Peter's Yard

Peter's Yard began with a chance meeting. Two English friends, Ian and Wendy, had left corporate careers to pursue their own idea of bringing Swedish-style baking to the UK, and on a research trip to Sweden they were pointed toward a baker named Peter Ljungqvist. Sharing an evening at his home near Ystad, they tasted his knäckebröd, a Swedish crispbread, and told him it was too good to stay confined to one small bakery.

Ljungqvist opened the first Peter's Yard in Edinburgh's Southside Quartermile development in 2007, a space of glass and pale wood softened by the smell of fresh bread. Its reputation grew steadily enough that a second location followed in Stockbridge in 2012, adding sourdough pizzas, open-topped sandwiches, cardamom buns, and hot chocolate served at communal tables.

The bakery's crispbreads and crackers are built on a 45-year-old sourdough starter, fermented for 16 hours without shortcuts or artificial ingredients, and are certified by the Real Bread Campaign. The products have picked up coverage in Olive Magazine, The Telegraph, and Delicious, among others, carrying Ljungqvist's Swedish training well beyond the two Edinburgh shops where it started.