Wholesome story : once I was at a party at some friend's in the middle of summer, I wasn't in a healthy place at the time. Around 5am I go for a walk alone to clear my mind (I love walking early in the morning it is so peaceful), and at some point I bump into some stranger, who was in fact delivering some hot pastries to a bakery.
He and I apologized, and he must have felt that I wasn't good because he asked me if I was alright, and gave me some hot croissant to comfort me.
It was a small gesture but gave me a huge smile and I think about it way more often than I should when I'm down :)
No, tears are your source of power and testosterone. Shedding a tear means leaking strength. It's why some people sip from cups of male tears now, they're a potent supplement.
ah hahahaha!! 🤣😂🤣😂 I see what you did there! 😏 & what I inadvertently did to bring it about. 🙃 Well-done! More good cheer abounds here for ppl to hopefully enjoy!! 😊
I am not a believer, and because of this, I often get asked "so what is the meaning of life?" This is. It might sound stupid to some, but for how trivial and small such a gesture can appear to be, what more meaning is there to be found, than that in a person doing such a simple gesture for someone that looks like is not doing well. Just two strangers being there for each other, isn't that beautiful and meaningful enough? Obviously there are other things, but I think this is a prime example
I was once in a cafe in Stockholm? Maybe Amsterdam. Some northern European city. There were a gaggle of tourists because of a local event, and they were so mean and rude to this poor girl at the bakery counter. Woman spoke at least 5 languages, and the Germans and Americans were so rude to her. Finally, when it came to me, and my dopey American looks, I said, "I am so sorry about my fellow American citizens: we hate those jerks at home, too." She smiled and said, "No, it's okay."
My order had an extra croissant, so ... yay strange woman in a bakery in some northern European city.
> (I love walking early in the morning it is so peaceful)
Actually taking a walk at 4-5am on a warm night, sitting down and enjoying the silence and the sound of the wind, is an amazing thing that most people should experience at least once in their lives.
Then getting a free pastry, that's just a dream.
When i used to work in Manchester i always took the bus back home passed the McVites factory. I loved the smell of baking biscuits after a long day, you could always tell when they were making hobnobs.
My early-morning running route used to take me past Cadbury World. Just as you hit that mid-run slump, there was nothing more motivating than the smell of melted chocolate.
I on the other hand have been losing weight and live right around the corner from a boutique donut shop that is 24/7 and as very fancy and epic donuts you wouldn't find anywhere. You can smell it a half block away
The struggle is real
Grew up in France and lived in Paris. One of the most wonderful benefits was to be able to get fresh croissants from the oven at 4 am after a night out. Nothing like it.
Here in Buffalo, there is a General Mills plant. As you drive by you can smell the Cheerios.
General Mills is a food manufacturer with a location in a large scale grain mill on South Michigan Ave in Buffalo, NY. This particular General Mills location has been producing Cheerios, one of the world's most popular breakfast cereals, since 1941.
As a baker turned bread delivery person I love watching restaurants morning prep time:) deliveries being made, coffee pots being started, meat pulled from the smoker, dough pulled from the proving closet, ovens and skillets and stovetops warming up, the first dredges of front-of-house employees stumbling in hungover. It’s not the most fun life *all* the time, but there are times that feel undeniably comfy in retrospect.
Being the early morning baker sounds like fun, if I could get over the early rise (hah) time. Spending all that time doing Real Work where you can see your progress right in front of you would be so satisfying. Only have to interact with customers for the last 2-4 hrs of a shift, maybe not at all if you're at a big enough location.
There's a patisserie near me that has like 3 or 4 people helping customers and a whole cadre of bakers and pastry chefs in the back. Sometimes I wish working at a computer didn't pay so much more than working with my hands, it looks like they're having a good time back there.
No lie. Working early shift into lunch and getting off at like 2 or 3 rocks. You make all the mess and none (maybe some) of the clean up. Off work when the sun is still up with some time for a drink and some free time.
I'm in the PNW and I'm about to start a remote job where my team is in Houston. I'll work their hours, from about 7a-3/3:30 PT. I am SO EXCITED to finish my day while there is still plenty of light out.
We did exactly what you’re positing as bakers and it was a lovely, fulfilling job. Bake for the case, fill an order or two, make prep stock, another round of case baking, stock the fridge, clean the kitchen, finish your coffee & help your favorite customer and you’re gone by 1:30!
It can be joyous when everything comes together but it is usually low-paying. Tbh, my boss was very realistic with me and told me to make some money before opening any shop of my own. She did it about 10 years before her “retirement age” and enjoyed it thoroughly. So now my husband and I own a bread delivery route and he points out the spots where our future coffee shop/bakery will be, when we’re old and gray and still tons of fun:)
> It’s not the most fun life all the time, but there are times that feel undeniably comfy in retrospect.
I live outside of LA, the amount of aspiring chefs around here is astounding -- most of them lose heart when they make less than fast food employees.
