Fresh made made bread and pastries, hot coffee and a slight air of mystery proved to be the perfect ingredients to entice a steady stream of customers into Burien’s newest bakery on opening day.

Their Burien location, at 626 S.W. 152nd St., is Grand Central Bakery’s third café/bakery in the Puget Sound Area. There are also six Grand Central Bakery’s in Portland Oregon.

Being under heavy construction for the last couple of months the building was completed covered in plywood, which gave it mystery, Grand Central Bakery Co-Owner Gillian Allen-White said. After the plywood came off Allen-White said you could see nose marks no the window from people looking in.

All of the proceeds from their opening day go to the Highline Food Bank and the Highline Schools Foundation for Excellence.

“We like to tailor what we do to what is close to our hearts,” Allen-White said. Which she said includes fighting hunger, education. They also help support the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure each year, which raises money to fight breast Cancer.

All of the bread and pastries are made fresh from scratch every day. Allen-White said they try to get all of their ingredients from sustainable sources. She said most of the meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables come from small farmers in the area.

“We are trying to walk the talk,” Allen-White said.

The sandwich specials change depending what is in season. Allen-White said tomatoes have just ripened, so everything on the specials menu is tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes.

The Bakery uses special solar panels on the roof to heat their hot water. Allen-White said all of the wood in the store, including the tables, came from an 80-year-old barn in Oregon. She also said their refrigeration units are all energy star.

Allen-White said that although it is not a LEED’s certified building they worked to make their operation as sustainable as possible. (LEED’s certification is given to building’s who meet a certain level of requirements of sustainability).

Burien Grand Central Bakery store Manager Summer Hepburn said, “this is the bakery we have always strived for in Seattle.”

Allen-White said the infrastructure in Downtown Burien really caught her eye. She said it felt like the kind of place they wanted to be.

She said Grand Central Bakery had looked at the current Elliot Bay Brewery location as a wholesale bakery, but it was not quite big enough; too big, she said, for a café/bakery, but not large enough for a wholesale bakery.

But when she saw the building the Bakery ultimately became located in she said she loved it and immediately called the leasing agent.

Not a week before opening their newest bakery, the Grand Central Bakery in Pioneer Square had a very special customer.

On Tuesday while President Barack Obama was in town for a fundraiser for Senator Patti Murray (D) he stopped at the Grand Central Bakery for a sandwich.

Allen-White said she discussed the potential and value of small businesses with the President. She said opportunities still exist.

Grand Central Bakery was able to open the Burien location in part because they did not have to rely on a bank loan to finance the entire project, Allen-White said. She said she was not sure a bank would have loaned a small business the entire amount to open the bakery.