Now Open: Garwood's &Grain Believes a Good Sandwich is in the Bread

The eatery offers fresh, baked-on-site artisan breads plus sandwiches, soups, specialty coffee and more.

John Ropelski says it's the bread that's in control of him, not the other way around. His day begins at 1 a.m., when he heads downstairs from his place on North Avenue in Garwood and into his storefront below. At Ropelski's new breakfast, brunch and lunch cafe &Grain, it's time to make the baguettes. "Baking bread is not like baking a cake," says Ropelski, a perfectionist. "I have to work with what it’s doing, which changes with all sorts of factors – if it’s cold outside, if it’s humid. Today it might take an hour and tomorrow it might take two. I could freeze dough or mix it the night before, but you don’t get the same product." Ropelski, a Union native, says he always knew he'd someday open his own business and it would be a lunch place…

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