Service Works Meets To The Rise Bakery

Decked out in the latest Service Works pieces, we’re celebrating the incredible To The Rise team, who opened their bakery in Eastbourne town centre in March of this year. 

Sisters Lauren, Morgan and Josie founded the business in 2020 during the pandemic, and due to the success of their online business decided to bring their delicious creations to the local community. As we couldn’t get enough of their pastries, bread and cakes, Urban Industry supplied the team with Service Works Chef Pants and Coverall Jackets which they now use as their uniform, highlighting just how brilliantly the products perform not only as chef ware but as stylish garments. 

Click here to shop the Service Works collection at Urban Industry.

Tell us about To The Rise, where did you begin?
We started just before the first lockdown, after I moved back from London. I wanted to start this in my hometown as there wasn’t really a place that I would go out to brunch in Eastbourne, so my Dad and I started out by refitting his garage and turning it into a kitchen, so that was my first DIY project. 

Shortly after that we opened an online store through which we offered a bread subscription service, using a free-order system that we would then deliver those orders ourselves. 

Then very quickly, because we had such an amazing response, I asked Morgan to join as she was doing her final year at Chelsea Arts School, doing textiles design - which I thought was quite fitting - still working with a material! I taught her everything from scratch. 

Finally I called my sister Josie who was in Germany and because I can’t use a computer to save my life, I rang Josie who is amazing at that aspect, and said ‘do you want to join’ and she said, ‘Screw it, I’m there’. 

We went from personally delivering about five loaves a day to somewhere around the 120 which we are producing daily now.

What made you open the bakery in Eastbourne, do you have roots here?
We started at home but as our experience grew we built on that and decided to test this on the market. We wanted to gauge the interest whilst looking for spaces to set up shop and we got an amazing response. 

We had markets in Hastings and Battle, and the response was so great we could have considered setting up anywhere in East Sussex - Eastbourne is our home and our community so we knew we really wanted to do it here.

We wanted to open up and experience this product and culture in Eastbourne, creating a lifestyle that was not going from stressful kitchens instead working hard and putting in all the same effort but for ourselves, we wanted to value our community and all of those things we saw in the hospitality jobs that we got frustrated with.

What’s your favourite aspect of your job?
(Lauren)
My favourite part would have to be that I can see the product to the end of the line, I love knowing how much effort and love we put into that. We were strong on having a premises that was still customer facing because it’s nice to see all of that hard work being received well, a lot of the time you don’t know how well a product is being received and how the consumer appreciates it. With this, it goes from bread and water to someone's home - and you can see all of that. 

(Morgan)
It's ours, it’s a family business. We love our Mum coming to work and being a part of it, why doesn’t everyone have their Mum come to work?  You get a lot of gratitude and contentment from this. 

Then there’s working with the materials. I took what I had learnt at university, that you have to study and document a material, like sourdough. We took that time to understand sourdough, taking ourselves back to the roots, you have to care for the material. Sourdough is a reflection of yourself, you have to keep it warm, you have to feed it, water it, care for it, make it happy, ‘cause otherwise it’s not going to rise. You have to care about the basic needs, just like self-care of humans.

Tell us about the life of a baker?
We start at 3am, we’re early risers, we’re going with that lifestyle we love to get up early! We do our bakes first thing in the morning, the dough takes 24 hours, so we do everything the day before. It all takes a lot of prep and love. 

The Cafe opens at 7am, we always wanted to be a morning place because we all grew up going to Germany every year, and there you get down to the bakery first thing, you get your bread, you get your breakfast and that sets you up for the day. We wanted to install that culture. It’s a purpose to get up every morning and to find that sense of community. 

When the bakes are in the oven we take a break at 6am and run down to the beach for sunrises, it’s lovely you can stop and just enjoy the time - you can see how the water is that day and plan some paddle-boarding for later that day. You have to be up at 3am, but there’s lots of treasures to that.

How have you found the Service Works clothing that you are now using as a uniform?
We love the pants. They’re super comfortable, and that’s a great thing, when you’re running around for so many hours - it’s like wearing pyjamas all day! 

Because they’re heavy duty cotton you can use them as your wipe down as well, they’re just like an in-between for a trouser and a coverall. We also really appreciate the cut, it looks cool as well as being functional. 

Normally working in kitchens, you’ve got to wear these trousers that you get off of this one website which everyone has, so It’s nice to have something that matches skate wear with workwear, so it’s more our style. 

When paired with the jacket it’s a great look as a uniform, everyone looks neat thanks to it being clean cut and it being really easy-wearing. 

Have you got any advice for people starting up a new business in the current climate?
Just do it. Be vulnerable and ask for help. That was one of our biggest things we did, we knew where we wanted to get to and we had to feel comfortable to ask people how to get there. 

That’s sometimes the problem with an ego, to think that you already know, but we wanted to use other people’s experience and to refer to their time in the industry and more often that not people want to help. Asking helps you get far. People actually want to help.

Photography by Urban Industry
Art Direction by Urban Industry
Article by Urban Industry