By ETHAN THERRIEN
Photo credit: Griffin Limerick
Manifest Bread, a popular bakery located at 6208 Rhode Island Avenue in Riverdale Park, closed and began renovation procedures on July 28, as ownership looks to expand their small shop to a sit-down restaurant.
Co-owners Rick and Tyes Cook opened the bakery in January 2023 after several years of at-home baking and selling turned into a business big enough to open an actual brick-and-mortar shop. As both the bakery and its bread rose in popularity over the next year and a half, the couple started eyeing a vacant space next door for potential expansion.
“Within the first six months, we were completely outsized here,” said Rick. “This place next door was and had been open, but it was just out of our price range. Now, with the gaining popularity and need for more space for production, it just made sense, and it was an opportunity that had to be jumped on.”
That makes it sound simple, but according to Rick, the road to restaurant expansion is extremely challenging and littered with tough decisions. “No longer is this a passion project of just making bread,” he said.
“This is full-scale ownership, and the lives of your employees, the welfare of your employees,” said Rick. “Closing and not having sales for about four months is a big challenge. Construction in general has many unseen challenges. Nothing is guaranteed to take a certain amount of time, so it’s up in the air as far as how long it will actually take.”
The good news for their employees is that during the construction process, the bakery will continue to operate in limited capacity in order to keep supplying nearby businesses with baked goods. Restaurants along Rhode Island Avenue and in the District such as Petite Cerise, Lutèce, Primrose and 2Fifty Texas BBQ will be the main beneficiaries of this arrangement.
“We will be keeping this business going; we have wholesale accounts restaurants that we do supply with loaves,” said Rick. “We make bread for all of those people pretty much everyday or every other day. That production won’t be stopping, so setting up a new kitchen bakery where we are temporarily working out of is a big focus right now.”
The hope is that the temporary bakery won’t be needed for very long, because when construction is eventually finished, customers will be treated with an expanded, more intricate restaurant that will be nearly triple the size of the original shop, as it increases from 1,150 to 3,000 square feet. While the Cook couple plans to keep the new menu vague up until opening, there will be a variety of other benefits for customers to enjoy.
“The biggest thing for customers to look forward to in the future is that there will be nighttime service, and there will be plenty more space for relaxing and dining,” said Rick. “Thursday to Sunday we will be open until about 9 p.m., which will be drastically different.”
During its first iteration, Manifest Bread usually closed between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., making the new closing time a huge change for the bakery. As for the increased space, the Cooks’ new restaurant will have 30 total seats, which is a big jump from the two seats located in the previous shop.
The couple plans to take some time off over the next few months before returning to the expanded venue, which they hope will serve as a pivotal accomplishment in their baking career.
Ethan Therrien is an undergraduate journalism student at the University of Maryland.
