Heritage Grand Bakery, Grand Restaurant & Pizza Bar was opened by maverick restaurateur, Lou Ramirez, of Maison Kayser, Fig & Olive and former president of Le Pain Quotidien. Ramirez’s partners Luc Boulet, a Master Baker and fourth-generation bread artisan from France who opened 80 Maison Kayser bakery-cafés across 14 countries, and Alex Garese, founder of Wolkonsky Bakery, are all experienced veterans in the world of bread, pastry and restaurants.
Together, they had a vision of opening a bakery and restaurant that reflected their dedication to Ancient Grains and Artisanal Milling Techniques, with menu items that would showcase their unique grains, grown before the introduction of intensive, scientific plant breeding in the mid-1900s.
The 4,500-square-foot space is divided into two distinctive operations, Heritage Grand Bakery which opened in December 2021 and Heritage Grand Restaurant & Pizza Bar, which opened in April 2023. The 1,500-square-foot bakery is where the imported ancient grains from owner Garese’s farm in Europe, comprised of 17 varieties, are combined to create Heritage’s proprietary grain blend called Population Wheat.
Harvesting Practices: To harvest these grains, the restaurant is dedicated to employing regenerative farming practices, most notably, crop rotation. Crop rotation is the method of growing a series of different crops in the same area in sequential growing seasons, improving the nutrients in the crop. It is also a useful method for preventing soil diseases, weed problems and infestation of insect pests, as well as building healthy soils.
In turn, these Heritage grains contain an accentuated value in lipids and carotenes, which give the bread a cream color and offer a signature aroma, as well as making it optimized for baking and pastry making. Eating these “ancient” varieties offers several benefits, such as high nutritional value, ease of digestibility and low allergenic potential.
Heritage Grand Bakery bakes a variety of fresh breads daily. Executive Head Baker Mark Fiorentino (formerly of Daniel, Café Boulud) and his dedicated team of bakers arrive throughout the middle of the night to mill the wheat grains into flour, mix and roll the dough, and expertly craft the fresh bread each morning. Highlights include their proprietary Population Wheat made of 17 varieties of ancient grains that they import from Europe and mill on site. Heritage’s Hudson Valley Sourdough is made with locally grown wheat practicing similar traditions used for ancient grains from New York’s Hudson Valley.
Executive Pastry Chef Damien Herrgott (formerly of La Goulue, Bosie Bakery) curates and executes Heritage Bakery’s menu of delicious baked goods, including viennoiseries, cookies, cakes, pastries and desserts. Highlights include Pistachio Cruffin, muffin shaped croissant dough filled with pistachio pastry cream; Plie au Chocolat, buttery, flaky croissant dough folded and filled with vanilla pastry cream and dark chocolate chips; Meringue, sweetened egg whites with almonds; Apricot Danish, croissant dough filled with a mixture of pastry cream and apricots.
Heritage Grand Restaurant & Pizza Bar: is the adjacent 3,000-square-foot elegant dining room. The restaurant offers cross-utilization of ancient grains and population wheat in their Mediterranean-inspired dishes and pizzas.
Helming the kitchen is newly appointed Executive Chef Steve Pereyda (formerly of Aureole Restaurant, Rouge Tomate), showcasing a menu of wood-fired entrées and pizzas, made in dual wood-fired ovens, which are the heart of the restaurant; Grilled Octopus with smashed fingerling potato, roasted onion, olives, capers and parsley; Heritage Meatballs, beef & pork with pomodoro, ancient grain breadcrumbs and ricotta; Branzino topped with a generous portion of pistachio chermoula, served with a side of haricot vert and charred lemon, Ancient Grains Spaghetti—a vegetarian option— population wheat pasta with roasted mushroom and garlic, sprinkled with rich Parmigiano. Pizzas and flatbreads, Moroccan Spiced Lamb Flatbread, spiced ground lamb, pickled shallots and a drizzle of citrus labneh on a thin, crisp flatbread made from 100% population wheat; Thin crust Diavola pizza with spicy soppressata, fior di latte, tomato and drizzled with chili oil.
Dessert highlights are warm Toffee Pudding Cake served with vanilla ice cream; Orange Passionfruit Cheesecake made with cream cheese mousse and orange marmalade atop Ω`a graham cracker crust; Orange Olive Oil Cake with aromatic spices, drizzled with golden honey and served with vanilla schlag crème.
The bakery’s impressive Coffee Bar serves their exclusive signature roasted blend and single original beans from across the globe. Hot and Cold Teas are sourced from historic tea-growing regions in direct collaboration with the farmers.
The restaurant also offers a sophisticated beverage menu featuring a well-curated global wine list comprised of red, white, rosé and sparkling options, along with draft and bottled beers and creative cocktails.
8 W 40th St. New York, NY 10018 | (212)-419-9163
@heritagegrandbakery heritagegrandbakery.com
Bakery
Monday – Friday: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday-Sunday: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Restaurant
Monday – Sunday: 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.
