Photos by Katie Noble

At Home.Stead Bakery—located in the historic Lenane building in Fields Corner, Dorchester—the baked goods, coffee, sandwiches and salads are made with locally sourced ingredients and are thoughtfully prepared, as at any good bakery. What sets this charming gathering space apart from so many others is the owners’ keen eye on their community. Regular customers looking for a nurturing bite and caffeination via Counter Culture coffee can be overheard discussing an upcoming fundraiser for an afterschool program, as well as national issues and checking to see who is attending the myriad events on the busy Home.Stead calendar.

Founders Elisa Girard, Vivian Girard and Jack Wu come from a combined background of experience which includes the arts, building and restoring homes and finance, respectively—an eclectic, yet effective recipe for a bakery with a focus not just on its location, but its neighbors.

“My husband and I kept looking at the space when it was empty and thinking, ‘Someone needs to put in a great coffee shop that serves this great community,’” said Elisa Girard. Turns out it would be them. “We were all in agreement when we were getting the plans together that it needed to be more than just one kind of feeding—we wanted it to be a place where there was art on the walls, where people could hear live poetry and music, too. So few poets have a place to be heard these days. We also wanted to make sure we hired from our neighborhood and were able to pay a fair wage.”

The walls are decorated with paintings created by local artists (the art changes every two months and the profits go directly to the artist) and flyers for upcoming in-house and community events. Each Friday offers a rotating roster of regular gatherings: The first of the month is open-mic night for music and poetry, the second for “paint night,” the third goes to story-telling (often voices heard on the MOTH radio hour) and the fourth welcomes a new music series— all organized by neighbors and friends. “Most people come from nearby, but sometimes we get people from pretty far away.”

But, the food—it is a bakery after all. All the baking (save the bagels and bread) is done in-house, fresh each day. Morning offerings include bagels from OMG bagels in Framingham with the usual cream cheese-related toppings, as well as the “Surf” (smoked salmon, arugula and avocado) or the “Turf” (egg and prosciutto), scones, muffins and, on the weekends, fluffy Belgian waffles.

Lunch features creative twists on classic sandwiches, such as an egg salad called the “Taj Mahal” which mixes in just enough heady curry seasoning to give a nod to Indian cuisine; the peppery bite of arugula and creamy avocado make it ethereal. The “Turkey Town” panino gets a crunch from the hot press and is filled with sliced turkey, rich cheddar cheese, garlicky mayonnaise and a piquant bite from marinated onions. The sandwiches are prepared on Nashoba Brook Bakery’s bread; the menu also includes salads and a daily soup.

dorchesterhomestead.com