Resources:
Sarah Rigg's Feature Article: 3 Ypsi bakeries have opened in the past 2 years, and owners see "room for all of us to thrive"
Transcription:
Lee Van Roth: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Lee Van Roth, formerly known as Rylee Barnsdale, and this is On the Ground Ypsi. While my name is different, I am still committed to bringing you the stories from our community. From cinnamon rolls to sourdough, local bakeries are adding fresh flavor to the Ypsilanti food scene. With a growing number of small businesses finding their footing here in the city, On the Ground project manager Sarah Rigg wanted to know who are the people behind these new bake shops and what are they bringing to the table. Today, I'm here with Benjamin Brown, the owner of B-Cubed Bakery at 741 Emmerich Street here in Ypsi, to talk about what it's been like opening a bakery up in the area, the kinds of treats you might find on his racks, and how he's been finding community among other bakers and food folks around town. Hi, Ben! Thanks so much for joining us here today!
Benjamin Brown: Absolutely! Thank you very much for having me!
Lee Van Roth: So, let's start from the very beginning. I think is the best way to go.
Benjamin Brown: Absolutely!
Lee Van Roth: What first got you interested in baking, and how did that lead to turning a passion into a business?
Benjamin Brown: Yeah, absolutely! So, I've been baking my whole life, so, from the beginning, making cookies with Grandma kind of a thing. Pizza bagels were her kind of specialty.
Lee Van Roth: Oh right!
Benjamin Brown: Kind of an interesting one there. So, from there, my first career was in tech. So, I did that for a large number of years. And I kind of burned out in between two jobs and figured I needed to do something completely different. And so, I kind of took that personal passion for baking for myself and was like, "Maybe I could do this as like a thing!" And so, I went to culinary school. I took two years off, went to culinary school up in Traverse City, worked for some bakeries up there and then for Zingerman's down in Ann Arbor and finally decided like, "Okay. Maybe I could open my own kind of a thing." So, I discovered that I liked doing it professionally enough. So, I went back into tech for a while, built up a little nest egg, started doing farmers' markets, and here we are now!
Lee Van Roth: So, B-cubed, this is your first business then?
Benjamin Brown: Yes, this is my first business of my own. Yeah.
Lee Van Roth: And the name is pretty interesting to me too. Is there a story or something behind B-Cubed? What does that mean?
Benjamin Brown: So, there's nothing official behind the B-Cubed portion of it, but it's kind of a play on like the A-squared, Ann Arbor thing. And my name is Ben Brown, so kind of that alliteration of the letter B kind of plays into it a little bit.
Lee Van Roth: Oh, okay!
Benjamin Brown: So, kind of the joke one is Ben Brown's Bread Bakery is very difficult to say. Kind of embarrassing when you trip over your own name. So, you had to go with something a little different. So, that's kind where a B-Cubed came from.
Lee Van Roth: And how have things been going so far since opening? Remind me when B-Cubed opened up.
Benjamin Brown: Yeah. So, we opened right at the end of October in 2024, so last year. So, we're in our eighth month now, and it's been great! So, the folks there in the neighborhood have found us really well, which is exactly what we wanted. We've started ramping up a little bit with farmers' markets starting up again in May and doing a little bit of wholesale as well. So, things are going really well!
Lee Van Roth: In this eight-month period, have there been surprises or things that kind of stood out to you, this being your first business that you own and operate?
Benjamin Brown: Absolutely! So, being in tech, I always had a pretty good feel for the numbers side of it, so spreadsheets and all that kind of things aren't too bad. But definitely, it's not really surprising, but certainly gratifying that that kind of vision for a neighborhood-based bakery has really taken off. And so, in the way that I was hoping it would. And so, getting to know the people in Galt Village there and repeat customers, folks coming in, even in the middle of winter, out for walks in the neighborhood and stopping by the bakery has been super cool.
Lee Van Roth: Community response, as far as customers go, has been pretty positive.
Benjamin Brown: Yes! Yeah! Absolutely!
Lee Van Roth: What about the small business community aspect of it? Do you feel like you've been folded into the small-business community here?
Benjamin Brown: Definitely! Yes! Yeah! So, we work with a few other small businesses in town. So, when we first opened, I always knew that one of my other passions is coffee. So, perhaps another one of the B's, so brewing, being in that kind of B-Cubed. So, we started working with Hyperion early on, and they've been a great partner for us. So, that's where we get our beans, and they've helped us out with starting up the café portion, how to structure that program, all of those pieces. And they were one of our first wholesale customers as well. We also work with Café Liv, Ma Lou's, up in Dixboro, Moonwinks. So, we've done really well there. And then, of course, there's the other bakeries in town. So, I knew both the folks at Bird Dog and Beara Bakes prior to opening my own one, because we all came out of the incubator kitchen at Growing Hope.
Lee Van Roth: Right! Have there been any particularly memorable moments on your end, as far as working with other bakeries and other local businesses that kind of have made you feel as like part of the fabric here in Ypsi?
Benjamin Brown: Yeah! Definitely!
