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Photograph by Chad Pilster
Making Baking: Thuan Nguyen makes sure there's fresh, hot bread on the racks every morning at his Campbell Avenue bakery.
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Rising Stars
Something's always in the oven at the Campbell Bread Baking Company
By Shari Kaplan
Situated in the end unit of an unassuming strip mall at the corner of W. Campbell Avenue and San Tomas Aquino Road, the Campbell Bread Baking and Milling Company could easily be overlooked by those not privy to what's cooking--or in this case, baking--behind the tall glass windows covered with banners that advertise the fresh, hot goods.
In existence for nearly a decade, the bakery came under the ownership of Thuan Nguyen about four years ago; his brother Hai Ngo helps out as bookkeeper. The brothers added several additional kinds of breads to the already impressive baked goods menu, expanded the espresso bar and added their own touch to the fruit smoothies in the juice bar.
"We do almost all of our baking here. Bread is our most popular item, but everything is good," Ngo says. Because the establishment has just one oven, he explains, there's almost always something baking and filling the shop with tantalizing aromas.
"Everything has to be fresh early in the morning, so we often have to bake at night. My brother is a good baker and he works very hard every day. Sometimes he works all night," Ngo adds of Nguyen, who got his start in the bakery business in his home country of Vietnam. After coming to the United States in the early 1980s, Nguyen worked under other established bakers until he was experienced and familiar enough to run his own bakery.
"It looks easy, but it's hard to make it just how people like it," Ngo adds with a smile. "You can't always just follow books that say this way is good or that way is good."
Greeting customers who walk in the door is a chalkboard that details the baking schedule each week of more than two dozen specialty breads. According to Ngo, the best-sellers include honey whole wheat, peasant white, sourdough, jalapeño cheese bread and apple/raisin and carrot/raisin breads. Other tasty treats include split-top buttermilk loaves, challah, zucchini bread, a multi-seed bread called "The Birdman," fruit pastries, cookies and fat-free muffins and cinnamon rolls.
Although the bakery enjoys a brisk walk-in business from regular customers and passersby, it also delivers fresh breads every day to clients from Los Gatos to Palo Alto, Ngo says. Among the best known are Whole Foods and Lunardi's. Although these supermarkets bake many of their own items, they also utilize outside bakeries.
The Campbell Bread Baking and Milling Company also operates a full espresso bar. The coffee drinks are available hot or iced. The juice bar--a summer standby in health-conscious California--offers smoothies with tempting names like Strawberry Surprise, Colada Cooler, Papaya Pleasure, Guava Ganza, Cantalust and Bananarama. Rounding out the menu are standard deli-style sandwiches, chips, iced teas, fruit juices and sodas.
Campbell Bread Baking & Milling Company, 1581 W. Campbell Ave., Suite Q, Campbell. Open Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sunday. 364-2253.
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Campbell, California
