Family Place Restaurant and The Little Badger House join forces

You may have noticed big changes at the Family Place Restaurant at 1 King William Street.

A long-time community favourite for gatherings, breakfast, and family meals, the Family Place Restaurant and Pizza just got even better with a renovation and the addition of artisanal European bread from The Little Badger House Bakery.

Mary and Jenny Spring pause for a photo while looking after customers.

Restaurant co-owners Jenny Spring and Oliver Wolfe teamed up with Sarah Morrison and Sebastien Carpentier to bring fresh bread and great desserts for the sweet-toothed to the restaurant.

Spring said they had been thinking about renovating the space for some time and said she always had a vision of attaching a bakery to the restaurant “so that we can have the best breakfast restaurant in town and offer really fresh bread,” she said. Spring contacted Heinz at the Little Badger House, known for his amazing bread, and the connection was made.

Sarah has been mentoring under fourth-generation Master Baker Heinz at the Little Badger House for the past nine years. After deciding to pull back from the business that had been so near and dear to his heart, he wanted to make sure the bakery’s philosophy was carried on.

It was in 1993 that the groundwork for what would ultimately become The Little Badger House was laid, recalled Heinz. “I was in talks with a local school to create a bakery program when I was approached quite unexpectedly by the federal government of Canada. I was asked to draw from my knowledge of bread and pastries to develop a seminar that I could then bring to people living in developing countries across the globe. The goal was lofty but one I still hold dear to this day: to impart tangible knowledge and showcase flavors to communities, bridging barriers and holding a dialogue in a language that would resonate with people regardless of culture, language, religion or heritage,” explained Heinz “It’s this collection of experiences from the many years spent traveling–visiting more than 50 countries, sharing, teaching and learning from people across culture lines along the way–that have shaped what is created at the Little Badger House to this day.”

As a learning center, the Little Badger House saw nearly 3000 students attend classes and lectures on bread, cakes, and cookie making in the first few years alone. “With our doors open to children and people of all ages, we may have been one of the only learning centers to boast students from 4 to 75 years of age, something I’m personally quite proud of,” added Heinz.

As a food laboratory, the facility is home to state-of-the-art equipment with many pieces specifically tailor-made for the bakery. It is where he has crafted and developed new pastries, breads, and cakes for markets local and abroad. “I have always aimed to create bread that is healthy, appealing, exciting, flavourful and unique. Bread is meant to be created with passion, using no chemical life extenders, hydrogenated fats, or bleaching additives, sugar-free, low in sodium, and with ingredients that are intertwined in just the right way to enable a symphony of flavors,” noted Heinz. “To say the entire journey up to now has been equal parts humbling and rewarding would be an immense understatement, as every up, down, and personal loss is far too significant to be relegated to just a few words. I set out to honor them through The Little Badger House.”

Heinz is passing the torch and the tradition of baking with passion to Sarah, and the Little Badger House has also opened a retail space at Family Place. Now, the restaurant offers fresh-baked bread, danishes made from fresh fruit, delectable custard, and desserts like crumb cakes. You can also order anything the bakery offers right from your table to take home.

The Badger House doesn’t offer ordinary bread. The ingredients for these artisanal sourdough European-style breads are carefully selected and baked to perfection.

Oliver Wolfe beside the pastry counter at the Little Badger House Bakery.

“For us, it’s a dream come true,” said Carpentier, opening the bakery alongside Spring and Wolfe. He said his wife, the baker, is extremely passionate about the creations at the bakery, while he’s more like the public interface.

The bakery offers favorites such as cranberry and brie sourdough, cranberry pumpkin seed, and our favorite, the Three Sisters, which is made with three types of sourdough and is covered with pumpkin seeds. They also have a multi-seed and sourdough bread with olives. They also offer baguettes, burger and hot dog buns,

The Little Badger House also sells to Erika’s, Farmer’s Daughter, and Pizza on Earth in Dorset; this year, they’re also sending bread to Arowhon Pines in Algonquin Park and even to bread connoisseurs in Quebec.

The renovations look great!

The Little Badger House Bakery has a separate entrance but can be accessed from the interior of the restaurant.

This is a sponsored story.

Don’t miss out on Doppler!

Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!

Click here to support local news