Belle Fourche, South Dakota is the place to go if you are looking for an artisanal baked treat made completely from scratch with no artificial ingredients. 8th Avenue Bakery started off as a bakery that only made bread for the Rapid City farmers’ market, and soon flourished into one of the most unique bakeries around.
Owner Aaron Neiman chose to open his shops in Belle Fourche because of his history in the area. His grandpa used to take him to Hank’s Barbour Shop as a kid, and nine years ago that same building went up for sale. He bought the space and opened his first coffee shop, called Green Bean Coffeehouse.
“Our house at the time in Belle [Fourche] had a separate walk-out basement apartment that we converted into a certified kitchen called The Bakeshop,” said Neiman. “This became our in-house bakery for providing all the shops with scratch made baked goods.”
Soon after, 704 8th Avenue went up for sale, and he knew it would be the perfect place to expand his bakery. The building was originally a medical clinic and then a law office, so they had to do a complete renovation in order to transform it into the kitchen it is today.
“It’s unique in that its primary function is to supply our own coffee shops with fresh baked goods,” said Neiman. “We are also one of the last remaining bakeries to make both cake and raised donuts completely from scratch.”
The popular bakery is only open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. They plan to open up to the public more in the future, but for right now they spend the majority of their time baking goods for Neiman’s coffee shops throughout the Black Hills. Another goal Neiman has for his bakery is to reintroduce his line of breads that originally got the ball rolling, along with adding custom cakes.
Neiman says the 8th Avenue Bakery crew is full of fun, dedicated, and hard-working people who have a passion for frying donuts throughout the night. Neiman said his team has the support structure necessary to keep the bakery as great as it is. Head baker and manager Blaine Wall didn’t have a baking background, but moved his way up because of his desire to learn and create amazing goodies.
The bakery regularly includes new items to the menu that are hand-made by the staff. They also have seasonal items for holidays throughout the year; for example, on the 4th of July they offered Independence Day Pies.
“This will be the first year we try to incorporate a variety of berries foraged locally,” said Neiman. “Berry picking has long been a family tradition and yields such prized commodities as chokecherry syrup or service berry pie.”
Neiman said his personal favorite on the menu is the Boston Creams. This is a round donut with a hollow center filled with Boston cream made from scratch instead of vanilla pudding.
All baked goods from the bakery can be found at any of Neiman’s shops: Green Bean Coffeehouse in Belle Fourche and Spearfish, Blackbird Espresso in Spearfish, and Harriet & Oak in Rapid City.
For more information, follow 8th Avenue Bakery on Facebook for updates on their newest treats, as well as the addition of retail days.
6 MUST-TRY TREATS
- Maple Bacon Long John
- Boston Creams
- Carrot Cake Muffins
- Flourless Chocolate Cake
- Vanilla Spice Cake donut
- S’mores donut
