It won't be just any bakery that opens up at the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy later this year. It will be a bakery helmed by Houston native Roy Shvartzapel, who was recently named one of the Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America.
That distinction comes from Dessert Professional, an industry magazine that recognized the country's top pastry artists at an awards ceremony at the Institute for Culinary Education in New York.
The 3,600-square-foot restaurant from Shvartzapel and business partner Brad Sanders — a Houston lawyer with a culinary background — will be called Common Bond (Leaven and Earth, the name initially reported when CultureMap first broke the news of the bakery in April, was a working title) and will serve pastries, fresh bread, gelato and savory sandwiches late into the night, with a full barista and a beer and wine menu.
"It will be a chef-driven approach to casual dining."
"It will be a chef-driven approach to casual dining," Sanders tells CultureMap, noting his plans for a professional bread program that doesn't currently exist in Houston. "We wanted to be a neighborhood place."
Common Bond will have Space Montrose — the locally-sourced boutique and gallery currently tucked behind Brasil — as its next door neighbor. Owners Leila and Carlos Peraza are seeking help with the build-out of that new spot through an Indiegogo campaign, and are aiming to reopen a few steps down Dunlavy by December.
Sanders said that Common Bond is aiming for a November opening at the latest. Stay tuned to the bakery's Facebook and Twitter for updates.
