Photography by Megan Mumford
I always say that one of my favorite parts of my job is going out into the Capital Region and mingling with the townspeople. My favorite place to mingle? Night Work Bread. My favorite townsperson with whom I mingle? Leigh Rathner.
On most mornings, I can find Leigh posted up on his laptop at the corner table of the Ballston Spa bakery he owns with his wife, Cindy Rosenberg, sipping Knockabout Coffee out of his “It Can Wait” sloth mug. The mornings he’s not in his usual spot, he’s likely elbow-deep in flour arguing with his sourdough starter, or fixing his sink, or fixing his oven. But Leigh’s talents don’t stop there. Before moving across the country to bake some of the best bread Saratoga County has ever seen, he worked as a cameraman in Hollywood, shooting for projects including Argo, 13 Reasons Why, and Runaway Bride.
When I pulled up a chair to Leigh’s regular table this past spring, he was fresh off a trip to Portugal to visit the cannery that supplies Night Work’s curated selection of tinned fish, gearing up for farmers’ market season. This summer, stop by the Spa City Farmers’ Market to check out Night Work’s new bagel bar, or the bakery’s Science Street location to meet the man who makes it all happen.
In what ways are working on a movie set and in a bakery similar?
Getting up early and working 12, 14, 16 hours a day.
Do you eat bread for every meal?
I try not to, but I’ll eat a whole meal and then I’ll walk by the breadboard in our house and take a slice and slap some butter on it like it’s dessert.
What’s one thing you didn’t expect when you opened the bakery?
To have people coming in here thanking me for being in business and telling me that I can never go out of business because they can’t live without my bread.
Do you have any advice for amateur sourdough bakers?
Keep going. It’s the kind of thing where you have to develop a feel for it, and the only way to do that is to have a lot of failure. So just try and try again.
