Butcher Shop Bake Company

Today I'm talking with Dustin at the Butcher Shop Bake Company. You can also follow on Facebook.

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Dustin at the Butcher Shop Bake Company. Good afternoon, Dustin. How are you? I am doing fantastic. How are you doing today, Mary? I'm great. Other than the fact that...

00:25
Our technology doesn't always work the way it's supposed to. Everything's good. So tell me about yourself and Butcher Shop Bake Company. Sure, so I am a third generation entrepreneur, not in the family business. We were a construction family, but I've been in the food industry pretty much my entire life, more years than I haven't been.

00:50
And we've been doing the Butcher Shop Bay Company now. I wanna say this is, we're going on year seven. And really I started this whole company with one thing in mind is creating something exciting to eat. Cause we all gotta eat food. And I was in the health and fitness industry for a lot of years. And I did diets and this and that and the other thing. But you still gotta eat something that makes you, something that makes you salivate a little bit.

01:17
So that was where we kind of came up with the idea of making some ginormous products, specifically some gourmet cookies. Awesome. So I gotta know, did you start out as a cottage food producer or did you start out as a commercial place? Sure, so actually before I started Butcher Shop Bay Company, I had a cottage company called the Flexible Baker where I created healthy protein desserts that I

01:46
sold mainly kind of just like through Facebook and online like that through local meetups and made some cookbooks and stuff like that. And then that kind of just snowballed into the commercial side of things. Okay. So you started small because everybody's got to start somewhere. Yes, ma'am. Cool. So you're exactly the kind of person I want to talk to because there's lots of cottage food producers.

02:16
who are starting out in their galley-sized kitchens and maybe dreaming of someday doing something bigger, and that's kinda what you're doing, so that's awesome. Absolutely. All right, I have so many questions. Number one, this, number one, how do you get your cookies to be so tall and they cook all the way on the inside? Well, part of it is trade secret, but, so,

02:46
a couple of things. One, it helps that I cook extremely hot. My oven, my oven is convection, of course. But the temperature is way hotter than what you cook a normal cookie at. It helps if a lot of my cookies are also stuffed. So then there's actually less dough to cook through. So that helps a lot. And then what is not quite traditional.

03:12
with my dough recipe is I almost started off similar to a scone instead of a traditional cookie recipe, which I help. I think that that helps then distribute the fat a little bit different and a little bit better, which helps it cook through quicker. Okay. Because I was looking at your Facebook page, because that's what I do. I look at people's Facebook pages and websites before I interview them. So I know what to ask. And the cookies look almost like a cake cookie.

03:42
Just about, yeah. It kind of has some of my flower makeups. I try to mimic, because for me, I grew up eating very thin, crispy cookies. And as much as my dad loves those, not me so much. I like a nice, chewy, a little crunch on the outside, but I like it to still be nice and chewy on the inside. So that's kind of what I try to replicate. And then that's also where that

04:11
really hot temperature comes in to give the cookies a nice, um, crunchy exterior, so to speak, but then yet keep them nice and cakey on the inside. Yeah. I'm a huge fan of the, the crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, soft and chewy on the inside. So when I saw the pictures, I was like, Oh my God, how does he do that? And the other question I have is what is a hodag? Help me here.

04:41
Oh, that's funny. So, so the whole day has been around for boy, I want to say now, 120 some years or so late 1800s. Boy, Jean Shepherd was his name, kind of created this mythical creature that lives in the woods and eats white bulldogs. And it's just this giant lizard looking creature with white horns and red eyes.

05:10
And it is, for whatever reason, the Hodag has stuck. And I think last year or the year before, we actually won best mascot in the country or something like that. So yeah, it's kind of cool to be from a town that is known throughout the country. I've been everywhere you go, you meet somebody that's been to Hodag country.

