breadness blog

It’s hard to know where to begin, but I’ll give it a try…

At the end of June, I held a Sneak Preview of Random Acts of Breadness for the fine folks in this neighborhood, Magnolia Park “East” if you will. My wife Cyndie and I placed invitations to the preview on doorsteps of homes within 3 blocks of the bakery. I baked 24 loaves of bread for each day. We had a great turnout both days, and most of the Breadness was bought, save for a couple of loaves. That seemed like a good indicator of what our Grand Opening might be like.

Last week, I promoted the Grand Opening on the usual social channels, while our godson Rhys, Cyndie and a friend, Gae, passed out about twice as many invitations as the preview, this time, to a wider area of the neighborhood.

I baked 48 loaves on Friday and 48 loaves on Saturday. And I had about a dozen of our previously baked Cinnamon Raisin Maple Walnut sourdough loaves available as well (these get frozen a couple hours after coming out of the oven and they come back to life very well after a natural thaw of about 5 hours). Some of the loaves each day would be needed for samples so all in all, there were about 100 loaves available for sale.

Come 2 o’clock on Friday, a line had already formed and it pretty much stayed that way for a couple hours. We said we’d be open from 2 to 8 p.m. and here it was 4 p.m. and we were sold out! This was embarrassing. Still, we wanted to meet the people so we gave them tours of the bakery, got to know them better, and several asked to be put on a list to reserve a loaf for this week.

Saturday was even more of a Breadness frenzy. People wanted to buy 2 and 3 loaves at a time, and we had to put a limit of only one loaf per person, else we would have had a riot on our hands from those who had not yet made it inside the store! Even with that limit, we still sold out, including the rest of the Raisin Breadness. This time, it was 3:30; sold out in an hour and a half!

On top of this, Jess Talamantes, the Vice-Mayor of Burbank, was scheduled to come by at 4 p.m. and make a special presentation in honor of our new bakery. (I had previously reserved a loaf of Breadness for Jess and it was safe and sound in the back.)

Having sold out, we started a pre-order list and people paid in advance for their loaves to pick up this Friday or Saturday. Wow… I expected a good turnout but I wasn’t expecting THIS!!! As I’ve mentioned in previous episodes and social posts, there are angels watching over this Breadness project…

The Vice-Mayor arrived on schedule and proceeded to present a very special “Welcome” certificate to me while a local photographer documented the occasion. Later that night we received an e-mail with a link to this video below with the soundtrack “Breaking Bread” by Johnny Cash! We were blown away!.(Tap the image below to open a new window to play the video.)

On Sunday, I worked day and night to build our new online shop so folks could order in advance and guarantee their loaf/loaves would be at the bakery on the day they selected. By Monday afternoon, an order had already come through (I hadn’t even promoted the online shop yet). Since then, several more orders have appeared. The word is getting around!

You should take a look as well, just to get familiar with how it works (tap the image below; a new window will open so you won’t lose your place in this episode). Right now, there’s our two kinds of Breadness with organic butter options, and choice of Friday or Saturday pickup days. (In a few weeks we’ll be adding our “Legendary Bread Gifts” pages as well.)

As of our Grand Opening, Katy and I can only produce 48+48 Country loaves for baking/selling on Friday and Saturday. Yesterday, I was at the bakery for 11 hours doing the dough work for 36 Cinnamon Raisin Maple Walnut loaves, which will be baked and frozen today for selling until we run out.

And speaking of Grand Opening, if you happened to miss this event, please come to Random Acts of Breadness at 2214 West Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, Friday and/or Saturday, between 2 and 6 p.m. If you’d like to leave with some Breadness of your own, consider ordering ahead of time using our online shop. Or, you can show up (close to 2 p.m.) and take a chance there’ll still be a loaf on the rack with your name on it….

See you this Friday/Saturday the bakery!

Best,
Randall Michael Tobin
Breadness.com