Who doesn’t love the smell of fresh baked bread in the morning?

Shawn Bergin, baker and owner of Bakery Four in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood, not only loves it — he makes it. 

The New York transplant’s affinity for baking from his early teenage years has given the city a popular pastry shop, and now Bakery Four is looking to push out some pasta offerings via a dinner concept titled “Night Off.”

Moving from Washington D.C. to Colorado was a no brainer for Bergin and his wife. His wife received a job transfer in 2019 and subsequently Bergin left a career in sales and marketing with a real estate firm to follow his passion for baking.

“If we were going to do this (a move out from Washington D.C.), we started figuring out different places we could move to that were the right fit so my wife could transfer her job and I could just bake for fun and sell a little bit on the side,” Bergin said.

And that gamble paid off too.

Starting from Bergin’s basement and selling baked goods through a Colorado cottage food license in October 2019, Bakery Four rose quickly in the first five years, especially during the COVID pandemic.

“Word spread like wildfire during COVID,” Bergin said. “It seemed like everybody wanted to get out and support small business and people started lining up immediately, where we were selling between 200 and 300 products a day.”

Now, Bakery Four occupies a space as a large brick-and-mortar bakery below the Berkeley Hotel in northwest Denver.

Denverites frequenting Bakery Four know well Bergin’s pastries and breads sell out quickly, sometimes as early as 9 a.m., and Bergin even said that “he’d be happy just selling about 100 pastries and a few loaves a week and he’d be just fine.”

But what started out as a small shop with long lines and only open three days a week, now has baked goods rolling out the door even more, are offered five days a week (Wednesday-Sunday) and employs a larger staff.

“We’ve been very methodical with everything,” he said.

Bakery Four is focused on quality ingredients too, something Bergin made sure was to be offered from day one.

From Cairnspring Mills flour to French sel gris (gray sea salt) and Isigny Sainte Mère butter (higher fat content) to Valrhona Chocolate, Bergin did his homework on finding the best ingredients to bake the best breads possible.

“Through research on Instagram and YouTube, I found out what some of the other really great bakeries in the country were using like some French imported butters and chocolates, and figured out really quickly how to get the best product out.”

Those products are on display daily at the bakery too, including a large selection of laminated pastries such as a Coffee Cake, Monkey Bread, Brioche Bomb, Garlic Knot, Frangipane Croissant and Olive Fougasse bread.

The menu is updated every Wednesday morning and is available from Wednesday to Sunday.

No rest for the doughy 

Baking pastries and breads is usually associated with early mornings, leaving only evenings available for bakers to rest. Coming soon to Bakery Four is “Night Off”— a dinner concept new to the bakery, featuring house-made pasta dishes.

“I always played around with pasta, making fresh pasta at home for friends and family,” Bergin said. “And since our space is totally open after about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, migrating that into a different concept seemed right.”

Bergin said he is in a good position to break off from baking breads in the morning to help create pasta dishes in the afternoons and evenings.

“‘Night Off’ felt like a good name since most bakers usually have the night off, but we will be focusing on the grains we use in all of our pastries and breads to make pastas to give a high-end dining experience in a casual way; that is what ‘Night Off’ is going to be all about.”

Bergin said a small, 5-6 tasting dishes will be offered, including Lumache, Capaletti, and Lasagna, with the intention of migrating into a full-service restaurant.

The “Night Off” concept is slated to open late May/early June.

Check out Bakery Four at 4150 Tennyson Street in Denver, open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.