photo by: Richard Gwin

Loaves of wheat bread at 1900 Barker Bakery & Cafe

Lawrence’s 1900 Barker Bakery & Cafe has been named one of the top 100 bakeries in the nation by Food & Wine Magazine.

The bakery, co-owned by brothers Taylor and Reagan Petrehn and located at 1900 Barker Ave., specializes in naturally leavened breads, seasonal pastries and handcrafted coffee.

Taylor said he didn’t find out the bakery made the list until a couple of days after the list was published. Someone had forwarded it to him.

“It’s definitely an honor,” he said, adding that “it’s always nice to have our name shouted out somewhere.”

But Taylor said it was also a strange time to celebrate something.

“It seems like there’s a lot more important things right now than lists … but I think all those people on that list are really putting their best foot forward, and that’s all really any of us can do right now,” he said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor said “the way we’ve been able to adapt has kept us fairly busy.” The bakery now offers online ordering for curbside pickup. The support from the community has enabled the brothers to hire three new employees, all of whom were without jobs and ineligible for unemployment.

1900 Barker is the only bakery in Kansas on Food & Wine’s list. A short paragraph on the list lauds the Petrehns as being only “in their early twenties when they turned an abandoned neighborhood laundromat into the most modern and exciting bakery and coffee shop in a college town already full of quality carbs and coffee.”

Taylor, a graduate of Johnson County Community College’s culinary program, opened 1900 Barker with his younger brother in 2015.

In February, Taylor was named one of 20 semifinalists in the “Outstanding Baker” category for the James Beard Foundation Awards. He said he found out last week that he was not a finalist.