05:38
Okay. So it's Rhinelander, Wisconsin? Yes. Okay. And is it specific to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, this Hodag thing? Yes. Okay. All right. Cause I saw the, the post about the, the cookies and I was like, what's a Hodag cookie? And then I was like, oh, I have Google. I can look up Hodag and see what it is. And then I looked it up and I was like, oh, he's making cookies to go with the festival thing. Yes. Yeah. We have a, um,

06:07
We not only have the Hodeg Heritage Festival here in town, but then there's a store here in town called the Hodeg Store and that he features exactly that. Everything under the sun that you could imagine, but green and Hodag themed. So this is year two now that we've been working together to create the Hodag Cookie to kind of just have one more offering at his store.

06:35
It's funny because a lot of places have these, I don't know, made up legendary things to promote their area. And the town I used to live in, we had the Heimatfest Festival. And it's basically just a day or a weekend every September, just after school starts. And there's a car cruise and there's just like a little tiny festival in the city park.

07:03
And it's been going on for years. And when I moved there and found out about it, I was like, what is this about? And it actually, I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, but my understanding is that some bad things went down in my town many, many years ago, the town I used to live in and the powers that be decided they needed to create something really fun for families to kind of change the atmosphere of what people thought of the town.

07:33
And it's worked. Wow. That's kind of a neat backstory. I mean, I'm a big history buff, so I think that's pretty cool. And boy, now I'm intrigued on what bad things had to happen to create a festival to cover it up. I will tell you after we're done recording, because I don't want to give my town, my former town a bad rap. Oh, sure. But I'll tell you after where it was.

08:03
and the town I live in now we have we are the home of the jelly green giant oh No kidding. Yeah, Lasur, Minnesota There's a there's a billboard when you drive into town on the highway that has the jelly green giant and sprout on it Nice okay, I didn't realize that Okay, so go fig yeah weird. Um, okay. So beyond all that silliness

08:31
You also make all kinds of other things. I saw your brownies. Oh my god, I wish that there was such a thing as taste division. Yes. Yeah, that's something I hold kind of near and dear as much as I love my cookies. I played around with my brownie recipe for a long time. I think I went through six different renditions before I finally said, okay, enough is enough and

09:01
very particular in certain things. And brownies, just like the cookies are one of them, as much as I like kind of a cake-ier cookie, I like the exact opposite of a brownie. And I like a really moist, fudgy, kind of gooey brownie versus the cakey, maybe a little more structured brownie, so to speak. But to me, those usually end up being a little dry and a little...

09:30
little less flavorful compared to a fudgy brownie. But then I also find myself leaning typically on the side of the gooier thing, even on the cookies. They still are kind of that gooey center and stuff like that. So I guess I kind of like that. But yeah, the brownies are just out of this world. Yeah, my go-to for a brownie recipe is Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies recipe. I don't know if you know about this,

10:00
they are like, I don't want to say gluey, but they're so gooey, they're almost gluey. Oh yeah. And she calls for chocolate chips in the brownie batter. I don't do it that way because I don't want that much chocolate in mine, but hers calls for chocolate chips in the batter and sprinkled on top while they're baking. It's a lot of chocolate. No kidding. But really, really good.

10:29
She has, side note, has a fantastic soda bread recipe. Yeah, I don't do breads. I always screw them up. My husband might be interested. I do cookies and cakes and brownies because I'm better at that. Okay, yeah, absolutely. Well, and soda bread is a very easy quick bread. So yeah, I don't touch the yeast very much. As much as I love fresh yeast bread, it's just too much of a pain.

10:58
Yeah, it's got so much chemistry that can go wrong. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Because cooking is chemistry. Don't let anybody tell you different. It is. Yes. Yep. Okay, and you do cheesecakes and what else do you do? So let's see. Yeah, so we got cheesecakes. Today. We also just we just got done doing tiramisu and carrot cake. And we're also making

11:27
some cake pops. Okay. So we do a little bit of everything, but I would say our main features are our cookies, brownies, cheesecakes, and then muffins. Ooh, muffins are great. Yeah, I'm a big muffin fan as far as breakfast desserts go. Sign me up for a nice buttery blueberry muffin with a crumb top. Oh yes, nice cup of coffee.

