Sub Rosa: Eat It, Virginia LIVE!

Evrim and Evin Dogu are the brother and sister team behind some
of the country's best bread. Their Richmond bakery, Sub Rosa, has
become a favorite of locals and a tourist destination for
traveling foodies. Five years after opening Sub Rosa Bakery in
Church Hill, Evrim and Evin were named James Beard Award
Semi-Finalists outstanding bakers in the country. A feat the duo
repeated in 2018, 2019, and 2020.


 


What's the secret to their success? Quality ingredients, a nice
brother-sister balance, and their wood-fired oven.


 


"We load each bread by hand into a wood-fired oven. And the
wood-fired oven is the whole thing." Evrim shared on the latest
episode of Eat It, Virginia. "It has fire in it from around 3
p.m. till 10 p.m. So it's just fire inside of the oven."


"So even if we wanted to bake more, there's a cut-off at 3 p.m.,
we can't bake anymore, because we have to start the fire for the
next day," Evin added.


It's a baking method the Dogus can trace back to ancient Egypt.
"It's the same thing. They built a room, they build a fire in the
room, they take the fire out, the room is hot. Put the stuff in,"
Evrim said. "So [the Sub Rosa oven is] the same exact principle,
the bricks are a little better now and we get our wood from
Powhatan. They call it a falling oven, the temperatures falling
all night long. And then the baker comes in early in the morning,
and just tries to catch that wave of heat as it goes from 7 a.m.
till 2 p.m."


Evin added that their team switches up jobs often to avoid
burnout in the bakery and they hold each other accountable to
help ensure the best quality bread.


"We have a monthly meeting and whoever bakes that day will pick
out the croissants and the breads they think are their best
example of their best work. And we'll just talk about it. So I
think just like constantly talking to each other and checking
in," she said.


Sub Rosa Bakery


620 N 25th Street


Richmond, VA 23223


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