Tacoma Farmers Market Favorite Balloon Roof Baking Co. Opens Sixth Avenue Storefront

The tent at Proctor Farmers Market moves 1,000 loaves every Saturday, sometimes replenished mid-morning by real-time runs from the production bakery in Fife. That system stays in place. What Don and Emily Broyles opened the weekend of March 19 changes what the rest of the week looks like.

Balloon Roof Baking Co. soft-opened its first brick-and-mortar location at 1702 6th Ave in Tacoma's central district, a 3,400-square-foot 1920s stone building that most recently housed It's Greek To Me restaurant and before that an auto shop, a hardware supply store, and an aeronautical training school for women. "It needs a little love," Don Broyles said before renovation work began. Getting it there required gutting the interior: moving bathrooms, cutting concrete, relocating plumbing.

The storefront menu draws from the full range the Broyles have developed across market seasons. Slow-fermented sourdough loaves run from the classic whole-grain varietal to flavored boules studded with black pepper and parmesan, garlic and rosemary, and caramelized onions with gruyere. Bagels, focaccia slices, croissants, and kouign-amann fill out the pastry case. Coffee comes from Olympia Coffee Roasters. The space seats 30 to 50 people and retains a drive-thru; grab-and-go sandwiches and larder goods are on the way.

For a first visit, the black pepper-and-parmesan boule is the clearest window into Balloon Roof's fermentation philosophy: the extended cold proof produces an open, irregular crumb and a crust that fractures audibly, with parmesan integrated into the structure rather than simply baked on top. The roasted-red-pepper and chili-crisp focaccia is the flavor-forward entry point, punchy and representative of how far the team pushes beyond standard formulations. Both hold well at room temperature through the day; a few minutes in a 400°F oven refreshes any crust that softens overnight.

One thing to know before going: the 6th Ave storefront focuses production on laminated pastry while sourdough continues to come out of the Fife wholesale bakery, where a 10,000-pound oven and extensive cold storage handle the fermentation demands at scale. Broyles has been direct about the reason: "sourdough requires tons of cooler space." The freshness standard that drives the Proctor sell-through, loaves sometimes arriving just 30 minutes from the Fife oven, carries over to Sixth Avenue.

Broyles described the ambition plainly: "We just want to fix food and make bread fresh every day, in Tacoma. Freshness is a big source of pride for us." The renovation ran harder than anticipated, but his read on the outcome was characteristic: "it's gonna happen." It did.

The Proctor Farmers Market presence continues on Saturdays. The Sixth Avenue storefront means the customers who built their weekends around a narrow market window now have a daily address for the same long-fermented loaves.