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Emma Savage and Alan Bennett in front of what will be The Good Loaf Café's new home at Avonside, Melksham

Artisan bakery The Good Loaf Café to open next month at Avonside, Melksham

A family-run artisan bakery and café is set to open its first home at the growing riverfront community, Avonside, Melksham next month.

The Good Loaf Café is the exciting new venture of Bath couple Emma Savage, 32 and Alan Bennett, 44 with Emma’s mum, Sharon Savage joining the team.

It will be offering homemade, wholesome food in a relaxed and friendly setting.

Emma, owner of The Good Load Café, said: “We’re so excited to open up at Avonside and join the community. We can’t wait to get everything in place in The Good Loaf Café’s first home and start serving up the freshly baked breads, cakes and meals which we make ourselves.

“We knew from our very first chat with Create that Avonside was the place for us. The vision for the area was really refreshing and we made up our minds at that moment that it was something we wanted our bakery and café to be part of”.

The bakery and café forms part of an ambition for Avonside, by owners Create Real Estate, to make the most of the town centre location and riverside setting by creating a vibrant quarter for both leisure and business.

The menu at The Good Loaf Café will highlight the artisan breads expertly made by head baker Alan, who was formerly head baker at Bakers of Bath, the oldest bakery in Bath. An array of delicious homemade cakes and sweet treats will be made by Emma and mum Sharon plus all-day brunch options, hot sandwiches and seasonal daily specials. The whole menu will be available to take away and will include children’s meals plus various vegan and vegetarian options.

Having run fashion retail business Grace & Ted with her mum in central Bath for nearly a decade, Emma closed shop when the pandemic hit and turned her passion and hobby of baking into a business.

Ricky Humphreys, director at Create Real Estate, which owns Avonside, said: “We are delighted to welcome Emma and Alan to the Avonside community.

“As part of Avonside’s transition to a creative quarter and leisure destination for Wiltshire, it is our vision to bring together an exciting mix of independent food and drink businesses along the riverside, supporting start-ups in particular.

“After the successful launch of the now permanent Scoff Pop-up street food concept, The Good Loaf Café marks the next step towards making this vision a reality. We’re having conversations with a range of other exciting independent businesses and are open to exploring a diverse mix of opportunities for the space at Avonside.

“We’ve been working with Emma and Alan to deliver a unit bespoke to their concept and now we can’t wait to watch The Good Loaf Café take off.”

Originally built as the home of Unigate Dairies, Avonside adjoins the high street of Melksham.