Sunday, April 27, 2008
Food
Local breadmakers’ success continues to rise
CREDIT:Spark St. Jude
Geoff, Katie and Wendy Melkonian of Breadwinner
By Hope S. Philbrick
Don’t dread having the relatives over; some good might come of it. Consider Breadwinner Inc. as Exhibit A: The company was founded on Thanksgiving 2005, when a husband, wife and sister were banging around in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do with some leftover eggs. Specializing in sweet seasonal breads, the successful family-owned business recently opened a retail store and café in Sandy Springs. The Sunday Paper recently talked to CEO Katie Melkonian to learn more.
Q Your company has an interesting history.
A Myself, my husband Geoff and my sister-in-law (Geoff’s sister) Wendy were together for Thanksgiving and had a plethora of leftover eggs. We were wondering what to do with them, and Wendy said she was going to make pumpkin bread for some of her friends. At the time she was working at Souper Jenny and mentioned kind of nonchalantly under her breath that Jenny had said Wendy could sell some breads at her store. I said, “What are we waiting for?” Wendy said, “Are you serious?” I said, “I’ve never been more serious in my life.” We took out a lot of family bread recipes and ended up settling on my grandmother’s recipe. We baked all weekend. On Monday, we took 10 loaves to Souper Jenny’s and put some samples out. We sold 10 loaves in an hour. We baked all Monday night—using my double oven and KitchenAid stand mixer—and took another 10 loaves on Tuesday, which also sold in an hour. It kept happening. Before we knew it, we had people calling and asking for gifts. That first year, we sold about 500 loaves of bread between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2006, we did about 5,000 loaves, and last year did about 10,000. It’s been a nice couple of years of growth for us.
Last October, we opened our retail store in Sandy Springs. All of our breads are for sale here. We are offering six different flavors right now. You can purchase a loaf, platter or slice. We have also just launched a gourmet-to-go sandwich and salad lunch option with food prepared by Laura Taylor, a very popular cook around Sandy Springs.
Do you use only family recipes?
All of the breads are either family recipes or original Breadwinner creations. We specialize in seasonal breads. We have 10 featured throughout the year, but we’ll pull them when out of season. Right now, we have Lemon Poppy-razzi—which we just introduced four weeks ago; it’s a great spring bread. We also have Better than a Bubble Bath Mocha Chocolate Chip, Party at My Place Pumpkin, Sweet Home Ala-Banana, Papa Don’t Peach and Frankly My Dear I Don’t Give a Cran (-berry Orange).
Pumpkin bread is our original recipe, what started the company. Even though it’s not fall, it still sells like hotcakes; our customers love it. It’s one of the breads that people young and old enjoy any time of day. So we feel like we can offer it off season.
What comes first: The recipe or the name?
Usually the recipe.
We’re working on a cannoli bread. It will have real ricotta cheese, chocolate chips and powdered sugar on tip. It’s delicious! We’re calling it Leave the Gun Take the Cannoli.
We put our creative energy together as a team to decide names. We think it’s really important to put a lot of energy into creative ideas that helps set us apart. You could certainly go to an upscale grocery store and pick up a loaf of pumpkin bread, but it wouldn’t be something you’d want to give as a gift. We have a satin bow around every loaf that goes out of our store and have interesting names on the label. That connects with people. We provide a high-quality product that can be a gift. We do a lot of corporate business and can send our breads all over the country. It’s something unique. We love that. SP
For more information, including details about where to buy Breadwinner Inc. breads, visit www.getloafed.com or call 404-843-0224.