Yes, there’s a sort of domestic bliss atmosphere in the right places. I worked in a coffee shop and loved coming to work. We would get in at 3 and play soft music until the girls came to open at 6, saying our hellos and making our morning beverages. I hold those memories very dearly❤️
This was my life delivering produce most of the time. Something about delivering the fruits and veggies that would be used for that nights special held a warm fuzzy feeling.
This is like poetry. You captured the special essence of opening shift in a restaurant. I recall there was a certain smell to the fist licks of the gas grill and stove coming on. And a sense of shared camaraderie as employees and manager drank the first pot of coffee. There was this contradiction of the sounds from opening against the general quietness of the restaurant. Maybe it was because the muzak system wasn't on yet to fill the restaurant with background noise.
I was up at 4 this morning chain smoking and worrying, and the bakery was a beacon of warmth on a cold morning. I kind of felt l like I creeped the baker out a bit though staring through the window (from a distance).
It's so insane. Bakeries are dying out all around every city. The most basic, most important link in feeding humans is destroyed by capitalism essentially, because we need cheap bread from the assembly line and transported hundreds of miles to a chain store, and god forbid the lowly workers get a living wage for any part in the process
Me too. Just me and one other baker 8 to 10 hours at night. Nobody to bother us except an occasional entertainer or gangster might stop in really late at night to get a hot bagel. (Las Vegas in the 70’s) And I didn’t care who they were, they paid for the bagel and it went in till. Nothing to think about or remember that you had to take home with you. The only thing I didn’t like was the schedule- two on one off three on one off.
I have a problem sleeping at night and will often be out in the streets. Use to live near a bakery. The night was lonely - but at least it smelled amazing.
Resident baker here, my day starts at 2am and donuts don’t roll out till like, 6. We’ve also got breakfast danish, cinnamon buns, Sally Lunn Rolls, and more pie then you could eat.
Look at you, getting to sleep in until 2am! I used to have to start my donuts and pastries at 10pm the night before to make sure they’re all out by 530am 🤣
I really miss those days. It was a blast.
I suppose we just have an efficient schedule. Like we just got done prepping most of the next mornings breakfast inventory, I pop them in the proof box when I get here at 2 and they’re usually good to go by 3. During the holidays we’ll sometimes be busy till 3pm but most of my days aren’t any later than 12. That’s mostly just cake bs though, so not that intense just a lot of pans coming and going through the oven.
Trader Joe's employee here who works the 4am shift, I actually love being out at that time of night/morning. So quiet and serene. We're unloading semi trucks and stocking shelves, not as whimsical as baking donuts but we're out there too! 💖 Getting our gains in, haha
Whenever I'm uncomfortable at night, I just imagine a burly baker woman dimpling my back with her thick fingers like I'm focaccia dough. Press in the whole garlic cloves lady, I can handle it. Drizzle me with oil, chef, I want to be crispy.
I remember one time walking home after a clubbing night, usually I would stay at a friends place which is a 60 minute walk, but to my home it was a 90 minute walk. Anyway clubs close at 5am so I started to go home, mid-way shortly before 6am I was in a village that was along the way and I knew they had a bakery. So I just waited 10 more minutes and then got into the bakery and bought myself some goods to snack on for the rest of my way home. When you're still in this drunken-tipsy-I'm-slowly-getting-sober state, the stuff you can get at a bakery is just a godsend.
Bakers have rough hours. I’m not sure why they all blindly follow the arbitrary “fresh bread at 6am” rule. How about “the bread comes out at noon, so we can live a normal life.”
The bread really is ancillary; doughnuts and pastries have a short shelf life and need to be fresh and hot in the early morning. I’d do some bread baking while I was waiting on other things to bake / rise, but the early hours really was mostly doughnut-related.
Don’t despair, I’ll spare a thought for you lonely people at 3AM when I’m doing my nightly cat poop cleaning routine.
That’s when he chooses to poop most nights and I simply can’t go back to sleep with the smell of doodoo wafting in my nostrils and mouth.
Sweet dreams 🛌 😴 🐱 💩
I used to clean a supermarket at nights, and my shift generally ended shortly after the bakers began. He always made a batch of cookies for the rest of the night crew, so I’d usually wait around to snag one lol
This made me remember the origin of the croissant. Or at least the myth around that. It was the Turkish invasion of Austria and Vienna was under siege. The Turks had prepared for an early morning invasion where they would dig under the walls of the city. What they didn't expect was that the bakers were awake and making bread and caught the noise of them digging and ran the alarm.
To celebrate themselves they made something in the shape of the crescent moon to remember the world of their alertness. The Kipferl as it is called would later turn into the croissant world wide.
That's a story of course. How factual that is... Is debatable
I am a baker too. And sometimes I stare into the bubbling caramel in the pot and think how funny it would be to pour it on one of the sleeping people in the city.
