Bread Makery Brings Taste of Russia to Salem

From Russia to Jewish studies graduate student in Texas to running a successful Russian bakery in Salem, NH, Andrey Bredstein has never been afraid to take risks and forge his own path. Born in Crimea and raised in Moscow, Bredstein and his wife made the difficult decision to move their family to America in 2002 in search of a better life.

Bredstein and his family landed at the University of Texas on a student visa where he eventually graduated with a degree in  Jewish studies. “I was able to get a temporary position at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia teaching Yiddish and Hebrew literature,” he says and then later securing a position at a private Jewish library in Boston.

The seeds for his current business were planted when he first arrived in America and could not find a crusty bread he liked. “We started baking ourselves, first simple breads then more complicated and shared them with neighbors and friends, and they would order more,” Bredstein says.

Tired of toiling in academia, Bredstein and his family decided to move to NH in 2014 and turn his baking into a small cottage business, Hidden Berry Cakes and Bread. However, when COVID hit he put the fledgling business on hold and began driving trucks.

When COVID restrictions eased, Bredstein decided to restart the bakery. He relaunched as the Bread Makery. “Baking is what I enjoy the most,” he says.

He sells the type of baked goods he enjoyed growing up, including hearty rye bread, teacakes with raisins and cranberries, Wizard cakes, rum balls and Teaskette, a pastry made with raspberry jam.

When the family moved to Derry in a residential area that did not allow commercial activities, he found a 900-square-foot building in Salem and opened in August 2022.

In addition to the darker Russian Rye, he now produces a lighter Jewish rye bread and recently introduced an American-style sourdough bread.

While most of his customers are local, about a third are immigrants from the former Soviet Union and “come to get bread they remember from their previous life. There’s no other place they can get it,” Bredstein says.

For more information, visit breadmakery.com.