BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Corey Hinkel started making bread because he loves food. Sweet food, savory food, it doesn't matter; he loves natural, simple food. But bread was different; there was just something so romantic about it.

But he's come a long way since he was a teenager working at a small bakery in Nebraska - he's planning to open his first storefront at 2408 7th Ave. S. by Thanksgiving.

"You try to get away from it, and I just kept going back to it," Hinkel said. "There's something romantic about creating something out of just three ingredients."

You might recognize Hinkel and Brooks Taylor from the Pepper Place farmer's market where they sell their bread every Saturday. Hinkel has been selling at the market for the last four years, but they've been selling as Birmingham Breadworks since July. The new bakery will open under the same name.

The owners have been baking out of the former antique shop for about three weeks, but construction started in January. Before having their own kitchen, they used other group's kitchens - which meant many nights spent baking while others slept.

But working around other group's schedules lowered the barrier to entry. Like some Birmingham restaurants like Melt and Hook started as food trucks, starting at markets allowed Hinkel to build a customer base without all the capital investment of a brick and mortar restaurant.

Though Breadworks will focus on bread, pastries and coffee, he said the offerings will change regularly.

Taylor said Breadworks trying out different ingredients, but eventually he hopes Breadworks will use exclusively organic ingredients. But it's about quality, he said - Breadworks isn't aiming to be trendy.

"We'll probably never do gluten free. One, it's difficult to do production and separate gluten-free. Two, most people who are doing gluten free don't need to do gluten free. For very few people is it a medical necessity," Taylor said. "We're a bakery. We use gluten."

Taylor and Hinkel both said French bread is one of their favorite things to bake. It's a simple staple, but one they've been working on perfecting for years.

"There are so many variables," Taylor said. "For me, bread is about something that you share with friends. If it's okay bread, then it's okay, but if it's good bread then everybody comments."