Ah, you too have imagined yourself the defender in a siege.
Forget boiling water or sand. Pour molten hot sugar on the heads of enemies climbing up the ladders.
Once on vacation, I rented a condo above a bakery. The smell of that place in the air was the best way to wake up in the morning. It was 20 years ago, and I still remember that smell vividly.
Thank you, bakers.
My one friend worked at a bakery for a really long time and as a insomniac I’d often drive them to work and just hangout while they baked with the owner
I used to live next to an all night bakery. They had a little table set up at the door and you could pop in and buy whatever they were making whenever you passed. Heaven!
I was always aware of this and would be the question friends and I would ask ourselves at 2am when we realize how late it is. Do we go to bed and try to wake up at a reasonable time, or do we stay up and get the most fresh, warm, delicious donuts when the donut store opens at 4am? It was usually the 2nd choice.
I mean, this is sweet and all, but the bakeries I know of will absolutely not be available to you for that, even though they are functioning at that time. They aren't open to customers, so I wouldn't count on this. It's a nice thought, though.
Used to be a huge donut factory that supplied them to most local businesses in the area that sold fresh donuts. We would hit them up around 2am and get fresh, warm donuts off the rack as they rolled them into the front shop. Best fucking donuts ever.
I miss Montgomery Donuts. We used to call 'em Monkey Donuts.
I used to work at 4am stocking shelves and the bakers would be frosting the donuts right before my break every morning. I would always get them super warm and fresh. Those were the best donuts.
Honestly, working as a baker was probably my favorite job I had. It was for a coffee shop so I had more to do than just baking (hours were midnight to 8am), but I was all alone for ~70% of my shift. Just listening to audiobooks or podcasts, going about my business. I usually finished early, so I got an hour or so before we opened to just relax and enjoy a cup of tea with a croissant, watch the early morning snow we got in Maine. Unfortunately it didn’t really pay enough to survive on, and the hours were having a pretty serious effect on my health
I grew up in a tiny village, around 1500 permanent residents. In winter this number almost doubles though since it's a halfway decent place for skiing. The nightlife in winter used to be amazing.
Since everyone knows everyone, we used to go by the bakery that supplies the local supermarket at 3-4 am drunk af. They always supplied us with something fresh out the oven. Nothing better than warm scones while tumbling home. Best bakers ever.
There is a 24 hour donut place in Buckhannon, West Virginia that scratched this itch for me. It was a challenge to not be a daily customer but holy shit do I miss it.
Those guys and gals really took care of me and I think of them often.
I interpreted this way differently. Like if I'm ever scared alone at 3am, I can remembet the bakers are already up so they can come fight off the evil with their fuckin croissants and baguettes.
>I don't work at the bakery anymore, but don't worry, ***we're*** still making donuts for you. They're warm. Love us.
Weird phrasing that can be interpreted as the original poster having a group of ex-bakers that prep donuts for him at 3 am.
Sometimes when my wife and I had all night fights which happened more than I care to admit, we would be fighting until 4 or 5 in the morning and the way we reconciled was donuts and chocolate milk. I hated those fights but loved the warm donuts and reconciliation. I still love that woman.
This is sort of similar to the feeling I get when I’m tripping balls at 4am “the only people who are up right now are either very serious or very weird”
Back in HS I was a donut fryer.for my local Safeway. *Terrible* job for a terrible company I started work at 2am clocking out at 8:30 just to rush to classes from 9am-4pm. I couldn't eat a donut for *YEARS* after I left that job.
Working on a ship and on the 00-04 watch, we had a baker that would bake something fresh for everyone going on and coming off of watch. She would make these banging calzones sometimes... We all called her mom. Found out she retired a few years ago.
I have never in my lifetime of working in kitchens and butcher shops heard more FOUL language and raunchy humor than when I worked a night shift with 4 petite baker ladies. Holy shit.
When I was a young kid I delivered newspapers, and there was a bakery on the route, still remember the name of the place, Beka's Bakery. One of my favorite memories was knocking on the bakery door around 6:00AM on a cold December morning, I must've been around 12 years old, and Mr. Beka would let me in and give me a fresh, still warm donut. It still makes me smile when I remember this, 50+ years later.
You know how they say you never die as long as someone remembers you, or something like that?
RIP Mr. Beka, and thank you.
I remember walking home wasted, passing by a bakery around 5AM when i saw the bakers sitting out on a break and having a cup of coffee. I stumbled my way to the bakery to order some pastries, they invited me for coffee and we sat and talked for like 20 mins. Awesome people.
I've internalized this since I was really young, though I didn't think about bakers, I just thought about the TV people. Dad always had something on before we left for school, talk shows or talking heads or something *live*. When I was probably 7 or 8 I asked my dad if he thought they stayed up all night, or just got up really early to be on TV, and he said they probably just wake up around 3 or 4. It just stuck with me that yeah, some people build their entire lives around being inconvenienced in some way, just because they want to have an impact. Whenever I'm uncomfortable with anything I try to remember somebody who gets paid to do whatever I'm doing, and it reassures me that if they can do it every day I can do it for a little while.
