Breaking Bread, Part III: K Brew Bakery Opens on Broadway (& More!)

Get bread-y, folks! It took me a hot minute to circle back — development news happens — but I’m finally here with the third and final chapter of our series on Knoxville’s newest local bakeries.

After kicking off “Breaking Bread” last week at SoKno Sourdough’s new Sevier Avenue storefront and heading downtown for Part II at KoPita Bakery in the Embassy Suites, today we’re making our way north to Broadway, where K Brew has opened a walk-in bakery and market next door to its flagship coffee shop. 

I stopped and found Culinary Director Matt Cowen, who is the nicest guy, inside the new space, which smelled exactly as good as you’d hope a 5,000-square-foot bakery would smell. Small bread world: Matt is married to Jordan Smith-Cowen of the gluten-free microbakery Small Comforts Kitchen. 

The retail side is new, but the bakery operation itself has been humming for several weeks. K Brew is now producing baked goods and other food for all its coffee shops from the Broadway kitchen, a considerable upgrade from its previous setup. 

“We had previously been doing all of the food for all the K Brew locations out of that little 450-square-foot room in the back of West Hills,” Matt said. With four brick-and-mortar coffee shops and a couple of UT locations (and two more shops on the way in Hardin Valley and Belltown), that little room had a lot on its plate.

The new bakery and market space, previously home to Nothing Too Fancy’s print shop, also gives K Brew a little more room to play. The pastry case includes many of the baked goods already familiar to K Brew customers, but the bakery has some extras of its own, including sesame bagels, everything focaccia and plain focaccia. Matt said they’ll be testing additional items over the next few weeks, with focaccia sandwiches also on the way.

The space includes a market. Matt describes the concept as “specialty coffee and kitchen goods,” with shelves stocked with curated pantry and refrigerator staples, cookware and other items the team thinks its customers will enjoy. I spotted some Benton’s bacon (reminder: it’s peak BLT season!), along with their more elusive, but FANTASTIC,  prosciutto, made out in Madisonville. My husband works at Benton’s and we love to eat it on crackers with a nice stinky cheese. 

“We’ve got as much local stuff as we possibly can,” Matt said. The selection will continue to grow, including products from East Fork, maker of my own personal favorite coffee mug, along with additional cookware and kitchen goods. 

What a welcome addition to the North Knox neighborhood. The bakery is open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.

 

In a sweet sort of sister story just a short walk away, Mia Piccola is expanding too. Owner Nathan Kitner recently knocked through the wall of the coffee shop’s tiny 400-square-foot space at 1328 N. Broadway, where K Brew itself got its start, to take over the former Roots and Releaf next door. The expansion will add about 1,200 square feet, including more seating and, eventually, a new takeaway food menu. Mia Piccola has grown at a pretty astonishing clip since launching as a mobile coffee cart in 2024, which led to opening a space within Southside Garage – Keith wrote about that here. The north store also recently expanded its hours to 5 p.m. on the weekends. 

So, we’ve covered Knoxville’s newest bakery storefronts, but the city’s breadmaking scene extends well beyond them. You can get your fix from talented local bakers supplying coffee shops, farmers markets and local-minded groceries like Three Rivers Market — meaning, happily, good bread is never particularly hard to find around here. Just a few I encountered on a Saturday morning 

So go forth and find yourself a good loaf. Break it with loved ones, break it with neighbors, break it with strangers who might become friends. Life is short; eat good bread!