Gastropark’s house baker expanding into Avon
Small State Provisions, which has been the house baker at West Hartford’s Gastropark food-truck park since July 2021, is expanding to a freestanding location in Avon, 10 times bigger than its Gastropark space, owner Kevin Masse said.
Masse, who lives in West Hartford, said the new 2,200-squarefeet space at 205 Old Farms Road, where Truffles used to be, will open some time in the fall.
“It was a bakery facility prior to us so it shouldn’t be too bad of a buildout. It all depends on supply chain issues right now,” Masse said.
Masse will keep his 212-squarefeet stall in Gastropark, but will do the baking in Avon.
He said he decided to move Small State into a larger facility “probably the weekend we opened at Gastropark.
“I always knew that Gastropark wasn’t going to be our space forever in terms of being able to produce the volume I was hoping to one day produce. It was a space for me where I could start in a way that felt very controlled and something I could manage, given it was not my full-time job at the time,” he said. “I outgrew it a lot faster than I anticipated. I thought it would take me two years.”
Masse quit his “day job” at a baking magazine last year, and made Small State his full-time job.
Masse is pleased that his new location is in the same complex as Hopmeadow Brewing.
“That model works, like at Gastropark, which has the bar and the food trucks. I’m excited about the synergy between a bakery and a beer brewery side by side,” he said.
Masse started Small State Provisions as a cottage licensee out of his home in 2019. Small State specializes in sourdough bread, granola, scones, cookies and, on Saturdays,
Masse’s wildly popular cinnamon buns. He said his Sunday babkas, which also were extremely popular, will come back some day.
He is especially proud of his sourdough. “We are the only the bakery in the Hartford area doing 100% naturally leavened organic sourdough,” he said. “We provide bread for Millwright’s, Present Company, Union Kitchen, Hartford Flavor and Blue Plate Kitchen.”
For updates on the buildout, visit facebook.com/smallstate.