HoneyBirch Bakehouse brings sweet and savory to Larchmere
By Carlo Wolff
It’s midmorning in early fall in Cleveland, still warm enough to sit outside Renee and Elan Hoenig’s HoneyBirch Bakehouse and savor a sweet cardamom knot—similar to a cinnamon roll but with a fragrant, citrusy-cardamom filling—or a flaky, savory bourekas hand pie, a staple of Israeli and Sephardic Jewish cuisine. Both are among the bakery’s signature offerings.
Tables off the entrance accommodate a couple or three while other fans crowd the small, cheerful store, eager to pick up the takeout treats HoneyBirch Bakehouse is known for. Since the Hoenigs transitioned from the cottage industry they ran out of their Highland Heights home more than four years ago, their bakery on Larchmere Boulevard at East 122nd Street has become a part of just the kind of community they were seeking.
HoneyBirch Bakehouse draws regulars from as far away as Oberlin and Painesville, from Tremont and, of course, from Larchmere, the low-key, culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhood located just north of Shaker Square, where the couple decided to pitch their tent.
“I love baking,” says Renee, who used to bake sugar pies when she was a little girl growing up in Chardon. “I love the formula side of things and playing with different flavors. And I love seeing all of our regulars every day and catching up and seeing how everyone’s doing. I really enjoy the sense of community.”
“We wanted a walkable neighborhood where people who live around here would walk and shop,” says Elan, who grew up in a Jewish household in South Euclid. “We wanted to have other local, smaller businesses around us. We wanted more of a community feel.
“Renee and I are here all day, every day, so when you come into our bakery, you’re going to see us, our moods, our vibe, our food,” he says. And while their customers should expect to find staples like those cardamom knots and creamy-crunchy bourekas, as well as cookies, brownies, and pistachio butter buns, they also can count on the unexpected.
“I think people’s souls have a need for things like this.”
-Elan Hoenig
At HoneyBirch Bakehouse, Elan and Renee Hoenig are always behind the counter – and behind every loaf, knot, and cookie that leaves the bakery. Photo courtesy of Carlo Wolff
“We do true small-batch, outside of cookies or brownies,” says Elan. “Everything we’re selling was made from scratch that morning, which isn’t always the best business choice. But we want every piece of pastry that goes out to taste as good as possible.”
Unlike more established bakeries whose regulars expect the familiar and only the familiar, HoneyBirch Bakehouse can be creative, he suggests.
“We’re not really thinking about how to make everyone happy. We’re just making ourselves happy and hoping that those good vibes move on.”
A customer favorite: the cardamom knot, tender and fragrant with just the right touch of spice. Photo courtesy of Carlo Wolff
Labor of love
HoneyBirch Bakehouse may be best known for its fresh-baked breads, pastries, and sweet treats — but this local favorite is more than just a bakery. The menu also features a delicious variety of made-to-order breakfast and lunch sandwiches, each crafted with the same care and creativity that define their baked goods.
Guaranteeing the highest quality means getting up at 3 a.m. and staying until the dishes are spotless. It means using the best ingredients—and a lot of family help. Renee’s mother comes in at least once a week, and his cousin Eytan helps out when he’s home from school. But day to day, HoneyBirch is just Elan and Renee.
Renee makes all the bread, baguettes, sandwich rolls, and yeast pastries. Elan handles the brownies, cookies, scones, muffins, puff pastries—including the bourekas his Israeli mother used to bake—and the Danish.
Beyond pastries, quiche, and sandwiches, HoneyBirch offers locally sourced dairy, eggs, chocolate, and tinned seafood called conservas, along with boutique coffee and tea. The result is a warm, aromatic space where old friends run into each other and new ones strike up conversations over a shared love of something flaky and fresh from the oven.
“It’s a hidden gem. We just stumbled on it one day,” says customer Michael Darman, who moved to the area three years ago from Washington, D.C., where he was director of Union Kitchen. “It’s easy to drive past and not see it, but it’s the best bakery. The baraka is the reason I come back—though I always have to try something new.”
Morning at HoneyBirch Bakehouse – trays of cardamom knots, bourekas, and scones waiting to make someone’s day a little sweeter. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Meiser
Regulars like Edgard Sanchez agree. “Honestly, they could put a shoe in there and I’d still be back,” he jokes. “The pastries are that good. Like the focaccia – it’s new this year.”
For Elan and Renee, hearing that kind of feedback makes the long hours worth it. “The 12-hour days, the six- or seven-day weeks can be stressful,” says Renee. “But if you enjoy what you do and the person you’re doing it with, it makes it worth it.”
HoneyBirch takes online preorders for holidays and does especially well on Thanksgiving and Christmas, with smaller bursts around Easter. But most of its business comes from walk-ins and phone orders. The couple takes time off to celebrate the bar and bat mitzvahs of family and friends and takes at least two weeks off in January, when there’s not enough business to warrant staying open, Elan says.
Settling on Larchmere
Elan and Renee met at a Grog Shop concert in Cleveland Heights in 2010 and have been married for “seven-ish” years. Elan went to a certification program for culinary arts at Cuyahoga Community College, and has been all levels of chef (including the in-home personal kind, for a year-and-a-half, in Florida). He also worked at the Wine Spot in Cleveland Heights for 11 years, building rapport with customers who followed him to his Larchmere business.
Renee, meanwhile, held managerial positions at John Carroll and Case Western Reserve universities. A Cleveland State University graduate, she has a master’s degree in English Literature from John Carroll.
“After Covid, we decided we didn’t want to do those things anymore and we decided to do a bakery,” Etan says.
They always knew they wanted to own a bakery, and tracked this property for several years in hopes they could make it their own. They didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars a month for a space in a mall or a new shopping center.
“Before we signed the lease here, we spent a year baking from home and selling from home under cottage food law,” says Elan. “We would post online menus, people would order them, we would bake and deliver them. So we were doing that while we were still working our regular jobs and planning and looking for a space.”
Now, Renee says, she and Elan “feel like we’re the neighborhood bakery. We love when people find us from outside of the neighborhood and come visit us and love what we do and come back to see us.”
“I think people’s souls have a need for things like this,” says Elan. “Sweets and good vibes.”