From the Eastlake Ave. neighborhood blog:

Next time you’re in a Seattle grocery store, perusing all the exotic loaves of bread in the bakery section, stop for a moment and say a little thanks to Gwenyth Bassetti. She helped to make possible those loaves of olive bread and foccachia and rustic Italian.

Bassetti founded Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square in 1989. Prior to that, in the early 1970s, she and two friends opened a little sandwich shop called, simply, The Bakery, also in the Square’s Grand Central Building. At a time when “bread” meant, at best, whole wheat in a plastic bag, she showed us that there was a world of possibilities out there that we hadn’t even dreamed of.

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