From a trestle table at a Saturday market to an old spinning mill on the canal. This is how Mill & Bee came to be.
Aisha and Tom started Mill & Bee in 2016 with one domestic oven, a sourdough starter called Morrissey and a stall at a Saturday market in south Manchester.
The queue grew every week. In 2019 they took the ground floor of a disused spinning mill in Ancoats, put in a wood-fired oven and opened the doors at 7:30 one wet November morning. People have been coming in out of the rain ever since.
The worker bee has stood for Manchester since the days of the mills, when the city was called a hive of industry. It means hard work and pulling together, and you will spot it on bollards, bins and shop windows all over town.
We put one on every box that leaves the shop, as a small thank-you to the city that keeps us busy.
Flour from northern mills, dairy from Lancashire and coffee from Salford.
Every baker, barista and washer-up earns at least the real Living Wage, with no zero-hours contracts.
Unsold bread goes to a food bank every evening, and stale loaves become our bread and butter pudding.
Free bread-making classes for Ancoats schools, every half term.
Twelve of us bake, pour and wash up. Here are the four you are most likely to meet.
Co-founder and head baker
Grew up above her grandad's corner shop in Longsight. Still checks every batch of sourdough herself.
Co-founder, ovens and fire
A former engineer who gave up spreadsheets for a peel. Lights the oven at 2am, six days a week.
Pastry chef
Trained in Paris, came home to Moss Side. The reason our croissants have 81 layers.
Head of coffee
Has opinions about milk temperature. Will make you the best flat white in the M4 postcode.