Hi-Rise Bread opens a sweet shop steps away
Where to Hi-Rise Sweets in Huron Village, the Cambridge neighborhood just west of Harvard Square.
Why It’s around the corner from the popular Hi-Rise Bread Co. on Concord Avenue and we wondered why a successful cafe needed another outpost steps from the mothership, one without tables or seating.
The back story Owner Rene Becker of Hi-Rise Bread Co., which will turn 28 in June, says the shop could never produce as much as he wanted it to as long as the Concord Ave. kitchen was making both breads and pastries in the same space. And he couldn’t think about creating cakes in the confines of the small baking area. Besides, there was no place to display them. When EH Chocolatier closed in 2023, Becker took the opportunity of the vacant storefront to expand the pastry part of his operation. He had a pastry kitchen built in the new spot, which bakes for both locations. One of the former shop’s chocolate makers, Sophie Frazer, who also has cake-making experience, stayed on to manage the shop and make chocolates.
Becker has been making bread since he was a student at the University of Michigan, producing loaves in his mother’s Detroit kitchen, and delivering them to Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. In Boston, he opened the bakery at Lydia Shire’s Pignoli restaurant, then wrote restaurant reviews for Boston Magazine under the pseudonym Paul Fischer (he took the name from his favorite Alsatian beer). He opened Hi-Rise on a wing and a prayer. After a year in business, he launched a second location in Harvard Square, then later another on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, both no longer open. Concord Ave. kept going through the pandemic (and for two years) with curbside delivery.
What to eat The hallmark of HiRise is perfectly made European confections that are never overly complicated. You can bite into a butter cookie and it might be the best butter cookie you’ve ever had. In the new spot, the menu includes cookies, everyday and celebration cakes, chocolate bark, and preserves ( jams are made by Becker’s wife, Cynthia). You can buy a lemon curd cake and a fallen chocolate cake, two favorites from the Concord Ave. pastry case, and others made with plums and berries, hazelnut and mocha icing, vanilla bean loaf marbled with matcha. All bark is made with Valrhona chocolate, all pastries with real butter and cream.
What to drink The shop will have a coffee machine later this month.
The takeaway Hi-Rise Sweets had a monthlong soft opening. Regular hours — five days, Wednesday through Sunday — started last week. Parking is wretched in that corner of Huron Village but since the shop has no seats or tables, you’re in and out quickly if your parking space isn’t ideal. It’s not just top-quality ingredients that distinguish these baked goods. Flavors are pure and distinctive, nothing is underbaked (many bakeries don’t keep pastries in the oven long enough), squares are perfectly square, rounds perfectly round. You’re getting the best version of that handmade cake or cookie or jam to be found anywhere.
145 Huron Ave., Cambridge, 617693-0001, Instagram @hirisesweets