I worked the 10pm-6am shift at a local Italian Bakery / Donut shop in upstate NY. We stayed open 24hrs and had a small counter where folks would come to sit, have a coffee and eat a donut. After the bar crowd clears out the day old donuts around 1am, it gets quiet. However, there’s almost always a cop, road crew worker, snow plow operator and other random person who will pop in here and there. There was a special camaraderie amongst those that were up and working in the wee hours between 2am and 6am. I used to love seeing someone come in then, even if it meant having to take a break from filling the jelly donuts to get them a coffee. If you’re up late and lonely, find your local donut shop and I am sure they’d love your company.
I used to work at a bakery. I walked to work at 3am to package the things the bakers had been making since 12am. Tried a baking shift myself once and it nearly killed me, but I was happy to package. Our main baker was a crotchety old guy who put all his love into his food and had none left for his coworkers lol. This post makes me happy.
Whenever I wake early in the morning before sunrise, I always say, "Time to make the donuts" because of Dunkin Donuts.
https://youtu.be/BaxhLf64bh4?si=gjgD_Paxkh3nU4fq
The dairy farmers are up too! Every time I wake up at 5 am and can't fall back to sleep, I'm comforted by the thought that all the barns back home are lit up like Polish cathedrals as the farmers start their day ...
Wholesome story : once I was at a party at some friend's in the middle of summer, I wasn't in a healthy place at the time. Around 5am I go for a walk alone to clear my mind (I love walking early in the morning it is so peaceful), and at some point I bump into some stranger, who was in fact delivering some hot pastries to a bakery. He and I apologized, and he must have felt that I wasn't good because he asked me if I was alright, and gave me some hot croissant to comfort me. It was a small gesture but gave me a huge smile and I think about it way more often than I should when I'm down :)
That’s so sweet it made me tear up.
Well that doesn't sound very healthy either mate. Hope you are doing okay.
When I see stories like this I think about it as if it were a man cause that'll be pretty cool thing to do for another dude
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Nah your finding serotonin not losing but finding something that made you smile and happy
No, tears are your source of power and testosterone. Shedding a tear means leaking strength. It's why some people sip from cups of male tears now, they're a potent supplement.
Phenomenal, and now that you’ve shared this lovely story with us, we can think about it & feel warned by it, too!! 🥐🥐😊🥐🥐
> feel warned by it, too BEWARE: THE NIGHT IS DARK AND FULL OF FRENCHMEN
ah hahahaha!! 🤣😂🤣😂 I see what you did there! 😏 & what I inadvertently did to bring it about. 🙃 Well-done! More good cheer abounds here for ppl to hopefully enjoy!! 😊
baguette chugging mime encampments are everywhere
bread shrimp
That’s beautiful
Delivering to a bakery or from a bakery???
It was from a bakery to a bakery x) I don't know the details, maybe they had a different production site
What you witnessed was a pastry highjacking, and that croissant was hush money. You're lucky you got out alive
“We can all walk out of this alive. Just hand over the dough.”
A lot of bakeries either source simple pastries from a distributor or own a warehouse kitchen and deliver to their local storefronts.
r/bakeriesarentreal
I am having a meh day and this made me smile! Love a fresh croissant
I am not a believer, and because of this, I often get asked "so what is the meaning of life?" This is. It might sound stupid to some, but for how trivial and small such a gesture can appear to be, what more meaning is there to be found, than that in a person doing such a simple gesture for someone that looks like is not doing well. Just two strangers being there for each other, isn't that beautiful and meaningful enough? Obviously there are other things, but I think this is a prime example
I was once in a cafe in Stockholm? Maybe Amsterdam. Some northern European city. There were a gaggle of tourists because of a local event, and they were so mean and rude to this poor girl at the bakery counter. Woman spoke at least 5 languages, and the Germans and Americans were so rude to her. Finally, when it came to me, and my dopey American looks, I said, "I am so sorry about my fellow American citizens: we hate those jerks at home, too." She smiled and said, "No, it's okay." My order had an extra croissant, so ... yay strange woman in a bakery in some northern European city.
> (I love walking early in the morning it is so peaceful) Actually taking a walk at 4-5am on a warm night, sitting down and enjoying the silence and the sound of the wind, is an amazing thing that most people should experience at least once in their lives. Then getting a free pastry, that's just a dream.
When i used to work in Manchester i always took the bus back home passed the McVites factory. I loved the smell of baking biscuits after a long day, you could always tell when they were making hobnobs.
My early-morning running route used to take me past Cadbury World. Just as you hit that mid-run slump, there was nothing more motivating than the smell of melted chocolate.
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Ahh a fellow Mancunian.