11:57
Do you do scones at all? It's so funny. My cookies get mistaken for scones so much. I do it as a joke to not make scones just because of that. But no, not scones so much really, because once again, it kind of falls down into my pickiness and I think you should either just eat a biscuit or a muffin. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But so many people like scones, so I'll be honest with you. I think my...

12:27
My girls here at the bakery are slowly talking me into scones. Um, so I'm, I'm assuming we'll be doing those very soon. Okay. And so two questions. Number one, why is it called butcher shop Baker bake company? And is it a standalone store? Sure. So this, it, sometimes I wish I could go back and maybe name the company something else because it is such a confusing name for people. Um,

12:54
A to say I get it mispronounced all the time. And B, a lot of people think that we are a butcher shop as well. We are in fact are not a butcher shop. But I started with six, not even a six foot table, probably about four and a half feet worth of table inside of a butcher shop. So I had one shelf, I had four feet of table, I had one freezer and I got to share an oven.

13:23
Um, so as the company was kind of growing and I really needed to hammer down, you know, a name, I just thought that, um, I, I'm someone that really likes to humble beginnings and, and a little nod to where we came from. Um, to not eat, to, to just remember, you know, that as big as we get, don't forget that four feet of space that we had. Yeah, absolutely.

13:51
And is it a standalone store? Yeah, I'm sorry. As of this year, actually, we finally are in our own location. We've been renting out a back of a, I was also co-owner of a deli in town. So we were renting out the back of the deli, but this year we finally had a space open up downtown, so we took the plunge and now we got our own place. Congratulations. That's a huge deal. Good job.

14:21
Thank you. Yeah, it's been, uh, we, unfortunately the building we went into has been, um, neglected and very old. So it's been a lot of hurdles and a lot of headaches this year so far, but it's, um, all good things to encounter and overcome. Cause then you can just add it to the tool belt of, of things that you've, you know, you can, you can deal with when they come up. Oh yeah. Life is a wonderful teacher.

14:50
Absolutely. Every damn day. I saw in one of the videos that you put up, I don't remember what it was about, one of your cookies or something, and you were like, sweet baby Jesus. And I laughed myself stupid because my son started saying three or four years ago, he heard it somewhere, he said, he was all excited about something. He said, sweet buttery baby Jesus. And I said, what is that?

15:20
from. He said, I don't know, I heard somebody say it, it's funny. And it is funny. So when you said, Sweet Baby Jesus, I just laughed. I was like, boy, after my own heart. There we go. Well, I got to tell you, you got to just have fun and you know, sometimes you got to be a little goofy. And that's the one thing that I try to keep here at the bakery with even like today I was rotating some muffins and it caught my hand and I dropped the whole pan of muffins mid-bake.

15:50
It was very irritating, but as my girls are looking at me and I just got to remember, every day is fun here. You know, you got to love coming to work and through all the trials and tribulations, just remember that I get to create something sweet today and that is awesome. Yes, and the mantra of every entrepreneur everywhere is shit happens. It's amen, sister. Oh gosh, if that isn't the truth.

16:21
Yep. And I actually try really hard not to swear on the podcast, but sometimes it's entirely appropriate and that one was. Yes, absolutely. I've never thought about it, but yeah, if you had to sum up a little phrase for entrepreneurs, that's one of the top ones right there. And the other one is being your own boss is the best thing ever. Yes. Amen. Only I have to yell it myself.

16:51
Yeah, and you can only be mad at you when something gets messed up. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. And for me, it's such a humbling experience even with employees and things like that is when things happen, you kind of take a step back and, oh, I could have prevented that or what wasn't I doing to change that course of action? And once you, like you said,

17:19
what a learning experience, you know, every day. Even though I've been, like I said, this is year seven for us and I've been cooking for 16, I think, and you still, you know, every day is you still learn something new. Yeah, for sure. We're going through a learning from life thing here. We got six inches of rain between three o'clock yesterday afternoon and seven o'clock this morning.

