Flour Will Bring Signature Sticky Buns to the Square

With lines for Tatte Bakery and Cafe stretching out the door, students will now have another option for getting their coffee and croissant in Harvard Square with the opening of Flour Bakery this Tuesday.

The new bakery, which will be housed on 114 Mt. Auburn St., is owned by Joanne B. Chang ’91, who started off her baking career in the kitchens of the Leverett House Grille, where she baked chocolate chip cookies during her junior and senior year. After graduating as an Applied Mathematics concentrator, she started a career in consulting but soon realized her true calling was baking.

“I love cooking,” Chang said. “I love eating and being around food.”

In 2000, she opened her first Flour location in the South End. Since then, she has opened up three more locations and plans to open up locations in Cambridgeport and Back Bay in the coming months.

Chang said Flour, which features an egg yolk as the "o" in the bakery’s logo, strives to bring “simple pleasures” to diners.

“The whole idea is that having the ‘o’ as a yolk brings you back to the idea that all of baking is simple in that it is a couple of ingredients that are put together really well to make something delicious,” Chang said. “The egg really symbolizes what we are all about: simple pleasures that make you happy.”

Flour serves a variety of bakery and cafe items including pastries, cakes, sandwiches, soups, and salads, though it is best known for its signature sticky buns.

“We spend a lot of time with the bakers and cooks talking about what we call the ‘mom test,’ which is making sure that everything you make is something that you would be proud to serve your mom,” Chang said.

The eatery’s main focus is hospitality, Chang said.

“We want to ensure that every guest who walks into the door feels happier when they leave than when they first walk in,” Chang said.

Chang said she deliberately decided to choose a storefront away from the center of Harvard Square to attract more customers who actively seek out Flour.

“I think that being a little bit set apart, you get the people who want to be at Flour—you get the people who are excited about what we serve, people who love the food, and people who want to be here,” Chang said.

Some students said they are looking forward to Flour’s opening.

“The last two summers I’ve worked in places really close to Flour and it became part of my daily routine so I’m really excited,” Soa H. Andrian ’17 said. “I really hope it is not as crowded as Tatte.”

Sali E. Yi ’18 echoed Andrian’s statement.

“I am so excited for Flour’s opening especially because I think it will reduce the traffic from Tatte,” Yi said. “I’m very excited for the hot foods like the asparagus sandwiches and the soups. The pastries are just in a league of its own.”