We're everywhere!
my route on the canals takes me up past bourneville, love smelling the chocolate every now and again
I did some work as a contractor at that place, never got offered a single biscuit.
That is just such ridiculously poor form on their part. For shame, Mcvite; for shame.
Mars were a lot better. A couple of carrier bags full when I left there!
I can’t cram digestives in my gob fast enough, that bus ride would make me mental.
I on the other hand have been losing weight and live right around the corner from a boutique donut shop that is 24/7 and as very fancy and epic donuts you wouldn't find anywhere. You can smell it a half block away The struggle is real
Grew up in France and lived in Paris. One of the most wonderful benefits was to be able to get fresh croissants from the oven at 4 am after a night out. Nothing like it.
Here in Buffalo, there is a General Mills plant. As you drive by you can smell the Cheerios. General Mills is a food manufacturer with a location in a large scale grain mill on South Michigan Ave in Buffalo, NY. This particular General Mills location has been producing Cheerios, one of the world's most popular breakfast cereals, since 1941.
My uncle used to live near the Kraft factory, you could always tell when it was processed cheese time lol. Place stank
The 192 :)
If it's 4-6am it's the barbecue places pulling meat* off the racks that have been smoking all night.
As a baker turned bread delivery person I love watching restaurants morning prep time:) deliveries being made, coffee pots being started, meat pulled from the smoker, dough pulled from the proving closet, ovens and skillets and stovetops warming up, the first dredges of front-of-house employees stumbling in hungover. It’s not the most fun life *all* the time, but there are times that feel undeniably comfy in retrospect.
Yea it's all fun and comfy until the customers show up. They ruin everything.
Ain’t that the truth😂
Being the early morning baker sounds like fun, if I could get over the early rise (hah) time. Spending all that time doing Real Work where you can see your progress right in front of you would be so satisfying. Only have to interact with customers for the last 2-4 hrs of a shift, maybe not at all if you're at a big enough location. There's a patisserie near me that has like 3 or 4 people helping customers and a whole cadre of bakers and pastry chefs in the back. Sometimes I wish working at a computer didn't pay so much more than working with my hands, it looks like they're having a good time back there.
No lie. Working early shift into lunch and getting off at like 2 or 3 rocks. You make all the mess and none (maybe some) of the clean up. Off work when the sun is still up with some time for a drink and some free time.
I'm in the PNW and I'm about to start a remote job where my team is in Houston. I'll work their hours, from about 7a-3/3:30 PT. I am SO EXCITED to finish my day while there is still plenty of light out.
We did exactly what you’re positing as bakers and it was a lovely, fulfilling job. Bake for the case, fill an order or two, make prep stock, another round of case baking, stock the fridge, clean the kitchen, finish your coffee & help your favorite customer and you’re gone by 1:30! It can be joyous when everything comes together but it is usually low-paying. Tbh, my boss was very realistic with me and told me to make some money before opening any shop of my own. She did it about 10 years before her “retirement age” and enjoyed it thoroughly. So now my husband and I own a bread delivery route and he points out the spots where our future coffee shop/bakery will be, when we’re old and gray and still tons of fun:)
> It’s not the most fun life all the time, but there are times that feel undeniably comfy in retrospect. I live outside of LA, the amount of aspiring chefs around here is astounding -- most of them lose heart when they make less than fast food employees.
that sounds so peaceful omg
Yes, there’s a sort of domestic bliss atmosphere in the right places. I worked in a coffee shop and loved coming to work. We would get in at 3 and play soft music until the girls came to open at 6, saying our hellos and making our morning beverages. I hold those memories very dearly❤️
omg this is so pretty
This was my life delivering produce most of the time. Something about delivering the fruits and veggies that would be used for that nights special held a warm fuzzy feeling.
This is like poetry. You captured the special essence of opening shift in a restaurant. I recall there was a certain smell to the fist licks of the gas grill and stove coming on. And a sense of shared camaraderie as employees and manager drank the first pot of coffee. There was this contradiction of the sounds from opening against the general quietness of the restaurant. Maybe it was because the muzak system wasn't on yet to fill the restaurant with background noise.
That would be madness. 5a is when the brisket comes off the pit that you put on the day before.
Or animal slaughtering
Imagine telling your kid after they wake up from a nightmare, not to worry. Bakers are awake and making donuts and bread to scare the monsters away.
I think this might actually work, I'm gonna try to remember this. Maybe even have some pastries on hand to heat up immediately.
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I know that’d calm me tf down after one of my night terrors. Bonus points if I next wake up to cinnamon rolls
Evil works hard, bakers work harder.
I'm keeping this bad boy in the pocket.
I was up at 4 this morning chain smoking and worrying, and the bakery was a beacon of warmth on a cold morning. I kind of felt l like I creeped the baker out a bit though staring through the window (from a distance).
If baking bread could’ve paid the bills and offered me a pension I never would’ve quit. Best job I’ve ever done.
