Hi Hewn fans,
As I write this, it is the day after the tumultuous events in our nation’s capitol. We are stunned and saddened by what we witnessed yesterday. We can only hope that our country can heal from both the emotional wounds of political discontent and from the physical wounds of the virus.
The stress of the past ten months is significant and real. We feel it, and we know that you do too. Every day it feels like we need to brace ourselves for the next crisis. Nevertheless, we soldier on, emboldened by the support of our customers, our hard working and dedicated staff, and our commitment to keeping Hewn open and viable both now and in the months and years ahead.
Looking back to our January 2020 Newsletter, I wrote, “We can’t wait to see what 2020 brings…!” Well, we could not have ever imagined what we would actually encounter. Yes, it was a bad year for so many reasons, but it also taught us many valuable lessons in resiliency and perseverance. It made us understand the importance of making tough decisions and pivoting from the original plan when needed. It forced us to embrace technology and implement new systems, such as online and QR code ordering, our red light/green light system for entry, and weekly COVID screening tests for our staff. Our skin also had to become a little bit thicker, as we had to deal with a few customers who did not like the protective measures that we put in place, or who took out some of their anger and frustration about the current state of the world on us. However, we were fortunate that the vast majority of our customers appreciated those measures, and even took the time to send kind emails or social media messages of support. And, it’s important to note and recognize that our customers purchased over 4,100
Neighbor Loaves over the past ten months, which were donated to people in need at the Hillside Food Pantry.
We are thankful to still be in business, and we are thankful to you – our customers – for your continued support through this crisis. We hope that we will all emerge from this challenging time stronger and more appreciative of one another.
Neighbor Loaves waiting to be packaged
All that being said, we do have some good news for you. The months of January and February include some fun holiday items and it is also a time for the testing of new items.
The three events coming up on the calendar include Super Bowl Sunday, Valentines Day and Fat Tuesday. We are making special items for all of those days, which are available now through pre-order on Tock. (Just a reminder that we use Tock for special holiday ordering and Square for daily online pre-orders).
Even if you aren’t a big football fan, the Super Bowl is a great opportunity to eat good food while hanging out at home. We will be making a wide range of items for game day, including hot dog buns, burger buns and dinner rolls, two different Hewn-made dips, Beer Bread, pretzel bites, pizza dough, take and bake gougeres and, for the first time ever….chicken pot pie! Click here to see the full menu on Tock.
Pretzel bites
Dinner Rolls
Beer Bread
Fat Tuesday items include our King Cake (with “baby” included) and raspberry filled Packzis. The symbolic bean or baby embedded into the king cake is important to Mardi Gras celebrations because the person who gets the piece containing the baby must host the next year’s celebration. Click
here for the menu.
King Cake
Raspberry Packzis
Valentines Day specials are a mix of sweets and unique bread options. Chocolate molten cakes and chocolate ganache tarts, red velvet whoopie pies and decorated Valentines cookies will all be available. Our bread team will also be making Epi baguettes, (Pain d’Epi) a pull-apart baguette is intended to look like a wheat stalk. Each little ear of “wheat” can be easily pulled apart, which makes this bread shape ideal to share and pass around the table. They are also working on a special “Heart” scored Blonde Country loaf. To see the full menu click
here.
Molten Cakes
Chocolate Tarts
New/Returning Items
The start of a new year means both bringing back items and introducing new ones. Many regular Hewn customers will be glad to know that several popular items will be coming back, including Bostock, Croissant Sticks, Gruyere Croissants, Mascarpone Raspberry Brownies and Olive Brioche. Our Bran muffin will soon replace the sour cherry coffee cake muffin, and marble pound cake slices, Savory Morning Buns and Savory Kouign Ammans will be added to our menu as well. Also, our Pretzel Bites will be available every Sunday starting this weekend! Lastly, due to popular demand we will be offering par baked baguettes for purchase online. We hope to have those available starting next week.
Bostock
Mascarpone Brownies
New items that are currently in the testing phase include take and bake biscuits, savory turnovers (aka Bourekas), and Pizza To Go kits. Stay tuned for more information about those items. One new item that is going live today is the
Chicken Pot Pie. This was a collaborative effort with our Pastry and Savory team, and the result is delicious! These pies will come frozen with instructions for how to bake at home. For the time being, they will only be available for purchase through our
online store.
Chicken Pot Pie
Don’t forget that you can come into the store to purchase items or you can order two days ahead for contactless pickup at our East Door. To place an online order through Square, click
here.
January Soup Schedule
(Comes Frozen)
Week of:
1/5 Curried Lentil
1/12 Chicken with wild rice
1/19 Tomato Basil
1/26 Potato Leek
2/2 Veggie Chili
We wish you and your family a good start to the new year. For more updates and news about all things Hewn, be sure to follow us on Instagram. Stay safe and we hope to see you soon.
Julie, Ellen and the entire Hewn team