17:48
Wow. And we're a farm to market garden producing place and market being farmers market and the farm stand on our property. It's been a terrible spring here in LaSore, Minnesota for getting plants in the ground. And my husband's the gardener and he is getting increasingly frustrated with the situation because today is June 3rd. And we usually have...

18:17
Lettuces and kale and chard and stuff coming up by now That hasn't happened because it's not in the ground yet because our garden is a puddle. It's mud So I said to him I said to him yesterday. I said are you okay? Are you mad? Are you feeling terrible about all this and he said? Honey, and I thought oh no he says this is this is part of it He said we've been really lucky the last three years. He said this is the year that it's gonna

18:46
that's gonna try us and I said, okay. And he said, I can't fight the weather. He said, thank God we have the greenhouse because at least I have starts that are growing so that when we can get them in, they'll be okay. So we are learning patience this spring. Well, you'll have to tell them that I am, this is my first year, because I eventually would like to see myself in some sort of homestead.

19:15
capacity. So right now I just got a house in the city, but I did, I got 16 raised garden beds this year that I am going to try and fill and grow as much as I can. And it has been a learning experience so far this year. Oh yeah. Is it the first time you've ever done it? Yes. Yeah. I grew up, my mom and grandma are master gardeners, but for,

19:45
Pretty plants, never really was vegetable gardening until my mom started the last couple of years, but this is my first year actually trying to get into it. And yeah, unfortunately, I think I've killed more little seedlings than I've saved so far, but we're trying. Yeah, it happens. And honestly, if the conditions are right, you throw the seed in the ground and it grows. The problem is the conditions aren't right where we are this year.

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anything. So a little bit of frustration going on on the tiny homestead right now. Yeah, absolutely. So back to naming things. You were saying that you kind of wish you could change the name, but you also want to pay homage to where you started. When I started the podcast, before I even did the first episode, I was trying to come up with a name for it because

20:43
I didn't really want to name it a Tiny Homestead Podcast because that's our business name. And I wanted to step away from it a little bit. And I was talking to my husband and my son and I was like, what do I name this thing? And we brainstormed for a week. And after a week, there was nothing coming to the forefront. And my son said, just name it a Tiny Homestead Podcast. He said, you already have the business. You might as well put it back. Put it under the umbrella of the business.

21:14
the

21:44
I kind of was in the same boat as, you know, we've been going so long where it's like, could I rebrand and change the name? Sure. But I've done, especially locally, I've done such a good job of name recognition at this point. I think it would be more detrimental than it would be beneficial to try to rebrand. Yeah. And rebranding is such a pain in the butt.

22:10
You have to change all of your marketing materials. You have to change so many things.

22:17
Yeah, it's not just changing. Yeah. Headaches I don't want to deal with. Yeah. It's not just changing the name. People think it's just changing the name, but it's not. Yeah. So thousands of business cards that I have would then be wasted. Yeah. They'd become little note scratchy paper thingies. No, that's not a great use of that money. Um, okay. So I'm not going to lie. Pretty much every baker I've talked to. I.

22:46
think but one has been female in my my weeks and months of doing this podcast. So I assumed that the owner of butcher shop baked company was a woman until I looked at your Facebook page and saw your videos. I was like, Oh no, that's not a lady. That's a guy. Okay. So you do understand how unusual that is in baking, right? Yeah, absolutely. Um,

23:16
I have two ladies that work for me and I have yet to have any male show any sort of interest for a baking position, nor have I really met too many male bakers over the years of my travels, so to speak, or years of doing business. Even some of the companies that I connect with, because I ship nationwide, so I try

23:46
as much of an Instagram and social media presence as I can. And I like to network with other companies and most of them are also female bakers or owned and operated female businesses. So yeah, I am definitely a little bit of a standalone here. Which is not necessarily a bad thing at all because it gives you.