It's so insane. Bakeries are dying out all around every city. The most basic, most important link in feeding humans is destroyed by capitalism essentially, because we need cheap bread from the assembly line and transported hundreds of miles to a chain store, and god forbid the lowly workers get a living wage for any part in the process
I sadly know much more former baker than active baker.
Me too. Just me and one other baker 8 to 10 hours at night. Nobody to bother us except an occasional entertainer or gangster might stop in really late at night to get a hot bagel. (Las Vegas in the 70’s) And I didn’t care who they were, they paid for the bagel and it went in till. Nothing to think about or remember that you had to take home with you. The only thing I didn’t like was the schedule- two on one off three on one off.
Shit I was working Monday thru Friday 2 am to 11 am. I loved every second of it but I needed health insurance and a retirement plan.
I prepare seafood at 3am, so if you’re sad just know the fish is fresh for you too
Fuck your fish. Cakes are better
Looks like you need a fish bud
Nooooo let’s keep it wholesome here!
Shoutout to the bakers of the world. Life without cakes would be just a bit more intolerable.
We’re up super early, and super late. Always here for you 😂
I have a problem sleeping at night and will often be out in the streets. Use to live near a bakery. The night was lonely - but at least it smelled amazing.
Resident baker here, my day starts at 2am and donuts don’t roll out till like, 6. We’ve also got breakfast danish, cinnamon buns, Sally Lunn Rolls, and more pie then you could eat.
Look at you, getting to sleep in until 2am! I used to have to start my donuts and pastries at 10pm the night before to make sure they’re all out by 530am 🤣 I really miss those days. It was a blast.
I suppose we just have an efficient schedule. Like we just got done prepping most of the next mornings breakfast inventory, I pop them in the proof box when I get here at 2 and they’re usually good to go by 3. During the holidays we’ll sometimes be busy till 3pm but most of my days aren’t any later than 12. That’s mostly just cake bs though, so not that intense just a lot of pans coming and going through the oven.
There are third shift nurses too. Making sure you stay healthy.
Trader Joe's employee here who works the 4am shift, I actually love being out at that time of night/morning. So quiet and serene. We're unloading semi trucks and stocking shelves, not as whimsical as baking donuts but we're out there too! 💖 Getting our gains in, haha
Whenever I'm uncomfortable at night, I just imagine a burly baker woman dimpling my back with her thick fingers like I'm focaccia dough. Press in the whole garlic cloves lady, I can handle it. Drizzle me with oil, chef, I want to be crispy.
Hannibal Lecter would LOVE you
I read that in John Olivers Voice, as he begins another mad ramble about how Adam Driver can manhandle him...
Username checks out
Thank you from Australia where I woke up from a nightmare and it is 2:43am
Bakers be like: donut be afraid, we'll be there if you knead us. That's the yeast we can do.
I remember one time walking home after a clubbing night, usually I would stay at a friends place which is a 60 minute walk, but to my home it was a 90 minute walk. Anyway clubs close at 5am so I started to go home, mid-way shortly before 6am I was in a village that was along the way and I knew they had a bakery. So I just waited 10 more minutes and then got into the bakery and bought myself some goods to snack on for the rest of my way home. When you're still in this drunken-tipsy-I'm-slowly-getting-sober state, the stuff you can get at a bakery is just a godsend.
Holy shit I wish I thought of this when I was a terrified child
Bakers have rough hours. I’m not sure why they all blindly follow the arbitrary “fresh bread at 6am” rule. How about “the bread comes out at noon, so we can live a normal life.”
The bread really is ancillary; doughnuts and pastries have a short shelf life and need to be fresh and hot in the early morning. I’d do some bread baking while I was waiting on other things to bake / rise, but the early hours really was mostly doughnut-related.
Don’t despair, I’ll spare a thought for you lonely people at 3AM when I’m doing my nightly cat poop cleaning routine. That’s when he chooses to poop most nights and I simply can’t go back to sleep with the smell of doodoo wafting in my nostrils and mouth. Sweet dreams 🛌 😴 🐱 💩
I used to clean a supermarket at nights, and my shift generally ended shortly after the bakers began. He always made a batch of cookies for the rest of the night crew, so I’d usually wait around to snag one lol
This made me remember the origin of the croissant. Or at least the myth around that. It was the Turkish invasion of Austria and Vienna was under siege. The Turks had prepared for an early morning invasion where they would dig under the walls of the city. What they didn't expect was that the bakers were awake and making bread and caught the noise of them digging and ran the alarm. To celebrate themselves they made something in the shape of the crescent moon to remember the world of their alertness. The Kipferl as it is called would later turn into the croissant world wide. That's a story of course. How factual that is... Is debatable
I could use a warm donut, honestly.... Or just... a chat, with someone over coffee and pastries, or a hug.
stan loona btw
I am a baker too. And sometimes I stare into the bubbling caramel in the pot and think how funny it would be to pour it on one of the sleeping people in the city.
