City "Fakery" Revealed

There's been a great deal of foodblogger and foodie message board buzz over the past few weeks about the bakery in the East Village whose baked goods bore an uncanny resemblance to those at the beloved City Bakery. New York mag reveals the source of the confusion -- City Baker's owner, Maury Rubin. His goal is to have his patrons

focus on the space itself—what he believes is the first top-to-bottom green bakery. Rubin, it turns out, has always baked with organic ingredients and has now created a showcase for them from ecofriendly materials: The walls are made from wheat and sunflower seed; the floor from a cork by-product. The paint is milk-based, and its pigment derived from beets. Tufts of denim insulation make a base for the bamboo counter, and the staff is clad in racy hemp-and-linen jackets.

He has created a website, buildagreenbakery.com, that describes each component in great detail and will chronicle the bakery's "re-invention" every six months or so -- he plans to redesign periodically. The bakery's code name is "Birdbath," but there's no need to whisper it at the door.

photo from Tangentialism/Flickr

"Birdbath," 223 First Ave.