Chef Nicholas Maresh. Photo by BAC Photography
In today’s Historic Downtown Rosenberg, visitors really can do it all – visit a museum, shop for antiques and apparel, see a live show, enjoy a wine bar and most importantly, eat. But the newest place to enjoy the small town experience of homemade baked goods is not really new at all. The Old Main Street Bakery resides in a 100 year-old building and features decades-old, tried and true recipes steeped in Czech tradition.
The Old Main St. Bakery
“My goal with the Old Main Street Bakery is to bring back the true kolache and some of our Czech culture,” said Chef Nicholas Maresh, owner, executive pastry chef and Rosenberg native. “I’m using some of my grandma’s recipes, Czech and German in origin, for many of my pastries but especially my kolaches.”
Making kolaches is serious business in the Rosenberg community as many of its descendants are Czech. The cultural bakery treat originated in Central Europe as a semisweet wedding dessert and has become popular in America. The Old Main Street Bakery creates not only the traditional Czech varieties of poppy seed and cheese but various fruit flavors and the ever popular sausage kolache. “I use a big piece of sausage in my kolaches directly from Kovasovic’s Meat Market here locally. I want my recipes to be as true to our culture as I can make them.”
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Maresh’s passion for baking began in high school. He worked alongside his mom, Renee Butler, at Another Time Soda Fountain in Rosenberg growing up and discovered his passion for the culinary arts, especially baking. He graduated with a Bachelor of Professional Studies in Baking and Pastry Arts Management in 2013 and worked at a bakery in Connecticut, where he developed recipes for another of his specialties: breads.
“All of our breads are homemade daily,” said Maresh. The bakery currently features baguettes and wheat breads, with the promise of more varieties coming soon.
The Old Main Street Bakery’s current menu also includes special occasion cakes including weddings, birthdays and special events, pies, cupcakes, brownies, croissants and cinnamon rolls. While the kolaches remain a customer favorite, Maresh said the cinnamon rolls have been selling out daily.
Chef Shianne Rich
A specialist in cake decorating and design, Chef Shianne Rich, another CIA graduate, is creating the cakes for the bakery. “Shianne brings not only a love of baking but vast experience in cake decorating,” said Maresh. “Her cakes are not only delicious; they are works of art that she custom creates to celebrate any occasion.”
While creating culinary delights are the easy part of Maresh’s job, renovating the 100 year-old building that houses the Old Main Street Bakery was a challenge. “It has taken much longer than we anticipated, but the end result was definitely worth it.”
The ambience of the building, along with Maresh’s goal of keeping his Czech heritage alive and well in Historic Downtown Rosenberg through his bakery, speaks to his mission. “I have a Czech proverb that was given to me by former Rosenberg Mayor Joe Gurecky,” shared Maresh. “The proverb says: ‘Bez práce – nej sú koláe,’ which translates to ‘Without work, there are no kolaches.’ This phrase is on a sign that hangs proudly in the bakery to remind me that hard work and determination pays off.”
The Old Main Street Bakery is located at 808 3rd Street in Historic Downtown Rosenberg. It is open Wednesday through Friday from 6 am to 3 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 7 am to 3 pm. Call 281-232-BAKE for more information, or the next time you are in Downtown Rosenberg, just follow your nose. The aroma of fresh-baked goods will surely lead you to the right spot.