Armenian Treats Dished From New Jerome Ave Bakery

There are big plans in store for the Brooklyn Bread House, which opened its doors at 1718 Jerome Avenue last Friday.

The business sells breads, cookies, cakes and other pastries baked daily on premises. That’s in addition to a wall of nuts and dried fruits, Eastern European candies, a pickle bar and specialty goods.

But the product that anchors Brooklyn Bread House is its Armenian lavash, a thin unleavened bread traditionally made by slapping flattened dough against the hot walls of a wood oven.

The bakery’s Armenian owner, a Sheepshead Bay resident and former home attendant, saw an opportunity to begin baking lavash in the neighborhood. According to her daughter-in-law and store supervisor, Mariam Margaryan, Armenian and Eastern European families around Sheepshead Bay enjoy eating fresh lavash, but there are no bakeries in the area that make it. Almost all lavash is imported from Los Angeles or Boston, Margaryan said.

With the idea of bringing fresh lavash to the neighborhood, they bulked up their Armenian offerings with gata, a crumbly but buttery sweetbread. And soon they hope to bring lahmago, a pizza-like dish with an Armenian twist.

On top of that, they’re offering Italian-bakery style goods like cookies, cakes and donuts, as well as local ethnic favorites like khachapuri. Their daily bread offerings include baguettes, puri, shoti and rye (medium and dark).

So far, the store has seen a lot of customers, and when we stopped by there was hardly a moment to take questions.

“This area was waiting for this kind of store,” said Margaryan. “All the neighbors tell us this. There was no such store here.”

And about those big plans for the future? Margaryan said they’re looking to add barbecued foods, a salad bar, and fresh ground Turkish coffee in addition to the Armenian pizza.