A bakery specializing in rustic bread is the first new business to open in a revitalized downtown Dayton building.
Good Hands Bread Co., now open in the historic Dietz Block Building, is co-owned by Andrew Fisher. He started home baking during the pandemic but has become a staple at the 2nd Street Market over the last five years.
"We specialize in rustic, crusty sourdough breads, we have a lot of different additions and flavors," he said. "We have an olive rosemary, raisin walnut, we do baguettes, we do soft pretzels."
All of the grains and much of the products Fisher uses in his breads are as local as you can get, sourcing from a nearby Clarksville mill and other Ohio farms.
"We get the flour straight from the mill and then we come here and we and we make it," Fisher said.
Businesses reviving downtown
The new bakery at 527 Wayne Ave. is part of more than $1 billion invested in downtown Dayton over the last decade.
"And so that $1 billion investment today has caused more and more of you to see some vision, some hope, light at the end of the tunnel, if you will," Mayor Jeffrey Mims Jr. said at the bakery's ribbon cutting.
Fisher said without the help of Lynda Suda, manager at 2nd Street Market, his longtime friend and the building's owner, Burgess Gow, and CityWide Development, his own vision of owning a brick-and-mortar bakery location might never have come to life.
"Shane [Wilken] from Citywide helped me realize this vision," he said. "They do so much for people who have a dream and just wanna give back to the city."
'The dream has finally been realized'
As Fisher settles into his new storefront, he said he will also start to roll out some sweeter treats like cinnamon rolls and other holiday staples.
"We're gonna do some really fun holiday breads for Christmas [like] gingerbread," he said. "I do a traditional Stollin, which is a really sweet, enriched German bread. We've got lots of things on the works."
Fisher's bakery is the first business to open in the newly reworked Dietz Block Building. While the bakery will still sell its goods at 2nd Street Market, Fisher said this new brick-and-mortar will allow him to provide more edible, locally sourced goods to local customers.
”The dream has finally been realized and this is what we've imagined and now it exists and we have a place to bake delicious bread to offer Dayton every day,” he said.
Revitalizing a Historic Vision
Gow and his wife purchased the Dietz Block Building in August 2024 after they saw it was mostly vacant for quite some time.
"We own a bunch of historic rental properties in in the Oregon district and in South Park and we just kept driving by this one when it was for sale," he said. "We were like, 'This building is the best, it's the most beautiful building on Wayne, in my opinion.' And it dropped in price one day and we were just like, 'Okay, we just we have to do this.'"
The space has been home to Pretty House Hair Salon since 2022 but Gow said they have been working hard since the end of 2024 to restore the building and prepare it for new tenants.
One of the new tenants that will soon join Good Hands Bread Co. is a breakfast and lunch spot, owned by Liz Valenti, who already has helped launch several successful restaurants, Wheat Penny and Meadowlark.
Once the restaurants have fully opened, he said they have plans under review with the city to open two residences upstairs.
"We are working on bringing it back to the original vision that John Dietz did in 1886. It used to be four storefronts with four residences on the second floor," he said.
And Fisher said he plans to be a part of that continued history for years to come.
"I'd like to be here for the next thirty years," he said. "You can come in any time, I'll be right here."
