Founder Scott Tycer meets Mike Zakowski—head baker at Itzi’s—at a chocolate tasting in the Heights. Tycer’s restaurant Aries had just opened. Because it was limited on kitchen space, table bread from a local artisan bakery was used. Mike and Scott found they could bake higher quality bread , so they opened Kraftsmen Baking together as a small retail location at 4100 Montrose and a wholesale location on Roy street in the Rice Military neighborhood.

Mike Zakowski sold his shares back to Kraftsmen and moved to Sonoma where he could train for the US Bread Baking team under master baker, Craig Ponsford.

Wholesale facilities move to the historic Heights, in a charming old building called “the Oriental Textile Mill”. The building appealed to Scott because of its age and location in one of Houston’s oldest neighborhoods.

Juan Carlos Ramirez becomes the Head Baker. Juan had worked for Kraftsmen through out its history, having been a protégé of Mike Zakowski. The same year, a second Kraftsmen café opens in the same building.