24:14
I don't know, cachet, clout, little bit, makes you stand out.

24:20
Yeah, I, I, yeah, I, um, I'm definitely not one for being, whether it's the, the little guy in the room or the, um, you know, kind of the oddball out, um, that's kind of been my whole mo for, for life. So, um, I'm, I'm no stranger to it and, and I don't mind it, you know, it, um, whether it hurts or helps or anything like that. I try not to, um,

24:48
even think about those things. I'm just a baker and I show up each day to make awesome cookies and hopefully people buy those either way. But yeah, I think it is pretty cool that – because I was a chef for many years and in that industry, it seems to be at least in my area more men than it is females. But then yeah, as soon as you switch over into the –

25:17
the dessert side of things, it's a light switch flip as far as gender roles go. But I don't mind that because sometimes...

25:30
having some ladies in the kitchen is a little better than having some guys in the kitchen. Sometimes some egos in a small space isn't always great, where my ladies are absolutely fantastic and just a joy to have. So I think that works really well to kind of help balance things out on that side of things.

25:53
Yeah, and I wasn't saying that men should not be bakers if that's how that came across. That wasn't what I meant. Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. Okay. I have three sons. I have a daughter. My daughter is the oldest of the four kids. And all four of them cook and love to cook. And my first son of the three made Russian tea cakes when he was 12 because he wanted to make them.

26:22
on his mom's side, he's my stepson, had this recipe that she used to make at Christmas time for Russian tea cakes and he wanted to make them. And he said, he says, I'm gonna take over your kitchen. He was 12. I said, okay. It was a little galley style kitchen in the old house that we lived in. I said, okay, what do you need? And he said, I need convection sugar and butter and smashed up pecans and something else. I don't remember what it was.

26:52
And I said, the only thing we don't have is pecans. Would you like to go to the store with me and we'll get some? He says, yeah. And I said, would you like my help making these things? And he said, he says, I want to try to do it myself. He said, but if I need help, I will ask. I said, okay. And that boy whipped up the yummiest Russian teacake cookies I have ever tasted. Oh, that is awesome. That is so cool. So, yep. And my daughter used to.

27:21
used to when she lived at home, used to make cookies and things and she was very good at that. And my youngest is still living with us and he cooks dinner twice a week for us, which is amazing because that means I have two nights I don't have to come up with dinner. And my other son lives with his dad right now so I don't know what he's cooking. But they all were raised.

27:44
to do their own laundry, to know how to cook, to know how to make at least one meal and one dessert, they would be proud to serve their friends. And they all can. Well, that's for you. It wasn't gender specific either. So I guess what I was trying to get at is, I think it's a shame that in the baking people I've talked to, I've only talked to two men who do it. I guess that's what I was getting at. Yeah, absolutely.

28:12
It definitely is. I think a lot of guys kind of look at it, maybe look down on it, or maybe it isn't quite as glamorous as grilling steaks or being a head chef because I've been both. And sometimes the head chef is definitely the focal point, especially if you're in a restaurant that is doing maybe course dinners or something like that. It's definitely more

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romantic or sexy, they might say, to be a chef or a line cook than it is maybe being a baker or a patissiere. But so fun and so, yes, there are plenty of different savory dishes to make and so many different ways to cook a piece of chicken. But the wow factor, we did.

29:09
at the restaurant that I owned, we would do beer and wine pairings and it'd be six courses. I would probably say 90% of the time, I would always ask, oh, what was your favorite course? What was your favorite course? And it would almost always be the dessert because it is just, whether it's nostalgia flavors or it's eye popping or you put something cool like gold leaf on it.

