Small-batch bakery · Congress St., Portland, Maine

Portland’s bakery for people who set alarms for bread.

Naturally leavened sourdough, cardamom morning buns, and twice-baked almond croissants — out of the oven at 7 a.m., Tuesday through Sunday. We bake one batch a day. When the case is empty, that's the day.

See the daily case Order ahead
weekday sell-out is around ten · fair warning
This morning's Congress Street sourdough cooling on a wooden board

The Process

Two days inside
a Tuesday loaf.

Good bread can't be hurried, and we've stopped apologizing for it. Every sourdough on the shelf started as a jar of rye goo named Mabel — forty-eight hours before it hit the case.

Anna's hands kneading the morning's dough as flour drifts through the air
the 2 p.m. folds — flour tax included
  1. Monday, 6:00 a.m.

    Feed Mabel

    Our rye starter — fed twice a day since 2013 — gets Maine rye and warm water. She doubles by noon or nobody bakes.

  2. 2:00 p.m.

    Mix & fold

    Maine Grains flour, sea salt, water. Four coil folds over three hours, by hand, because dough doesn't care about our schedules.

  3. overnight

    Cold proof

    Eighteen hours at 38°F in the walk-in. Slow fermentation is where the flavor — and the blisters — come from.

  4. Tuesday, 4:00 a.m.

    Fire the deck

    500°F and steam. First loaves land on the rack by seven, still singing. If you know, you know the sound.

Anna holding a freshly scored sourdough loaf in the bakehouse kitchen
Anna & Mabel — eleven years and counting

Our Story

A Swedish recipe,
a Maine address.

Anna Lindqvist grew up above her grandmother Mabel's bakery in Gothenburg, where cardamom perfumed the stairwell every morning at five. She came to Portland in 2012 for the harbor light — and stayed for the grain. The bakehouse opened the following spring in a former dress shop on Congress Street: one deck oven, a borrowed mixer, and a jar of Mabel's starter carried over in hand luggage.

Eleven years on, the crew is nine bakers deep, the ovens still start at 4 a.m., and we still name-check mormor Mabel every time the cardamom buns come out right. Some things travel just fine.

0Years of 4 a.m. starts
0Loaves a day, one batch
0Maine-grown grain
0Starter — her name is Mabel

Custom Orders

Somewhere between
"just because" and the big day.

Cakes, office pastry boxes, and the weekly bread drawer — reserve through the form below or by phone. Forty-eight hours' notice keeps everyone honest.

Celebration cakes

Vanilla-bean, brown-butter chocolate, or lemon-and-cream. From $56 for a six-inch. Buttercream flowers, crooked on purpose.

Office pastry boxes

Dozen-boxes of whatever laminated thing came out well that morning — $48, delivered downtown by nine. Monday meetings excepted.

The bread drawer

A weekly sourdough subscription — your name on a drawer, a guaranteed loaf inside it, every week. $36 a month, first loaf on us.

Start an order

From the Regulars

“I moved my office two blocks closer so the walk past Mabel & Rye could count as my commute. Fifteen pounds later — no regrets.”

Sam R. — West End, Tuesday sourdough person

Find the Bakehouse

Follow the smell
down Congress.

Between the art museum and the good coffee place — look for the blush awning and, on Saturdays, the line. Come early; the case tells no lies.

Mabel & Rye opening hours — we close when the case sells out
Tuesday – Friday7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.or ’til sold out
Saturday – Sunday8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.the line starts early
MondayClosedthe ovens rest
Address
Mabel & Rye Bakehouse
184 Congress Street
Portland, ME 04101
Telephone
(207) 555-0122
Email
hello@mabelandrye.com
The glass pastry case at Mabel & Rye, fully stocked at opening time
the case at 7:02 a.m. — its best self

Set something aside

tell us by tonight · it's yours tomorrow from opening

We need a name to write on the bag.

A valid email, please — that's how we confirm.

Pick a day we're open — we're closed Mondays (the ovens rest).

Tell us what to tuck under the counter for you.

Roughly how many? Guesses welcome.

we confirm by email within two hours, while the ovens are on