Pearl Bakery, the Pearl District bakery that helped launched Portland’s artisan baking scene when it opened 22 years ago, has closed, according to notes posted to the bakery’s website and Instagram. Calls to the bakery’s phone number during business hours on Saturday and Sunday went to voicemail. A message was not immediately returned.

“We regret to inform you that Pearl Bakery will be closing,” Pearl Bakery president Jared Lester wrote in the note. “Although my family and I do not embrace ‘quitting,' we recognize that moving forward will not be sustainable for the bakery.”

The bakery, at 102 N.W. Ninth Ave., originally served as home base for Greg Mistell, the chairman of the U.S. Bread Baker’s Guild, former competitor and coach for the national team at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie (the World Cup of Bread) and the Pied Piper of Portland’s artisanal bread movement. Mistell, his then-wife Carolyn, and business partners Eric Lester and Chris Block opened the cafe in February of 1997 in a large corner space featuring a small cafe up front and a brick-lined hearth hand-built on site by a French craftsman in the back. The bakery would go on to serve as a showcase for sweet treats from former Pazzo pastry chef Lee Posey, and a proving ground for future Little T American Baker owner Tim Healea, who started as Pearl Bakery’s first intern.

In its pomp, the Pearl District bakery represented the crest of a wave of better bakeries that sought to improve Portland’s once-moribund bread scene, including Grand Central Bakery, Marsee Baking and Delphina’s, the Northeast Portland pioneer where Mistell also baked. Pearl Bakery would rule as Portland’s signature bread bakery for a half a decade, a reputation that lasted past the opening of Ken’s Artisan Bakery in 2001 and at least until Mistell left Pearl Bakery after a contentious divorce and bankruptcy in the mid-2000s. (Mistell would rebound with Fleur de Lis, his bakery inside the former Hollywood neighborhood library at 3930 N.E. Hancock St., in 2006.)

And while most raved about the green olive focaccia and morning brioche, the bakery wasn’t only about the bread. Early reviews raved about everything from Posey’s brownies and cookies to the fig-anise panini rolls to the sandwiches made, of course, using fresh-baked bread. And Pearl Bakery hung on as one of Portland’s better bakeries for all of its 22 years -- their butter croissant landed just outside our top 10 in our recent ranking (I had them at No. 11, neck-and-neck with their compatriots at Grand Central), and their rolls and baguettes are still used at sandwich shops and restaurants throughout the city. At least, that is, until Tuesday, Dec. 10, when Pearl Bakery plans to make its last wholesale deliveries.

-- Michael Russell

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