By Ally Gordon of Ole & Steen

In Copenhagen, on a street corner, there’s a small bakery in a building that looks like a layer cake.

This is the first outpost of what has become a Danish institution with over 80 (and counting) stores across the country selling bread and cakes freshly made every night – and throughout the day – so that customers can be sure of freshness.

The name of these bakeries is Lagkagehuset – Danish for ‘layer cake house’.

In the UK, we call ourselves Ole & Steen after the two founders, pictured above.

The story goes that Ole Kristoffersen, who had opened that street corner store, heard about another baker in Denmark whose passion for the best ingredients and the traditional methods equalled his own.

He drove across the country to meet Steen Skallebæk and a friendship was immediately formed, followed by a business partnership.

After many years of perfecting their craft – and with daily queues of customers waiting patiently for their freshest loaves and pastries – Ole & Steen came to the UK and opened in Haymarket, London in December 2016.

We were delighted when the British public took Ole & Steen to their hearts and many people started to travel across town just for our food.

Since opening that first store in London, we’ve launched seven more bakeries across the capital and they have proved very popular in their communities.

The time is right to venture out of London and, to my mind, there is no better place to expand Ole & Steen than Oxford.

It’s always been one of my favourite cities and every time I visit, I’m always excited by the vibrant and energetic mix of local people, students and tourists that make the place special.

My hope is that we can be THE place to visit for everything from early morning coffee and a pastry to a relaxing wind-down in the evening.

Or maybe you’ll become one of our regulars who visits every couple of days for the freshest, yummiest bread around.

Everyone is welcome.

See you in

September.