Bill Gross is awake when most of us are fast asleep. He is the baker behind the delicious breads, rolls, and plated desserts served at Chef Bobby Zimmerman’s growing True Blue brand which includes True Blue Butcher and Table, True Blue Butcher and Barrel, Beat Street, and Ellipsis.
“Bobby is passionate about food and committed to quality,” said Bill. “I knew I could work for Bobby.”
Bill has been baking for 23 years. He grew up in Queens, New York, where his mother cooked and baked.
“I grew up in the kitchen,” he said.
He attended the Culinary Institute of America (the CIA) in the Hudson River Valley, and he worked in well-known Manhattan restaurants including Le Cirque, Eleven Madison Park, Jean Georges, Cafe Gray, and Jacques Torres Chocolates in Brooklyn.
Four years before relocating to the Brunswick Forest Area, Bill, and his wife, Chelsea, owned and operated a 10,000 sq. ft. restaurant in Northern Virginia in the D.C. area.
Bill’s family vacationed on Bald Head Island for many years with their daughter, Hannah.
“We liked hanging out here,” Bill said. “Finally, we decided, we liked the area so much, that we sold our restaurant and moved here.”
At True Blue Butcher and Baker, located at 13865 US Hwy 17 in Hampstead, south of the NC 210 intersection, Bill and his team bake all of the goodies served at the True Blue properties.
“On $5 burger night, hundreds of freshly baked hamburger buns are delivered to our True Blue restaurants,” said Bill. Throughout the week Bill and his team provide more than a thousand hamburger buns from the Hampstead location.
The bakery offers a wide variety of breads including sourdough, focaccia, challah rolls, croissants, and more. The variety doesn’t stop there. Sourdough and focaccia breads are baked in a variety of flavors such as cheddar and jalapeno, asiago and parmesan, artichoke, and hot honey.
The croissants are hand-rolled, flaky, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. True Blue Butcher and Baker offers a scrumptious ham and cheese croissant.
A variety of desserts, pastries, and cookies are available from True Blue Butcher and Baker. Bill said all True Blue plated desserts are baked and prepared at the Hampstead location.
“We offer soups, sides, and of course many butcher cuts so our guests can bring the True Blue experience home with them,” Bill said. “We also offer starter sourdough.”
Everything is homemade on the premises, from scratch.
“Customers can experience the same quality food here that they would enjoy at True Blue,” Bill stated.
The bakery also offers quality cuts of meat, including filet mignon, New York Strip, rib eyes, as well as crab cakes. True Blue Butcher and Baker also take custom meat orders for guests.
