Leavened Bakery

I fell in love with Leavened Bakery’s sourdough after ordering and delighting in Old Brooklyn Cheese Company’s tuna melt, which featured their sourdough. A good tuna melt is my obsession, and this one blew me away. I considered it the top tuna melt in town until they closed, which made me sad. The bread toasted up nicely and had a nice crunch. But I was determined to make my own tuna melt, even if it won’t measure up, so I sought out Leavened Bakery. Leavened is located on Auburn Avenue in the Tappan Building at the intersection with Scranton Road in Tremont. My father grew up right around the corner off Starkweather (they tore down his childhood home to put in the I-71 overpass). He wouldn’t recognize the neighborhood, which he grew up in the 1940s-50s. Leavened is located in one of the newer buildings there.

It is a locally owned and operated artisan bakery and cafe that features high quality rustic loaves and pastries as well as coffee(they use beans from Duck Rabbit Coffee), sandwiches and soup. I’ve been there several times to carry out their baked goods. I do plan to find the time to sit and chill soon and order a sandwich and soup. The sandwiches vary and are available daily starting at 10 a.m. They serve a vegan charred tomato soup every day as well as specialty soups occasionally, depending on ingredient availability.

The Classic Sourdough is made using a blend of white flour and local whole wheat and features a thick, dark crust with a creamy and chewy interior. It is phenomenal and stands up well to a variety of toppings and/or fillings. They can slice it for you in the bakery if you prefer that. I prefer to cut my own at home because it doesn’t dry out as quickly.

In addition to their various baguettes, sourdoughs, and foccacias (only available Friday through Sunday), which caught my eye, they serve delicious and huge hand pies as well as various croissants, cruffins, pepperoni rolls, and cardomom and cinnamon buns. I’m a sucker for their spinach and feta hand pie (photo below top left is on a dinner plate). The pastry is flaky and delicious, and the filling is plentiful and fresh. The hand pie in the middle row is a tofu paprikash, which was also really tasty. The coffee cake croissant (middle row left) was a unique choice and had a delicious filling. And they are known for their cruffins (bottom row), which are a combination of croissant dough and muffin. Made with croissant dough, this buttery pastry (which is shaped like a pointy muffin) is filled with seasonal jams made by local producer The Home Pantry and topped with confectioner’s sugar. As the website says, it’s “like a jelly donut but better.” The cruffin below was an apple butter cruffin and it was delicious. The jam was quite creamy consistency and had a great spiced apple butter flavor. If you try nothing else be sure to get a cruffin or two. They are phenomenal.

And pizza on Fridays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., which I managed to try recently. They serve whole pies and slices to-go every Friday: cheese, pepperoni, and spicy pickled veggie available weekly, with weekly specials available while ingredients last. I called that morning and ordered the weekly special, which was a pepperoni, sausage and banana pepper pizza. I’m not a huge fan of banana pepper so I picked most of them off but wanted the hint of banana pepper that would remain so that I could try the overall vibe of the special. Honestly, I actually didn’t mind the flavor from the cooked juice or the small pieces I overlooked. The crust was actually really tasty, and I enjoyed the leavened dough (see what I did there? LOL). If you are in the mood for a good pizza on a Friday give them a try. I will definitely be ordering one again.

Leavened is closed on Mondays and only open from 6:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well as from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. They are open from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays.

Contact info:

Leavened Bakery
1633 Auburn Avenue, Suite 1
Cleveland, OH 44113
(216) 260-1666