PORTLAND, Maine — Bread rises in the former firehouse, as it has since the early 1900s. The temperature hits 105 degrees. During scorching summer days, the hottest place in Portland is Botto’s Bakery, at the corner of Washington Avenue and Randall Street.
Inside the maximum-volume Italian factory, bread dough is fed into machines, cut, proofed and stretched. Every few minutes a giant rotary oven spits out trays of hamburger buns. Exiting in steamy gusts of heat, a fast-working crew places them on racks and wheels them away to cool. A few minutes later, out comes a new batch. The cycle repeats.
Overseeing the process that plays out night after night is Stephen Mathews, the second-generation owner of the family-run bakery founded in 1949. Chances are if you’ve had a lobster roll or hamburger, sandwich or sub in southern Maine, you’ve tried Botto’s. It supplies rolls to 20 clam shacks, but delis and sandwich shops are its bread and butter.
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