Bakery Resort BLUECORNER is easy to find by its flashy blue door near a tree-lined promenade about a five-minute walk from Nakamachidai Station. The bakery is nice and cozy with the ambience of a summer resort, and you can enjoy fresh bread and coffee at its café. The owner, who introduced himself as “Hammerhead,” had a unique career as the rep of a pro-wrestling team and greeted me with a big smile and a strong handshake.
BLUECORNER is a popular bakery known for over 400 selections of delicious baked goods, but you’ll be surprised to find only a limited number of items on display. Hammerhead is against the idea of mass consumption and actively tries to reduce waste by baking only the bread that he expects to be consumed. Along with some regular items, monthly items using ingredients unique to a region or country are displayed, but again, only in quantities enough for each day. “Japan is said to waste 1/3 of imported food. We only use ingredients produced conscientiously and provide our bread at reasonable prices for customers who appreciate it,” says Hammerhead.
All the bread items are made without preservatives, baking powder or yeast food. The best-selling bread, Pandomi (¥420/loaf), uses specialty salt from Okinawa. You can taste the savory fresh flour and natural sweetness of the salt. Kouign-amann (¥320ea.), white cream buns (¥220ea.), and Hokkaido buttered melon buns (¥220ea.) are authentic and loved by regulars, especially kids. Catering to each customer, Hammerhead bakes bread by request, such as breads with less salt and sugar for the elderly or breads with no dairy products for people who are lactose intolerant.
BLUECORNER is only open four days a week, from Saturday to Tuesday. When the shop is closed, Hammerhead keeps himself busy by working with restaurants, cafés and corporations across Japan that need inspiration for new menu items using his bread. His recent joint production with “Kamakura Big Buddha Bread”, a vegetable café in Kamakura, is becoming quite popular among tourists there. For those who need bread on their table every day, also check out their online shop.