryan Furman held breakfast pop-ups at his restaurant B’s Cracklin BBQ. The lines were always long and lasted until food ran out. A catastrophic fire at the Riverside restaurant not only stopped Furman’s smokers, but Council’s biscuits and cinnamon rolls as well. Shortly after a few weeks of The Bomb Biscuit at Inman park’s The Daily Tavern, COVID-19 put public biscuit sharing on hold.
Fans collectively salivated over Council’s bombbiscuitatl Instagram page, filled with photos of her golden-brown and pillowy biscuits. Mid-May hopes and dreams were answered when she rolled out Bomb Biscuit box delivery in metro Atlanta. Council and her team are hoping to expand, but right now delivery areas include: Buckhead/Vinings/Brookhaven, Lindbergh/Virginia Highlands/Midtown, Downtown/Old Fourth Ward/Inman Park/Grant Park, Emory/Edgewood/Kirkwood, and Decatur/East Lake.
The next biscuit drop is this Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13 with two different boxes and jars of Ginger Peach jam, made from Pearson Farms peaches. The Buttermilk Box has ½ dozen buttermilk biscuits with a side of ginger peach preserves. The Vegan Box includes ½ dozen vegetarian biscuits (not gluten free) with a side of the preserves. Pre-order your pickup via bombbiscuitatl.com.
Baker, private chef, and instructor Sarah Dodge has a following behind her temple to bread called Bread is Good. She feeds body and soul through bread subscription services and monthly pop-ups in Atlanta. Food is community for Dodge, something you easily realize when meeting her or following her Instagram. And bread is her favorite.
Dodge worked with baker Robert Alexander at Holeman and Finch Bread and under Sarah O’Brien of Little Tart Bakeshop. She ran the cooking school at Westside’s The Preserving Place and helped open the restaurant 8Arm, running the bakery and bread program. Through all of this, she built a fandom community around her breads and pastries made from local grains, zero preservatives, and natural fermentation.
On her website sedodge.com, she writes how in times of uncertainty we find ourselves running to bread. In her opinion, it’s because “it is rudimentary in its ingredients, in its process, and in who it can feed. Through baking and making bread available to others, she says we can “find ways to celebrate community, find simplicity, and remember those rudimentary things that bread teaches us to be grateful for.”
Bread is Good releases a new menu every Thursday at 3 PM with items including: sourdough bagel boxes, pastry boxes, pan au levain, focaccia, cinnamon rolls, honey seed granola, ready-made biscuits to cook at home, and even sourdough started to bake your own bread at home.
Sign up for emails and check the weekly menu/pickup locations at sedodge.com or Instagram at @sedodge.