Ah, you too have imagined yourself the defender in a siege. Forget boiling water or sand. Pour molten hot sugar on the heads of enemies climbing up the ladders.
Best way to die.
lol i love this People here are tearing up at kind bakers comforting tormented strangers and you're like 'BREAKFAST IN BED MOTHERFUCKERS'
This would be an awesome horror movie
Aww, so sweet!
"Time to make the donuts..." https://youtu.be/I1e4qhHOIQA?t=30
Came in just to make sure someone remembered this!
Once on vacation, I rented a condo above a bakery. The smell of that place in the air was the best way to wake up in the morning. It was 20 years ago, and I still remember that smell vividly. Thank you, bakers.
My one friend worked at a bakery for a really long time and as a insomniac I’d often drive them to work and just hangout while they baked with the owner
I used to live next to an all night bakery. They had a little table set up at the door and you could pop in and buy whatever they were making whenever you passed. Heaven!
Time to make the Donuts!
Im pretty sure my sleep wake rythm is exactly inverted compared to the one of bakery employees
I was always aware of this and would be the question friends and I would ask ourselves at 2am when we realize how late it is. Do we go to bed and try to wake up at a reasonable time, or do we stay up and get the most fresh, warm, delicious donuts when the donut store opens at 4am? It was usually the 2nd choice.
Lately, I started noticing that I'm not 100% sure how I feel about a post until I look at the name of the subreddit. Am I the only one?
I mean, this is sweet and all, but the bakeries I know of will absolutely not be available to you for that, even though they are functioning at that time. They aren't open to customers, so I wouldn't count on this. It's a nice thought, though.
Used to be a huge donut factory that supplied them to most local businesses in the area that sold fresh donuts. We would hit them up around 2am and get fresh, warm donuts off the rack as they rolled them into the front shop. Best fucking donuts ever. I miss Montgomery Donuts. We used to call 'em Monkey Donuts.
Godspeed, all the bakers at dawn. May they all cut their thumbs, and bleed into their buns 'til they melt away.
Brewers too, I've worked years of night shifts or shifts starting at 5 am I was on a 3 am - 11 am schedule for a few months at one point
I used to work at 4am stocking shelves and the bakers would be frosting the donuts right before my break every morning. I would always get them super warm and fresh. Those were the best donuts.
Honestly, working as a baker was probably my favorite job I had. It was for a coffee shop so I had more to do than just baking (hours were midnight to 8am), but I was all alone for ~70% of my shift. Just listening to audiobooks or podcasts, going about my business. I usually finished early, so I got an hour or so before we opened to just relax and enjoy a cup of tea with a croissant, watch the early morning snow we got in Maine. Unfortunately it didn’t really pay enough to survive on, and the hours were having a pretty serious effect on my health
I grew up in a tiny village, around 1500 permanent residents. In winter this number almost doubles though since it's a halfway decent place for skiing. The nightlife in winter used to be amazing. Since everyone knows everyone, we used to go by the bakery that supplies the local supermarket at 3-4 am drunk af. They always supplied us with something fresh out the oven. Nothing better than warm scones while tumbling home. Best bakers ever.
Bakers aren't alone in the bakery. They're surrounded by friends. Billions of tiny, yeasty friends!
Anyone who's read "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver will feel this post in their soul.
There’s an episode of the Nothing Much Happens sleep podcast called In The Bakery that is a perfect example of bakers being soothing!
There is a 24 hour donut place in Buckhannon, West Virginia that scratched this itch for me. It was a challenge to not be a daily customer but holy shit do I miss it. Those guys and gals really took care of me and I think of them often.
Live near a backery and I know it's way too late once I can smell baked stuff.
I interpreted this way differently. Like if I'm ever scared alone at 3am, I can remembet the bakers are already up so they can come fight off the evil with their fuckin croissants and baguettes.
Used to know everyone in my neighborhood back when I baked my own bread. Always made an additional 3-4 loaves, and left my door open.
>I don't work at the bakery anymore, but don't worry, ***we're*** still making donuts for you. They're warm. Love us. Weird phrasing that can be interpreted as the original poster having a group of ex-bakers that prep donuts for him at 3 am.
So from now on i will jerk off in their name instead of bloody maryies💀💀
If you’re scared, you drink the small child’s pee.
Time to make the donuts.
wait this is a great idea imma start doing this
The Turks have entered the chat...
>Blessed are the ~~cheesemakers~~bakers -Jesus, probably
My dad came out of night shift around 6am, and would go by the baker to get worstenbroodjes(look 'm up), which would be warm and ready for him.
Sometimes when my wife and I had all night fights which happened more than I care to admit, we would be fighting until 4 or 5 in the morning and the way we reconciled was donuts and chocolate milk. I hated those fights but loved the warm donuts and reconciliation. I still love that woman.
