This week, we were visited by Ellen King and Julie Matthei, co-owners of Hewn Bakery in downtown Evanston. Hewn Bakery takes pride in making “hand-forged, artisan bread”.
Before Ellen started Hewn, she worked at various restaurants in Seattle, Washington. In 2008, Ellen moved to Evanston and started making bread as a hobby, selling them to members of her “underground bread club”. Julie, a guidance counselor at a local high school, was initially a customer of the bread club, but grew close to Ellen and helped to turn the unofficial club into a fully fledged business.
Hewn started small. Word of mouth and social media also played key roles in growing Hewn’s popularity, but it didn’t come easy—Julie “had to learn a lot. When I started this business, I didn’t know anything about Instagram, Twitter, any of that stuff.” Eventually, the bakery became financially sustainable after Ellen and Julie secured wholesale partnerships with local restaurants.
On Bread
At Hewn, breads are hand-mixed, hand-shaped, and naturally fermented without commercial yeast. Simplicity is key. Ellen uses only four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter—all mixed by hand. Instead of instant yeast, they use starter to create an easily digestible bread with a richer, more complex flavor. Ever since the bakery opened, Ellen and Julie have been working with local cultivators to source only the best ingredients. They are committed to maintaining the quality of their bread, even during financial hardships.
On Culture
Ellen and Julie call for team meetings with their employees regularly—”almost as much as Fortune 500 companies”. They believe in forging personal relationships with each of their employees, and motivating them to be emotionally invested in the bread they make.
Because of Hewn’s labor-intensive and unique style of baking, newly hired bakers have to re-learn the entire process. Ellen emphasises that the only way to survive working at Hewn is to be humble—arrogant bakers (even if they are talented) have no place at her bakery.
Ellen enforces a strong startup culture at Hewn: there is no social hierarchy, and everybody does everything—for example, bakers wash dishes, dishwashers clean the starters, and founders (herself and Julie) clean floors.
On Core Values
Ellen and Julie hold their business true to a set of core values: Even if it is at the expense of profits, Hewn must:
- Source the best local ingredients
Years ago, Ellen forged ties with local grain farmers to bring back a different variety of wheat that had not been growing in the Midwest since the 1800s. Today, they source only the best ingredients from local Midwest farmers. - Minimize waste
Unlike the majority of bakers, Ellen and Julie try to plan out how much bread to make each day, even if it means missing the opportunity to sell more. “I would rather us be very mindful of what we’re producing and sell out earlier than have waste,” Ellen said.
On Competition
When asked about competition within the artisanal bread industry, Ellen said that her “job is to make other people better. It’s not to kill them by competition or be cutthroat”. Although Ellen and Julie sometimes feel the tension other businesses have toward them, they do not focus on undermining their competitors by being “better” than them. In fact, they encourage bakers to make their breads the way Hewn does in order to help local farmers. They firmly believe that food shouldn’t be a competition—it should bring people together.
On Female Entrepreneurs
As female business owners, Ellen and Julie face challenges of not being taken seriously and securing financial loans, especially in their male-dominated food industry.
They meet quarterly with 125 other female business owners in Evanston to talk about challenges that women face as business owners.
On The Future
Ellen and Julie deviate from the dominant narrative of entrepreneurship in that they don’t define the success of a business by growth and profits. Although they have plans for expansion, Ellen and Julie wish to stay as a community business in Evanston. According to them, “sometimes growth means staying where you’re at.” They believe in enriching the lives of those in their immediate community, and supporting the farmers in the Midwest area.
To learn more about Hewn, visit their website.