29:36
It's just such a fun way to either tie people back to maybe something that they had in their childhood or give them some new ingredient a different way or a presentation that they've never seen before. Whereas grilling a steak is delicious, but it's still a steak on a plate. Yes, yes, absolutely. We don't do a whole lot of dessert after dinner here. We do it once in a while.

30:06
And a couple weeks ago, our rhubarb was coming in and strawberries are in season in the southern states right now. And so we bought strawberries and I made a strawberry rhubarb compote to have over scones with whipped cream. And not gonna lie, I would have been real happy to just have that for dinner. And I thought, you know, I'm a grown up. I might want to eat real food before I eat sweets.

30:31
And so I ate like three bites of a burger and two french fries and five stalks of asparagus from the garden because that is dessert to me anyway. I love asparagus so much. And I was like, okay, I ate grown up food. Now I'm going to the kitchen. I'm getting two scones. I'm splitting them in half. I'm putting them in a bowl. I'm putting the sauce over. I'm putting a mountain of whipped cream on it. I'm going to devour it. And I did. The joy of being a grown up.

31:00
is knowing you can have dessert for dinner, but being reasonable enough to eat actual food before you do it. Absolutely. That's, look at you. You've done well. I was a grownup for five minutes and I was sorry. But yeah, I mean, for me, food, food, real food, like dinner food is the means to an end to get the lovely dessert that is coming after if there is one.

31:31
Yeah, absolutely. And like you said, I don't as much as everybody's like, oh, you must eat so much stuff. I eat my fair share because I like to try things and make sure it's all right. But once you have sugar every day, you start to crave some savory stuff and you don't need to have it every night, so to speak, or not so much. So thankfully, it's almost worked a little bit.

32:00
opposite for me is now I don't even crave the sweets anymore. I'm almost craving savory stuff by the end of the day just because I've been around sweets so much. Yeah. And all you smell all day is dessert. Yes. So you're like, I can't, I need salt. I need sour. Correct. I was just going to say salt. Yeah, absolutely.

32:27
I was thinking of something when we were talking and now I forgot because that's what happens. I don't know that it matters. Is there anything else you would like to share about what you do and how you feel about what you do? Well, I know for anybody listening that is not on a commercial space or is still struggling on a small scale.

32:56
become very, very comfortable in your small space because even when you get to commercial settings, a lot of times, like I said, I started on a four foot table. So a lot of times, I used to find myself very frustrated about, oh, I just need more space, I need more space. Well, once you start to learn how to really utilize the space that you have and figure out your processes and really hammer down.

33:25
exactly how to get from A to B with not a lot of nonsense in between. That just, that tremendously helps that when you make that switch to a bigger setting, whether it's a commercial kitchen renting or your own space. So I, boy I kind of just lost my train of thought there, but pretty much just for anybody that's listening that's on the small scale, become very, very good at what you do on the small scale.

33:53
and then just slowly kind of amplify that. And then most bakers that I found don't ever think about a wholesale route. And that's what my company set up. 90% of my business is a wholesale business because I learned in my very rural town of Rhinelander, we don't have a lot of walk-in traffic. So even though I have my very own storefront now,

34:23
We don't even have an actual storefront set up Yet just because we don't really have we're a town of 8,000 people So for me to fill a big bunch of bakery cases every day I just found isn't beneficial where I think a lot of a lot of young bakers think Oh, I got to get a storefront. I got to fill cases and that's the only way to become a baker But I found in the bakeries that I've worked. That's a great way to throw away a lot of product

34:52
where on the wholesale side of things, it's sold before I make it. And that's really helped me keep the bakery going as long as it has. So just a little piece of advice for anybody listening that is trying to figure out how to increase their business is go wholesale. So many businesses, the dessert is the forgotten about course. You know, your waitress doesn't talk about it. They either don't stock a dessert

35:22
just buy some cheap Cisco cheesecake or something like that, where you can go in there and say, hey, I got a local product. It's gourmet. It's delicious. All of the above. And it's no nonsense. They can just put a piece of cheesecake on a plate and sell it for $3, $4, $5 markup. For them, they're making more money. They're offering a better product. And you now as a baker have a confirmed sale.

