In a matter of weeks, Clarkesville tummies and noses will be tempted by the popular European-style bakery—Flour, Water, Salt, also called FWS. The bakery serves proprietor Colin Rai’s vast array of sourdough and specialty breads. It also offers croissants with every manner of filling, Danish pastries, quiches, soups, and meat pies.
Closer to customers and local lakes
FWS will move from its current Cornelia location to the former home of Grille 52. The new spot sits behind the Penny Lane Barber Shop, next to Sutton Tire, and across from the butcher and fishmonger on Monroe Street/Highway 115 in Clarkesville.
“Most of my customers seem to come more from Clarkesville than Cornella, so I want to be closer to them,” Rai says in the rough-hewn accent of his native Nottingham, England. “And I want to be nearer the lakes; Lake Burton is a lot nearer, Lake Rabun, and Clayton’s not far; I want to start attracting those people.”
Renovations underway
This week, he was hard at work at the new location, removing old walls, preparing the space for his baker’s oven, new plumbing and electric lines, display cases, and tables for some 20-30 customers at a time. He plans to replace the restaurant’s existing harsh lighting with a softer touch, gentle colors of pale green and walnut, and to bring in the signage that will show off his principle that, when it comes to baking, simpler is better.
Rai also observed that customers seem to love watching him work, so he’s arranging the new kitchen and bread tables at such an angle that he’ll be visible as he pounds the sourdough into loaves, paints the croissants with egg yolks, and laces his meat pies with cheese and delicately cooked vegetables. He does all this, of course, while keeping up a steady stream of storytelling and patter with his customers. One walked into the Cornelia shop a few days ago, after having been away for most of the summer, and was greeted,
“Where the hell have YOU been?” (She ordered two loaves to go.)
Grand opening in the fall
Rai grew up in his father’s restaurant, which served Indian fare, then fell in love with French and Continental cooking and baking when he subsequently worked in a French restaurant, also in Nottingham.
When he was a little older, he trained as an electrician and technician, and worked for British Telecom and other corporate giants, but always longed to be in a kitchen again. Falling in love–while on holiday in Florida–with Andrea, an American (and now a nurse at Northeast Georgia Medical Center), the two eyed the spot in Cornelia where FWS has been these last two-plus years, moved here, and went to work.
They settled in Mt. Airy, in a house just about equidistant from the old location and the new one. Colin has done virtually all the manual labor to convert the old space and the new one on his own. In between, he personally engineered a major renovation on the couple’s home.
If all goes smoothly, FWS/Clarkesville will move through the city permitting process in mid-September, and he’ll be ready to open his doors on October 1. He’ll close his Cornelia doors no later than August 31.
Of Clarkesville, he said, “It’s going to be such a nice place to be—European feel to it, and of course, my best baking,” Rai promises.
Stand by.
