The Honeycomb Creamery ice cream shop is opening a next-door bakery called Crisscross Bakehouse to sell small-batch sweet and savory pastries, with an opening menu including a pain de mie sandwich bread, dinner rolls, cornbread and biscuits, but also scones, cinnamon rolls, cookies, brownies and muffins, said Grant Burley, community engagement manager for the shop.
With months of work behind them and unknown months to go on the storefront at 1700 Massachusetts Ave., Neighborhood 9, Honeycomb founder Kristen Rummel and her team are first bringing Crisscross goods to the ice cream as pop-ups from 8 a.m. to noon Thursdays through Sundays, Burley said in an email interview Tuesday.
The pop-ups start Sunday with an extra treat: handwhisked matcha from 10cha.
Rummel was a baker before she made ice cream, and even when opening Honeycomb in 2016, “baking remained a passion,” Burley said. Her specials at Honeycomb often incorporate a love of pastry – there’s an annual Ice Cream for Breakfast Day brunch in February and Sweet Corn Jamboree in July. After a decade in frozen desserts, she saw her chance to turn on the oven.
“When our neighbors Riverside Tattoo closed up shop, she decided it would be an excellent opportunity to return to those baking roots,” Burley said of Rummel. Honeycomb leased the space and began conversion all the way back in March. “Since it was the former home of a tattoo shop, a lot of changes had to be made; there’s a lot more to get done than if we were to open it at, say, a former sandwich shop.”
That demands that Rummel be “flexible” about the timeline, “hence why we’re doing this Crisscross residency at Honeycomb – we want to share what we’ve been working on, and hopefully this will whet everyone’s appetite while the bakery is finishing.”
Though Violette Bakers, which opened in 2013, is at 1782 Massachusetts Ave. and the Mahalab Bakery has been at 1786 Massachusetts Ave. since April 2025, the Honeycomb team feels the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue near Porter Square is “big enough for all,” especially as Mahalab focuses on Mediterranean baked goods and Violette on the gluten-free.
“Crisscross, at its core, is an American bakery serving up staple baked goods such as breads, scones, cookies, biscuits and other pastries,” Burley said.
One of the first recipes Rummel worked on when workshopping the bakery’s menu was a yeasted-dough cinnamon roll. “Our cinnamon rolls are kind of the perfect intersection of pastry and bread, sweet and savory, that encompasses what we strive for,” and Rummel has variations to keep things exciting, including apple pie and s’mores. “Our logo is of cinnamon buns for a reason,” Burley said.
The shop’s general philosophy around menu development stems from a couple of prompts: “What do our bakers feel like making, what are we hungry for? What sounds tasty right now?” The primary focus is “craving-driven,” Burley said. “We want to share what we find delicious with our community.”
Rummel’s basic Crisscross menu has been filling slowly with flavors and specials with input from the team, he said, giving the example of the cakes and cake slices coming to the shop because one of the ice cream makers had experience making and decorating them. “This new business is a bit of a blank canvas for us, and we’re enjoying trying things out,” Burley said.
“I imagine our biggest ongoing challenge with Crisscross will be assessing customer demand. We know what we want to bake for people, but the exact quantities will be something we figure out during this pop-up. How many folks will want cinnamon rolls? Will folks be clamoring for scones, or is it more of a biscuit crowd? We’re excited to get the feedback and determine what works best for us and our community,” he said.
Given the time of the year, the opening menu will skew more toward fall flavors and baked goods to be enjoyed with family over the holidays, but “we’re looking forward to tweaking the menu in the coming months and the changing seasons,” Burley said.