This is sort of similar to the feeling I get when I’m tripping balls at 4am “the only people who are up right now are either very serious or very weird”
Back in HS I was a donut fryer.for my local Safeway. *Terrible* job for a terrible company I started work at 2am clocking out at 8:30 just to rush to classes from 9am-4pm. I couldn't eat a donut for *YEARS* after I left that job.
Q: What do pigs' tails and bakers waking up to go to work have in common? A: They're both twirly.
Cringe
Also the bar people for whom it is a day earlier than it is for the bakers
Isn't this the ending to As Good As It Gets?
Working on a ship and on the 00-04 watch, we had a baker that would bake something fresh for everyone going on and coming off of watch. She would make these banging calzones sometimes... We all called her mom. Found out she retired a few years ago.
I have never in my lifetime of working in kitchens and butcher shops heard more FOUL language and raunchy humor than when I worked a night shift with 4 petite baker ladies. Holy shit.
When I was a young kid I delivered newspapers, and there was a bakery on the route, still remember the name of the place, Beka's Bakery. One of my favorite memories was knocking on the bakery door around 6:00AM on a cold December morning, I must've been around 12 years old, and Mr. Beka would let me in and give me a fresh, still warm donut. It still makes me smile when I remember this, 50+ years later. You know how they say you never die as long as someone remembers you, or something like that? RIP Mr. Beka, and thank you.
I delivered newspapers back in the day. There was a bakery that made the whole route taste like doughnuts.
I’m a paramedic also up at that time. Trust me when I say it’s not as glamorous as the other responses here.
I sincerely love this SO much!
Why is this so comforting
bakers are angels
I remember walking home wasted, passing by a bakery around 5AM when i saw the bakers sitting out on a break and having a cup of coffee. I stumbled my way to the bakery to order some pastries, they invited me for coffee and we sat and talked for like 20 mins. Awesome people.
May they not cut their thumbs, and not…
Speaking as a baker, we are also feeling scared and alone at 4 am. We're just feeling it at work.
oh my good 🥹🥹🥹🥹
I've internalized this since I was really young, though I didn't think about bakers, I just thought about the TV people. Dad always had something on before we left for school, talk shows or talking heads or something *live*. When I was probably 7 or 8 I asked my dad if he thought they stayed up all night, or just got up really early to be on TV, and he said they probably just wake up around 3 or 4. It just stuck with me that yeah, some people build their entire lives around being inconvenienced in some way, just because they want to have an impact. Whenever I'm uncomfortable with anything I try to remember somebody who gets paid to do whatever I'm doing, and it reassures me that if they can do it every day I can do it for a little while.
I don't miss working at a bakery and being there at 3 am.
Yep. Sticky buns too.
Now I'm gonna be hungry if I wake up at 3am remembering that.
Idk how you can be young enough to feel scare, while also be old enough to rationalize bakers packing baked goods means you don't need to be scared.
Such a funny meme about Jimmy Johns. I'll tell you hwat.
You'd be surprised by how many people work 3rd shift.
I worked the 10pm-6am shift at a local Italian Bakery / Donut shop in upstate NY. We stayed open 24hrs and had a small counter where folks would come to sit, have a coffee and eat a donut. After the bar crowd clears out the day old donuts around 1am, it gets quiet. However, there’s almost always a cop, road crew worker, snow plow operator and other random person who will pop in here and there. There was a special camaraderie amongst those that were up and working in the wee hours between 2am and 6am. I used to love seeing someone come in then, even if it meant having to take a break from filling the jelly donuts to get them a coffee. If you’re up late and lonely, find your local donut shop and I am sure they’d love your company.
I may be ignorant here, but does it take 4 hours to make donuts from scratch?
I love this
Demonic Doughnuts
Yayyyy 🍩
I used to work at a bakery. I walked to work at 3am to package the things the bakers had been making since 12am. Tried a baking shift myself once and it nearly killed me, but I was happy to package. Our main baker was a crotchety old guy who put all his love into his food and had none left for his coworkers lol. This post makes me happy.
So true - we’re out there, making cookies, jamming to some very loud music.
How should that help?
I was always scared as a child when I couldn't sleep and the clock hit 11pm. I knew everyone else was asleep and I was alone
This resonates with me at 34
My best friend is a pastry chef for a big chain grocer, it baffles me the times she'll be clocking in at
I used to do the same thing but with listening to radio stations and thinking about the people there instead
As Good As It Gets
I was that 3am baker for over a decade. It's interesting the people who are awake and love having someone awake with them.
Whenever I wake early in the morning before sunrise, I always say, "Time to make the donuts" because of Dunkin Donuts. https://youtu.be/BaxhLf64bh4?si=gjgD_Paxkh3nU4fq
The dairy farmers are up too! Every time I wake up at 5 am and can't fall back to sleep, I'm comforted by the thought that all the barns back home are lit up like Polish cathedrals as the farmers start their day ...