Bofo Baking

This winter, customers lined up outside (with social distancing) to have a chance to grab the breads and pastries that Jeff Collins and his crew are turning out at South County Bread Company. Collins took a circuitous route to baking and then opening his own bakery. First, a culinary arts degree at Johnson & Wales and a stint as a sauté chef, then switching to doing sales in New Jersey. One day he thought, “What about baking? You work in the morning and then you’re done.” He learned the basics from an old-school Jewish baker in Brooklyn and worked his way back to his native Rhode Island, where he became the assistant manager of the Belmont Market bakery in Wakefield.

It was there he started making his own bread and building a loyal following. Last spring, Collins struck up a friendship with Sam Sciabarrasi, who invited him to put a bread oven and a pickup counter inside his Kingston Pizza shop (the Kingston location). And whether the crowds are coming for SoCo’s plain sourdough, whole-wheat cranberry, kalamata olive or other slow-fermented breads (organic King Arthur unbleached flour, plus Kenyon’s stone-ground wheat and rye) or for the pastries—scones, croissants, cookies, even pre-ordered pies—they are definitely coming.

Temporarily inside Kingston Pizza, 63 Briar Lane, Kingston. 401.374.5243; SoCoBreadCo.com. Watch for opening in early spring at 333 Main St., Wakefield.