35:51
or a reoccurring sale versus hoping somebody's walking in. So I think that's just a missed point for a lot of bakers. And I think that's why a lot of bakeries fail is because they're a little too narrow-sighted on their customer base. Yeah, before I ask you the second question again, there is almost nothing more disappointing than ordering a piece of cheesecake at a restaurant where the food is really good, where they make their food.

36:21
And then they bring you this, this scale piece cheesecake that is hard and doesn't taste like anything. I had that happen a few years ago and I sent it back. I was like, no, no, no, no. You guys, your food, your dinner menu is amazing and I know how you make this stuff. Find someone who knows how to make a cheesecake. And the manager came over to me and said, excuse me, what?

36:50
I said, I'm not being mean, I promise you. I said, but anybody can make a decent, yummy cheesecake in their oven at home. It's not that hard. I said, you either need to hire somebody who knows how to make a cheesecake or don't put cheesecake on the menu. He was like, well, aren't you, aren't you uppity? And he was grinning. But that was what came across, you know? Yeah. That's, that's.

37:18
I too many times now when whenever I'm somewhere and I really enjoy the dinner and we're thinking about dessert, I always ask first I says what's made in house. And unfortunately, most of the time, a lot of the stuff isn't made in house. And then yeah, I don't even order it because what's what's the point is I'm going to be disappointed if like you said, if the dinner was amazing, and they're making making it in house to then get handed something that isn't made in house is just just a buzzkill.

37:47
Yeah, that's such a myth. You're starting to see it a little bit more, I think now in the last couple of years, the Instagram foodie, that whole trend has become so popular. I think it's almost forcing some places to increase, which is phenomenal, to increase their quality of food, especially when you get into the city, more populated areas. But yeah, you still see it.

38:17
You hate to see it. Yeah, and it's kind of amazing how these little small mom and pop restaurants do make their own desserts and they are fantastic. They're wonderful. Absolutely. I think it's Anthony Bourdain's got this famous little quote and it goes something like, whenever I go somewhere to eat.

38:44
They always apologize, oh, I'm so sorry that this isn't, you know, truffle mashed potato, you know, something amazing. And he's like, listen, he's like, I just want to eat something that was cooked by your grandma in the kitchen. That's good food. And that's exactly what you're finding in some of these small mom and pop places. They're just making good, it doesn't look amazing, potentially, but boy, is it going to taste awesome. And that's really all you're looking for.

39:14
Yeah, exactly. Okay, so how do you feel about what you're doing? I mean, I can tell from the way you're talking that you're really, really enjoying what you've built, but how do you feel about what you do? Yeah, I tell you, this is actually the first year that I've been able to work full-time for the bakery. I had the restaurant, so that was my day job, and then I kind of would just handle the bakery after that.

39:43
So to wake up every day, not only to be working for my baby that I created, but just to be able to do something that I love that is fun, working with people that also love what they're doing, is just absolutely fantastic. And then I tried moving away many times and then finally I realized, I was like, dude, you live in an awesome place, people vacation here, plant your roots.

40:12
And after I planted my roots, I just, I wanted to do whatever I do, focus on making the place that I live a better place to be, not only for myself, but for my family and, and the community. So this bakery has really allowed us to not only, um, make an impact, which is creating great food for the area, but then it's allowed me to become extremely community involved, whether it's donations, volunteering, um,

40:41
speaking for small business panels, just allowed me to give back to the community, which has been just so rewarding. So you're growing where you planted yourself, which is great. Yes, absolutely. Yes, those seeds took. Good. Awesome. All right, Dustin, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today because I know you've got a lot going on.

41:08
Absolutely. I can't thank you enough for giving me the opportunity to jump on. Oh, absolutely. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you.