Baker's Business On The Rise
Northfield
By DAVID MACE Times Argus Staff
As the saying goes, if you go into the baking business, you'll
always be rolling in dough and have lots of bread.
Such is the case with Glenn Loati, 34, a former maintenance worker who now runs II Fornaio (Italian for "the baker"),
a small bakery in Northfield with his wife Lori, 35.
The pair started their fledgling business two years ago by baking
bread in their kitchen to sell at farmers' markets. But in October they
moved into a 700-square-foot space in the old Nantanna Mill complex.
They had to: their weekend enterprise is now a full-time operation
and their customers include numerous local markets as well as several
large grocery stores and a number of area restaurants.
It's a fast start, faster than he expected, Loati says, and not bad for
the son of an Italian-American family from Barre who acknowledges
that he really didn't start cooking until later in life.
"I've always loved to cook ... mom's Italian, dad's Italian, everyone
in my family likes to cook and eat," he says, adding that his mother
did all the culinary work in the house.
But while he sometimes hung out in the kitchen, Loati says, "I really got into cooking when I got older and got out on my own."
The self-taught chef certainly has the right genetic stock - his
grandmother was a professional cook and his grandfather ran a butcher shop on Berlin Street in Barre years ago.
Loati says friends urged him to sell his breads at the local farmers'
markets, and in 1992 he took two weeks off to travel in Italy and
learn from the practitioners of the bakers' craft there.
It gave him some valuable insights into what bakers were doing
with their dough's and other aspects of bread-baking, he says, and research into various recipes when he got home augmented the lessons learned there.
The couple launched their business baking in their electric oven in the kitchen, and turned out about 50 to 60 loaves of bread a week,' Loati said.
They initially sold their wares to Bronson's Market in Northfield and saw their customer base widen by word of mouth.
They added other retailers, such as State Street Market in Montpellier, and after clearing corporate hurdles Grand Union in August 1993. The Loati's put a wood-fired brick oven in their house as part of an expansion in 1993, and began baking in it last spring.
But the business kept expanding and as they picked up such prize customers as Sarducci's restaurant in Montpelier they found they'd quickly outstripped even the brick oven's capacity.
"Now we just have big pizza parties," Loati joked. On Oct. 3. they moved into their present quarters, where they now bake around 1,300 loaves of bread a week and, said Loati, he completed his transition from part- to full-time baker.
Loati makes about 15 types of
bread, each by hand, and all with no preservatives.
The number-one seller is his Toscano, a crusty, chewy Italian variety that accounts for about 75 percent of his sales, he says.
But variety is the spice of life, he notes, so hard rolls, olive and pesto loaves, and pannarino, a rich bread with rosemary in it, are also in Loati's repertoire, as are biscotti, the crunchy cookies served with coffee after meals.
He works in the shop nearly every day, and says he is now starting to even get walk-in customers, looking for the ultimate in fresh bread.
Lori handles the books and deliveries, which now include several Grand Unions and even Howard's Market in Barre and also finds
time to bottle some of the couple's herb vinegar.
While the pair are currently the only two employees, Loati says he plans to keep expanding his business and is very happy with the company's progress so far.
"It's very enjoyable ... very satisfying," he says. "Part of that is the actual baking and part of it is being self-employed."
Mr. Loati is currently employing over 10 other people
and has moved into a larger space than the first one he moved to.