The Medford Village Bakery is proof that the path of life offers multiple forks. The Medford Village Bakery’s owner and baker, Elissa Westbrook-Smith, stood at such a fork some 30 years ago, when she managed a bakery and coffee shop in Eugene, Oregon. At that fork, she took a road more travelled, going to law school, and onto a decades-long career as an attorney. Always, though, there was the dream of her own bakery, as over the years she continued to bake for the joy it brought to her and many others, wedding cakes, birthday pastries, holiday cookies, more. And now, as The Medford Village Bakery opens its doors, that dream is becoming a reality.
“My recipes, tools, ideas, from those early days in Eugene, I’ve added to them continuously over the years. The goal of starting my own bakery has been in the oven, so to speak, for most of my life,” she shared.
She and her husband Justin spent about three years looking for the right spot, and finally found it in the house at 43 South Main St., in the heart of Medford Village and right next to Braddock’s Tavern. They have spent the past two years converting the circa 1880 three-story house into the bakery on the first floor and an apartment for themselves above. Since last summer, anyone driving down Main St. has been able to notice changes, as the exterior color scheme, greens and pinks, has come into being.
The Medford Village Bakery specializes in delicious treats inspired by the first bakery in Oregon where Elissa worked when she was younger–breakfast items like scones, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls and muffins, as well as cookies and biscotti of all kinds and 2-3 types of bread daily. It will also offer a wide range of cakes for breakfast/brunch and dinner parties, and wedding cakes, which people describe as “wedding cakes you WANT to eat!”