Root Baking Co. Leaves Charleston for Atlanta’s Touristy Ponce City Market

Charleston-based Root Baking Co., owned by the husband and wife team of Chris Wilkins and Nicole Lewis, is moving to Atlanta this summer and has officially confirmed Ponce City Market (PCM) as its headquarters.

Wilkins and Lewis told the AJC in February they were planning to open at a “prominent Atlanta food hall”. Many speculated it would be the touristy PCM.

The bakery will take over the current Atlanta Gallery Collective space on the second floor of the market next door to The Mercury. A “vegetable-driven” breakfast and lunch menu is planned for the shop’s cafe as well as dinner pop-ups featuring a rotating roster of Southern chefs.

The bakery’s design will be in keeping with Ponce City Market’s historic aesthetic and includes a handmade mill. Shoppers can watch the grain milling process and baking through the shop’s glass windows.

Wilkins and Lewis founded the bakery in 2015 which makes breads and baked goods using heirloom and sourced grains they mill themselves from Anson Mills out of Columbia, South Carolina and Geechie Boy Mill based on Edisto Island, 50 miles south of Charleston.

In an interview with Charleston City Paper, Wilkins said the move to Atlanta was due in part to Charleston’s seasonal tourist economy which made it difficult to “pay the rent”.

• Nashville Bakery Bringing 100-Layer Doughnut to Ponce City Market [EATL]
• Draft Cocktails, Fancy Hot Dogs Headed to Ponce City Market [EATL]