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Turtle Bread Company
Bread takes the spotlight
No longer content to play a supporting role, bread is fast becoming the star attraction of more great meals. Turtle Bread Company lead bakers, Greg Wayd and Renae Torgerson, turn out unique, artisan loaves worthy of building a menu around. Some bakers develop new breads by thinking about what flavor profile might enhance a particular soup or sandwich. Turtle Bread Company does it the other way around. With a daily lunch menu that revolves around its specialty breads, the Minneapolis bakery café offers a rotating selection of fresh soups and made to order sandwiches all of which were developed by carefully considering what ingredients, fillings, condiments or sauces would taste best with the store's breads.
"None of our breads were developed for a specific application," said lead baker Renae Torgerson. "We created the breads first, then built a menu that works around them."
Breads are definitely moving from the sidelines and becoming the feature attraction of more meals as public interest in artisan quality breads takes off. And it's not only bakery cafés like Turtle Bread Company that are cashing in on the action. From fine dining to fast food (consider Arby's grilled panini sandwiches), everyone seems to be realizing they can boost their image – and their sales – by featuring menu items where breads play a leading role. That's good news for progressive bakers. Because as consumers' interest for better bread grows, so does their appreciation for the time and care that goes into producing a hand crafted artisan loaf. In fact, the successful marketing of premium breads – at premium prices – is a primary reason behind the phenomenal, new interest in the bread category as a whole. "Our breads are competitively priced," said lead baker Greg Wayd, "but for people who travel and know what good bread is, the cost is not a factor."
Even if much of the American public still lags behind in recognizing what true "artisan" quality really means, their palates are becoming much better attuned to the differences between the flavor filled breads that come out of your oven each day and the standard fare lining most grocery store shelves. Once they understand the difference, they won't settle for lesser quality. As taste expectations gradually rise to higher standards, so will demand for breads made by bakers with your dedication to craftsmanship.
Our featured bakery, Turtle Bread Company, is capitalizing on center of the plate bread trends with a menu that puts its breads in the spotlight. It's a strategy that's doing double duty to its bottom line. Turtle Bread Company catches customers coming and going with a booming on and off premise lunch business. You'll wait for a table on a busy lunch hour, and about 250 customers a week come in to buy a quart of soup and a loaf of bread to take home, says owner Harvey McLain. Naturally, patrons get hooked on the menued breads and buy extra loaves to eat at home – ultimately boosting Turtle Bread Company's stand alone bread sales, too.But don't think you have to add a culinary arm in your bakery to profit from breads' new position at the heart of the meal. In this issue, we'll show you how progressive bakers in any type of bakery operation can draw on the trend to launch their breads to celebrity status!
Gourmet and Growing
What first opened as a specialty bread shop in five years has grown to become a unique, gourmet boutique.
Decisions, decisions. Step inside the Turtle Bread Company store in Minneapolis and you'll be immediately beckoned by such an amazing array of picture perfect pastries and artfully displayed breads you might have a hard time choosing which ones to buy. Should you simply pick up the Tomato Basil Boule you came in for and leave? Or sit down and enjoy a luscious almond croissant or a fresh fruit tart and a cup of latte while you're there? Feel free to take your time, because the bakery welcomes browsers. Stroll through the aisles awhile and sooner or later, the fresh aromas wafting through the air will gently accost you – and all but force you into trying something.
Feeding customers a pleasant sensory experience is exactly what owner Harvey McLain has in mind for the people who walk through the door of his bakery. Except it isn't exactly a bakery. Since you can get gourmet coffee, fresh soups and specialty sandwiches, it's really more of a bakery café. But then again, it also stocks unique jams, flavored oils, gourmet condiments and other foods – along with cards, cookbooks, baskets and gift items – not the sort of thing you find in just any café.
Turtle Bread Company can best be described as a unique, gourmet bakery boutique, and it illustrates how innovative bakeries can thrive by adapting their businesses and product lines in response to customer tastes. So named because good bread takes time to make, Turtle Bread Company started out five years ago selling just bread from a 350 square foot storefront. Two factors convinced McLain to push his concept beyond bread, a decision that has led to continued growth for the operation. First, to find and keep skilled artisan bakers McLain knew he had to offer a higher pay scale, and expanding the product line would generate the sales volume he needed to support bigger salaries. Second, customers kept asking for more products. Capitalizing on the popularity of its breads, Turtle Bread Company gradually added croissants and other morning pastries, then a selection of cakes, pies, tortes and desserts. Its location near an upscale Edina shopping area launched a natural move into gourmet groceries, often purchased for gifts. "Gourmet food is a great gift; one size fits all," McLain said.
"Our growth has really been driven by customers saying, Ôgive me something different and unique,'" McLain said. "They come in and say, Ôyou have great bread,' why don't you give me great pastries, too. Then they want something to go with the pastries – like a great cup of coffee. Then they want a place to sit down and drink their coffee. And then they want you to give them other things besides pastries; they want a great salad or a great sandwich."
Lead bakers Greg Wayd and Renae Torgerson head up the day to day business of turning out the two dozen and more varieties of bread that support both the store's dine in and take out sales. The son of a European pastry chef, Wayd was born on a bakery bench (or so the story goes). Whether that's fact or fiction, it's true he's been in the business all his life. He's been with Turtle Bread Company since it opened.
Torgerson completed a culinary education, but returned to breads and pastries, where her real interests lie. She joined Turtle Bread Company four years ago, learning artisan baking techniques on the job – although an earlier apprenticeship in an all scratch operation made the transition a natural one. When she's not too busy keeping up with demand (the store sells up to 1000 loaves in a busy week), Torgerson focuses on fine tuning formulas for better taste and quality. She uses starters made from potatoes, and is experimenting with a levain made from an organic grape mother. Turtle Bread Company offers a line of wild yeast breads made from its own signature starters. About half the breads are made with some type of preferment.
Turtle Bread Company's lunch menu boasts the same attention to scratch quality as the baked goods – an approach that has enabled the operation to maintain its progressive gourmet image as the dining side of the business has grown. "We peel our own carrots and potatoes and onions. We don't use any pre made anything, " McLain said. Favorite features on the lunch menu are a delicious deck roasted, free range chicken sandwich with hot pepper jelly, and a deck roasted vegetable sandwich, both served on stirato.
Today, Turtle Bread Company is embarking on its third expansion, renovating the existing sales area to add more room for customers to sip, nibble and browse. Once the new hearth oven is installed, Turtle Bread Company will add gourmet pizzas to the menu, demonstrating yet another way that today's progressive bakers can profit by offering great meals built around great bread.