Earlier this year, Northeast Portland’s Shorebird Bakery, FKA Woodblock Bakery, announced their name change and plans to move. The new location was unknown then, as it was still in the planning stages, but now we know: They’ll be setting up the bakery at the Oakshire Beer Hall building on NE 42nd and Alberta—a boon to both the Cully and Concordia neighborhoods.
Jesse Schumann, Shorebird’s owner, reached out to us over email last week to share the news. Here is some of what he told us.
Shorebird Bakery: What’s in a Name (Change)?
Back in February, they posted on their Instagram: “First, we have a new name!”
They continued, “’Shorebird’ is structurally an homage to our cousin bakeries, Sea Wolf and Oxbow: a little animal + a little water = a name for a little bakery. It is philosophically a nod to all the delightful little birds that scamper and wade and dabble at the water’s edge, going busily about their business and bringing small joys to their audience.”
The New Location for Shorebird Bakery
The building they’ll be moving to is currently home to Oakshire Beer Hall; previously it was the location of Old Salt Marketplace, which opened there in 2013. It is a 6,000 square foot industrial space that Ben Meyer, Alex Ganum, and Marcus Hoover turned into “a full-service restaurant, in-house butcher shop, and event space, with a meat and sandwich retail store,” according to an article at the time by Andrea Damewood at the Merc.
Old Salt closed in July 2018, with Oakshire Beer Hall opening there about a year later in July 2019.
On Friday, May 1, Shorebird Bakery will open in the building. “We’ll be taking that middle bay that used to be occupied by Old Salt Marketplace,” said Jesse. You may also remember this space as one formerly occupied by BIBA! CHamoru Kitchen, too.
On Instagram Jesse wrote, “This location has the space and the equipment necessary for us to take the next steps in the evolution of this little bakery.” That means bread, as well as a chance to work on laminated pastries, too.
Bread
He says the Oakshire folks are being really supportive—so much so that they are sharing their pizza oven and Jesse is hoping to start a little weekly bread program on Fridays. They’ll start modestly in scale: “Just some white sourdough loaves, the Sea Wolf rye sourdough, and one or two other breads,” he explained. “I’m going to take a shot at baguettes, but without steam injection, I might not hit my mark.”
Laminated Pastry
Good news for croissant lovers: “There’s also enough room that I dragged the old Sea Wolf tabletop sheeter out of storage,” said Jesse. “Once I get it cleaned up and we run some power for it, I’m going to see if I can still laminate well enough to make a decent croissant.”
Other Baked Goods
You can see on their current menu that they have been making a variety of cookies and bars, scones, muffins, cinnamon rolls, and savory rolls. I expect he’ll bring those over to join his plans for the aforementioned bread and laminated pastry work. I’m looking forward to trying what he offers in the new space.
Thoughts on the Move
He has a mix of feelings: “I’m honestly pretty excited about this,” he said. “Nervous about the move, but excited for to get back to the products that I really love making.”
He continued, “When I started Shorebird, I felt kind of ambivalent about creating a bread and croissant program. Yeasted stuff is generally more time and labor intensive than chemically leavened pastry, and bread in particular can be a demanding production schedule if you’re trying to do it every day. I felt like I had neither the energy nor the space to do bread and croissants.”
He spent a lot of time thinking a lot about what kind of work he really enjoys. “I thought a lot about what products get me jazzed about getting up and going to work in the morning,” he explained. “As you know, this is the third bakery I’ve opened, and the first one I’ve done without my brother, and I really want to get back to the fun and excitement I felt when Sea Wolf was young.”
He added, “As much as is practicable, I want to bake the products that I enjoy making. The gamble is if folks will be interested, so we’ll see!”
Shorebird will be at Woodblock Chocolate’s manufactory on NE 17th Avenue until their final day of service on Thursday, April 23. That gives them about a week to transition over to NE 42nd Avenue. Be sure to take advantage of these next couple of weeks while they are in Irvington, where you can easily pick up some of the great chocolates that Woodblock creates, along with your tasty Shorebird baked goods.
All the best to Jesse as he winds down at the current location and gets set to open on NE 42nd Avenue. See you in May!
Shorebird Bakery [reopening May 1, 2026]
5013 NE 42nd Avenue, Portland
Shorebird Bakery website | Instagram
Meg Cotner
