A night baker and a morning counter

Halfmoon is at 214 Wickett Street in Ashford, CT, on the corner of Mill Road. We bake bread overnight, fill the pastry counter before opening and serve breakfast until 11 am.

Mara Bell is the baker and co-owner. She learned to bake on an overnight shift, where weighing a batch correctly mattered as much as watching the dough rise. At Halfmoon she handles the loaves, pastry dough and whole cakes.

Theo Grant runs the front of the café and shares ownership with Mara. He takes catering orders, steams milk and remembers which cake boxes need a name on the lid. He also arranges the tables for talks and classes after closing; the room seats about 24 people.

Lunch runs from 11 am to 2 pm, except Sundays when the kitchen closes at 1 pm. Whole cakes need two days of notice, and catering for 10 to 120 people needs three. Monday is our closed day, with the next bread batch starting that night.