Will We Ever Get Good Bread Again?

Boy do we ever get asked that a lot.  There was a time where we didn’t want to go to the store for fear of seeing one of you and getting the question.

We love to make you smile

Without a doubt, the best part of baking every Friday was getting to see you every week and hear your stories about how you liked what we were doing.  We especially loved the stories where you shared bread with a friend and they loved it too.

That’s the neat thing about our bread — it’s even better when you share it.

Our friend Beth told us a story last month about finding a loaf of our bread buried in the bottom of her freezer and how much her family loved it.  The loaf was likely from our Christmas bake last December; while we don’t recommend freezing our bread for 10 months, we’re glad to hear that it was still tasty!

Where to from here?

When we added the 100th person to our bread list last year we thought “Eureka!  That proves Regina loves great bread and everyone is craving a real artisan bread bakery in the city!”  So we stopped baking and ran off to talk to bankers, equipment suppliers and landlords.

We thought it would be a short hiatus from baking till we got the store opened and then we’d be back to making you smile every week and making new friends.

In the event, it was much harder than we thought.  We looked at a dozen locations and dug deep into three locations in the past year.  It was a Goldilocks experience; too small, too big, zoned incorrectly and, in the case of River Heights Mall, a landlord who wanted nothing to do with another bakery in his mall.

This August, we finally gave up.  Decided that it just wasn’t going to work, so let’s stop fretting and never speak of it again.

And then it happened

Once we officially, finally, gave up, it only took two days.   Cindy sent Mark on a bike ride north to check out a renovation on Saskatchewan Drive.  Mark, who rarely listens closely, rode south looking for a renovation on Gordon Road.  He didn’t find it, of course.  But he did find a space for lease that was “just right.”

So the bankers got called back.  The equipment suppliers got emailed.  And we started reviewing lease agreements.   On November 1, we got a set of keys and a huge mortgage.  We’re in business.

Announcing Orange Boot Bakery.  For Real!

Our new address is 3904 Gordon Road, in the Albert Park Plaza strip mall.  Today we tell people “you know, the little mall with Sparky’s restaurant that used to be the Brown Derby?”  It’s our hope that in a few years people will say “you know, the little strip mall with Orange Boot Bakery?”

It’s a nice little space with lots of natural light and an intimate feel to the place.  If you drive by today, you’ll see an empty shell with JR’s Convenience Store over the door.  But not for long!

A small bread shop, built for you (and people like you)

Our vision is for a nice, small, European style bread shop where you can get the best bread, a nice pastry and maybe a cup of coffee.  Cookies and muffins made with the same care you use at home.  Fresh fruit tarts in fresh fruit season.  Savory buns and turnovers for a quick lunch or snack.

There are bakeries like this all over Canada, from Victoria to Halifax to Whitehorse.  Even in Saskatoon.  It’s time we had one in Regina.  And very soon, we will!

Our schedule shows us being open in January 2011.  We’re hoping to get things ready in time for a ‘soft opening’, exclusively for you Bootniks on the email list, in mid-December.  That way you can have some good bread for the holidays.

Will you help us?

I know you share our vision because you are the people who gave us the vision.   Now we need your help to spread the word and get more people excited about what we’re doing.

Please forward this email to all your friends who love great bread.  Let them in on the secret – they’ll love you for it!  Invite them to sign up to our email list so they can be a Bootnik too.  There’s a signup form at our website, or they can just click here to go straight to the signup form.

Finally, let us know what you think – now, when we’re planning our bread lineup and later after we open.  You’re our friends, customers and Board of Directors.  We love hearing from you!