If the words “butter log” leave you wanting more, look no further than salt bread. Hailed by many as the next great competitor to the croissant, salt bread consists of a simple yeasted dough wrapped around a log of butter. As it bakes, the butter melts, leaving behind what many call a “butter hole” as the butter creates a crispy, glossy fried bottom.
Salt bread originated in Japan, where it’s known as shio pan, but exploded in popularity in Korea, where it’s called sogeum-ppang—and now it’s coming for the West Coast. A search for salt bread in Los Angeles yields dozens of results, while a handful of salt bread bakeries have cropped up in the Bay Area. And on Wednesday, March 4, Portland will get its own salt bread bakery: Ponto, located at 1483 NE Alberta.
“When I tried salt bread in Korea, I remember thinking, ‘This is it,’ because it’s very simple yet deeply comforting to me,” says Ponto owner Saerom Chang. “It’s crispy, soft, buttery, warm, and grounding.”
Ponto will serve eight rotating flavors of salt bread per day. The classic salt bread has a gentle sweetness to it, offset by the flaky salt on top. Sweet flavors include glazed, red bean butter, milk cream, and strawberry milk cream, where slices of strawberry sit in the middle of the whipped cream-stuffed bread. On the savory side, offerings include pesto, sausage, black pepper, olive, and squid ink cheddar. The cafe will also serve coffee drinks made with Stumptown beans, from drip coffee to cream top cold brew, as well as non-coffee beverages like matcha lattes and strawberry milk.
Though this is Chang’s first cafe, she’s been in Portland’s baking scene for the past four years, when she started selling custom cakes under the moniker My Favorite Cake. She learned to bake during the pandemic from her sister, a professional pastry chef, and brought not-too-sweet Korean-style cakes to town in flavors including strawberry milk and injeolmi (toasted soybean powder). Notably, her cakes were made with whipped cream rather than buttercream, making for a lighter, less-sweet dessert—a similar milky filling to what you’ll find in the salt bread at Ponto.
Chang closed her custom cake business in order to focus on Ponto, though slices of cake will someday make it onto the menu at Ponto, too.
“I like to connect with people more often, not just on birthdays or big celebrations,” says Chang. “Cake is for special events, but salt bread is for every day.”
Ponto, 1483 NE Alberta, 9 am-1pm Wed-Sun, @ponto.pdx