TGM Bread Can Do It All

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

TGM Bread is a small artisan bakery located right next door to The General Muir at The Point off Clifton Road, 1540 Avenue Place in Atlanta. Some of the best sandwiches in Atlanta, whether in a restaurant or your home, are served on TGM Bread–including those you'll make with G&G. TGM Bread makes every loaf, bagel, and roll that's offered in the local market, and you'll often find their bread in meal kits. This week they are baking the sesame buns for our Bacon-Swiss Chicken Burgers and the mini baguettes for the blue cheese croutons in our Bacon & Blue Wedge Salad!

Lucky for us all, TGM Bread is open to the public everyday from 11am to 3pm for TGM Soup Co. and retail bread purchases. You can sit around the big dough table inside, enjoy a cup of soup paired with fresh baked bread, and catch a glimpse of TGM's friendly team in action. 

We asked Shelley Sweet, one of the owners of TGM, a few questions about their bakery operations–keep reading below to learn a little more about TGM Bread! 

Which farmers markets are you at around town?

TGM Bread is proud to be a long standing vendor at Peachtree Road Farmers Market on Saturdays and Grant Park Farmers Market on Sundays. The markets are where we really get to connect with the community, selling bagels, english muffins, pretzels, rustic pain au levains, sandwich loaves and much more! 

How was TGM Bread born out of The General Muir?

In January 2016, three years after opening The General Muir at Emory Point (now The Point), we opened TGM Bread next door. We originally made all the bread for The General Muir — hand rolled kettle boiled bagels, ciabatta for sandwiches, buns for burgers, brioche for French toast, pletzel bread, and, of course, rye — out of the small pastry kitchen in the restaurant. As we added restaurants, we outgrew that space and had the wonderful opportunity to take over the space immediately next door to The General Muir. Our bread selection continues to grow, but we are committed to remaining a small artisan bakery that serves excellent bread paired with outstanding service. 

What are all of the other restaurants that are part of the Rye Restaurant Group? Do you make bread for all of them?

Rye Restaurants is made up of The General Muir Emory Point, The General Muir City Springs, Fred's Meat & Bread, Yalla!, Wood's Chapel BBQ, West Egg Cafe and of course TGM Bread, plus our collaboration with Thompson Hotels in Buckhead for Dirty Rascal. We make bread for all our restaurants and we are on the menu at more than 50 restaurants in and around metro Atlanta.

What time are y’all usually in the bakery starting to make bread for the day? What does a quick overview of that process look like?

Our team is composed of bread bakers, soup makers, delivery drivers and managers that are committed to the best products and service every day. Arriving at 5am, our team works to prepare the bread for deliveries, makes and serves our retail soup & bread daily, receiving orders, producing invoices and sourcing the best quality products for two shifts of talented bread bakers that make the dough, shape and bake the bread all day long, often finishing well after midnight!  

If you could be any type of bread, what would you be and why?

We are passionate about all our bread, but if we had to pick something it would be a toss up between our bagels, english muffins or the rustic pain au levain. 

Why the bagel, we hand roll and kettle boil our bagels - they are the real deal. Why the english muffin, they are simply the best...a real treat and it's hard to find one that can compare. Lastly, why the rustic pain au levain...make a sandwich, grill it, serve it on a charcuterie board or just eat it with some olive oil...the options are endless! Who can pick just one kind of bread anyway?!