Luke’s Small Goods
A North End foodie essential
BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
It’s a rainy and mild October morning, roughly 8 a.m., and I’m at Luke’s Small Goods, a bakery, café, and retail food shop on Agricola Street. A steady stream of customers comes and goes—grabbing drip coffee to go or clear plastic cups of iced coffee, scones, croissants, danishes, and breakfast sandwiches. There is no real place to hang around in Luke’s, save from one soft bench near the window where you could perch and drink your coffee. Three high stools along a side wall share a wooden bar rail wide enough to rest a coffee and baked good. Outside, there are four small wooden picnic tables. However, Luke’s serves all the food and coffee to go. The store is maybe 400 square feet, so inside space is valuable.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about the neighbourhood and the people [here] and what we could do to support the neighbourhood,” says Luke Gaston of the concept. He and his wife Hannah started Luke’s Small Goods with business partners Adam MacLeod and Michael Hopper, their former employers at Highwayman restaurant. The Gastons launched Luke’s as a commercial bakery in April 2021, selling sourdough bread and other baked goods at farmers’ markets and select charcuterie and retail items like hand-crafted preserves. The couple built up a healthy list of wholesale clients before opening a storefront at 2393 Agricola Street, in the same neighbourhood where they live.
“We jumped on [the opportunity]. From the time we got the keys to opening the doors was about three months,” says Luke. The bakery-shop hybrid opened on December 1, 2022, and the business has grown ever since. The initial thought hadn’t been to keep the name Luke’s Small Goods, but after growing the wholesale side of things under that brand, the couple decided to stick with it.
Hannah and Luke Gaston
Luke and Hannah met in Peterborough, Ontario, and moved to Nova Scotia in 2013; Luke had grown up in the Annapolis Valley area. The couple worked together at Highwayman from 2016 to 2019, during which time Luke developed the sourdough program for the restaurant while Hannah was the front-of-house service manager. The pair eventually left Halifax, moving to Australia, where they spent a year before their travel plans were abruptly cut short due to the pandemic. “We were about to go to New Zealand. We didn't necessarily know if we were ever really going to come back. But then the pandemic changed that as it did for a lot of people,” says Luke. Lucky for Halifax, Hopper and MacLeod reached out upon the couple’s return, intent on getting into the bread and pastry baking business. Although Luke had no formal training in pastry or boulangerie, the chef felt drawn to it. They found a space for a commercial bakery on Nora Bernard Street, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Luke’s is purely a daytime business. Open at 8 a.m. and closed by 6 p.m., the lunch items are available starting at 10 a.m. Each morning, Luke’s staff fills the pastry case with fresh croissants, pain au chocolat, scones, morning glory loaf, cookies, and seasonal creations—like the raspberry turnovers and tomato and ricotta danishes the morning I was there. Behind the counter, there is beautiful sourdough bread: white, sesame rye, 12-grain, and white sandwich loaves. Plus, of course, crispy baguettes.
With excellent drip coffee in hand (Big Sipper Blend from Dartmouth-based roastery Have Fun Coffee), I try a breakfast sandwich freshly made behind the deli counter. Thinly sliced ham, egg patty, white cheddar, and local greens with house-made tomato relish on an English muffin—it’s the quintessential morning meal elevated with the sweet, tangy relish. I also dip into a breakfast box that features one beautifully flaky butter croissant, generously sized wedges of manchego cheese, grapes, and Luke’s blueberry jam. Add a taste (or two) of a blueberry scone and pain au chocolat, and I have a delightful breakfast spread. (Without room for an espresso machine, Luke’s only serves drip and iced coffee. But it’s also kind of a statement.)
The shop stocks beautifully curated packaged food items. The selection of imported tinned seafood is admirable—which the pair grew to appreciate while working at Highwayman. Aside from that, you will see local and imported items like chilli crisp, anchovy-stuffed olives, Kewpie mayo, Tajin, black truffle crisps, pasta sauces from Maria’s Pantry, Sunny Cove honey, coffee beans, an ample selection of artisanal mustards, and Matheson Food Company’s boxed macaroni and cheese (among many more). Luke’s brand of wine jelly, blueberry jam, tomato relish, and granola is available. Hannah is behind the retail selection. She spends a lot of time researching and sourcing these items, but it’s important to her and Luke that reasonably priced items are also on offer so that they can be a one-stop shop for those looking to grab picnic staples. Cheese and meats are available, sliced to order, plus run-of-the-mill condiments are in the refrigerated case with bottled beverages—Diet Coke sits next to La Croix.
“We thought, we're going to be bringing in meat and cheese for the sandwiches, so we may as well just put a deli counter in there—and we can also sell the meat and cheese,” says Hannah. “That's kind of how we envisioned it all, and it's worked out pretty well.” Regular customers in the area rely on Luke’s for small everyday purchases like bread and coffee, but they are also there for niche items. A retro deli sign advertises the day’s available sandwiches, from approachable classics like egg or tuna salad on white to French favourite jambon beurre to a more artisanal, spicy creation with hot Genoa salami, roasted peppers, Ciro’s fresh mozzarella cheese, vinaigrette and arugula on ciabatta. I get a jambon buerre to go, along with “the mortadella,” which features freshly sliced mortadella, Monterey jack cheese, tomato, pickle, iceberg lettuce, peperoncini mayo, and vinaigrette on ciabatta. You can add a side of chips and a pickle to any sandwich for a couple of bucks, and there’s also a side salad option.
Later, when I’m hungry again, I eat the sandwiches. The jambon buerre, of course, does not disappoint—how can it, on such a fresh baguette with its chewy inside slathered in a thick layer of butter, sliced ham and pickles, and that perfectly crispy bread exterior? The mortadella is a winner. The pepperoncini mayo has a noticeable kick, which I love, balanced by the creaminess, the pickle brings a tasty tang, and the iceberg lettuce is crunchy and refreshing. Luke’s ciabatta is the perfect sandwich bread; it is not too thick and offers a soft interior and caramelized, crispy crust.
Although I would call sandwiches the star of the show at Luke’s, there is also a lentil-quinoa salad on the menu (switching soon to soup for the cooler months), along with a Ploughman’s Lunch, charcuterie box, and a tinned fish lunch available for market price. When I return to chat with Luke and Hannah the next day, I curate a tinned fish meal, grabbing smoked salmon, anchovy-stuffed olives, and a baguette. The café-shop hybrid is a unique and valued addition to the neighbourhood. Luke works with a handful of full-time bakers in the production kitchen, operating at capacity, and the business continues to grow. It’s the kind of north-end success story I love to see. Luke’s is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
