People around Salt Lake City are going crazy for croissants — at least the ones being made by Eli Fuhrman at All Purpose Bakehouse.
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The buzzy new bakery is located in a charming pink brick building in downtown Salt Lake City and features multiple versions of laminated pastries, such as croissants, Danishes and pain au chocolat, as well as some other breakfast pastry options.
All Purpose Bakehouse opened in February, and croissants often sell out before lunchtime. They’re popular for a reason — they’re delicious and indulgent. They just might be the best croissants you can find in Utah.
About the croissants
Making the croissants takes three days — a process that demands patience and time from the baker.
On the first day, he or the other baker on his team mix the dough that ferments during the day and overnight. The next day, he comes in and shapes the dough and laminates the butter into the dough to build up those tasty, flaky layers. Then he lets the dough rest until it’s time to bake the croissants.
“There’s just something that’s tactile about it, and it’s a slow process, and it is very grounding,” Fuhrman said. “And then you kind of get super detailed about it when you start laminating butter into it. That’s what makes it a pastry in a croissant.”
The key to a great croissant is knowing both the bread and the pastry side of things.
“It’s like this crossover of bread and pastry that I think is like endlessly interesting because it’s very challenging,” Fuhrman said. “They’re easy to mess up. But you get this kind of thing that’s kind of ethereal, and you’re like, it started out as the most simple bread dough and now it’s this light, airy, decadent pastry. You just get kind of obsessed about it.”
What led to All Purpose Bakehouse
Fuhrman grew up in Salt Lake City, but recently moved back from Boulder, Colorado, where he spent three years learning from other bakers. He went there with the intention of learning to make bread but inevitably became “the pastry guy.”
After three years, he missed his family, friends and home and decided to move back to Utah. After about six months, an opportunity to buy the space that would become All Purpose Bakehouse arrived.
“I was like, wow, this place is so cute. I love the brick,” Fuhrman said. “I thought I could see this area working for what I want.”
The space was completely bare when Fuhrman took over, so renovations to build out a kitchen and turn the space into what he wanted took about eight months. To save money, he and friends did a lot of the renovations themselves.
“I’d say it’s going pretty well,” Fuhrman said. “I’m still trying to figure it out and get the name out there, but there are definitely people who come for their croissants at least once a week. I just feel lucky.”
Becoming a pastry chef
Fuhrman made his first croissant in 2018, but he’s always had a sweet tooth. He grew up “obsessed with being in the kitchen.”
“I would just like hover, I had to be around if there were smells coming from the kitchen or if my parents were in the kitchen,” Fuhrman said.
Although he loved being in the kitchen and around food, he didn’t start baking until his first job in high school. He started out as a dishwasher at a little cafe near his house at age 15, and slowly they started letting him do prep cook work.
They were known for fresh-baked scones, and soon, that was the first thing he baked in a professional setting.
“That was the first time I made something that we sold and other people ate, and I remember the feeling that came with that, feeling really good,” Fuhrman said. “I took some pride in it. It just felt good to see people enjoy something that you make.”
The staff at the restaurant made an impression on Fuhrman and “had a paternal vibe with me.” After that, he was hooked on working in kitchens and learning about chefs. He read Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” and began spending his free time watching YouTube videos about chefs and books about chefs.
He tried attending college, but it never felt like the right fit. He was in an introductory level coding class that would do group projects, and he always felt like “the weakest link” in the group.
He would invite his group over on Fridays to work on the projects together, and he would always cook or bake something for the group.
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“It would alleviate my guilt a little bit,” he joked. “I think that’s kind of where I was like, I’m starting to feel a more serious pull or draw to this.”
The baker tried out catering for a while but realized he was more drawn into the baking side of things. He started working with someone who would host European chefs to teach classes, so he had the opportunity to learn from chefs from Paris, Sweden and “all over.”
“I just got exposed to so much by doing that,” Fuhrman said. “I kind of got to see like how high the ceiling was.”
After that, he worked in bakeries on and off for the last five to 10 years.
“It’s the thing that I found that I’m the best at and I’m still pretty obsessed about it,” Fuhrman said.
Becoming obsessed with croissants
After baking his first croissant, he started digging into the croissant world. He would search for the best croissants in cities like New York City, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, and soon, he started forming opinions and theories on what makes for the best croissants.
He started teaching himself how to make the croissants first using a book called “Advanced Bread and Pastry” by Michel Suas, who is a classic French baker in San Francisco.
“There’s just something about it,” Fuhrman said. “It changes so much and it’s just challenging. It kind of feels like you’re always like chasing this like perfection that you can never really consistently get.”
How travel impacted his baking
Shortly after moving back from Colorado, Fuhrman took a trip abroad with some friends and explored the pastries of Europe. He spent about a month between Poland, Germany and Copenhagen.
“Any time I travel somewhere, especially big international cities, there’s just usually a really good baking scene or pastry scene,” Fuhrman said. “In Europe, they have hundreds of years of that tradition.”
Most days on the trip, he would wake up a few hours before his friends and check out a couple bakeries and coffee shops and try out the pastries.
“That’s just how I like to travel, just eat and explore,” Fuhrman said. “There’s something about the culture over there that people really like. There’s so many people who just want to start the day with coffee and croissants and pastries.”
After exploring the cafes, he figured something similar would work back home and he continued working on a business plan that would eventually come to fruition as All Purpose Bakehouse.
“I just want people to get to taste the thing that I like to eat every morning,” Fuhrman said. “It’s fun for me to make most of the time, and I get to make my whole career around it.”
What I ordered
The first time I went into All Purpose Bakehouse, it was about 1 p.m., and unfortunately, all the croissants were sold out.
Undeterred, I showed up early the next time and purchased two different croissants, and I wish I had tried more.
The butter croissant: It’s flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. The butter and sweetness provide the perfect balance of salty and sweet. It’s a perfect croissant, in my opinion.
The pain au chocolat: This one was also flaky and soft with little shots of chocolate layered throughout in the best way. It’s amazing.
I’ll definitely be going back to try the same croissants, as well as a few others.
“I’ve been so lucky with just how receptive people have been,” Fuhrman said. “I’m also really grateful for my team. I could not do any of this without them.”
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Storefront information
- Address: 779 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
- Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Price: $