Lee Van Roth: Because it sounds like the relationships that have been built both professionally and with customers have been kind of overwhelmingly positive.
Benjamin Brown: Yeah, it's been super good! So, that's that's one of the great things about the small business community is everybody just wants everybody else to do really well. So many people would think like, "Oh, three new bakeries starting up within the last year. Isn't that a terrible thing? Like, don't you feel some animosity or stuff like that?" But no, not at all. Like, we all do kind of different things. And that's worked out really well. And, I mean, it's not the super positive kind of thing to talk about, but there was the string of break-ins in Ypsilanti a couple of weeks ago. And that's a very odd thing to kind of have happen to that many small businesses all at once. But definitely the positivity around the connection between the small businesses, kind of all going through that together, made that much easier for us.
Lee Van Roth: And I know B-Cubed unfortunately was wrapped up in that. Are things back where they're supposed to be now?
Benjamin Brown: We're still waiting for the glass to get replaced for our door.
Lee Van Roth: Okay.
Benjamin Brown: So, there were some complications kind of in the repair process.
Lee Van Roth: And the bakery is open to the public as well.
Benjamin Brown: Yes. Very super interesting kind of a thing. We were open that same day, so that was fantastic. The staff there was--the staff that works at the bakery with me--was very positive and great about being like, "Ben, yes! Like, absolutely, we will open today!" And we've been open the whole time.
Lee Van Roth: And that really shows, I think, a dedication to the community, the direct community you're serving there over in Gault Village, too, with the repeat customers you have.
Benjamin Brown: Yeah, and the turnout from customers that day. Like, we posted on Instagram and put our sandwich board out by the street, like, "Yes, there is a giant piece of plywood over the door, but we are open!" And all sorts of people turned out that day. And I was at the farmer's market, actually, interestingly, that day too. And the reception there was great also.
Lee Van Roth: This is WEMU's On the Ground Ypsi. I'm talking with Benjamin Brown, the owner of the recently opened B-Cubed bakery here in Ypsi. So, Ben, what is something that people might not realize about the day-to-day of being a professional baker, owning a bakery, all of these different pieces because the way I'm envisioning it, I feel like, is very up at 2 or 3 AM, baking bread the entire morning and maybe getting some sleep in the afternoon.
Benjamin Brown: That's not totally untrue.
Lee Van Roth: Okay.
Benjamin Brown: So, the process that we use with sourdough is very long fermentation times. So, most of our loaves are around 22 to 26 hours from when you mix it until when it gets baked. So, thankfully though, what that means for us is they go through a cold proof period where they go into the refrigerator and stay there overnight. So, that means that we don't have an early, early shift up to mix bread, to have it proof that same morning, to bake it. So, we bake the bread that we shaped the previous day. So, that means our shift starts at four, which, to most folks, is still incredibly early but for bakers is not too bad.
Lee Van Roth: So, sourdough, obviously, on the menu. Are there any other baked goods that you're particularly fond of that you have over at the bakery?
Benjamin Brown: Yeah! So, one of the great things about going from the cottage industry into having a retail storefront and being in the Gault Village area, so we have a little bit more space certainly than when it was in my house. So we were able to start doing croissants when we opened the bakery. And so, we've made huge strides on our croissants since we opened, and they are incredibly good. And so, that's been very exciting to have that happen as well.
Lee Van Roth: You mentioned a little bit about how your background in tech has kind of helped with the numbers side of things, but have there been any other, you know, skills or parts of the job that you kind of had to develop on the fly just because this was a new venture for you?
Benjamin Brown: Absolutely!
Lee Van Roth: Is there something that you didn't expect you would need to know in this process?
Benjamin Brown: Yeah. So, there's certainly parts of it that I didn't quite think about as much, but do kind of correspond a little bit to my background, so figuring out from a day-to-day perspective, like how much of different things we'll need, has been quite the journey, I will say. So, making sure that we end up with enough sourdough toward the end of when we're open that all the folks that love it there can stop in and actually get a loaf, or not have too many cookies left at the end. So, that's been something that I've really had to work on as a manager for the bakery as well, where previously, working at bakeries, I was just an employee who came in, made stuff and then went home. Now, I kind of have to think about, "Well, what's the weather going be like four days from now?", particularly now when it's been so hot recently. Like, are people actually going to want a slice of quiche when they come in in the morning? Maybe, maybe not.
Lee Van Roth: And given the experience so far, what would you say to someone thinking about opening a bakery here in Ypsi?
Benjamin Brown: Yeah, so I worked with the SBDC when I first started building out the plan for the bakery, and that was a very good move. So, the folks there are fantastic and will help you kind of approach the reality of opening a small business that you might not be thinking about and kind of get you in touch with with what that's actually like to own a small business and have employees that are counting on you to build a plan for your business to actually work.
Lee Van Roth: Well, Ben, thank you so much for being here today and sharing this business journey with us and what it's been like to, or what it has been like becoming part of, the Ypsi baking scene here! It's been great to have you!
Benjamin Brown: Yeah, absolutely! Thank you for having me on!
Lee Van Roth: For more information on today's topic and links to the full article, visit our website at WEMU.org. On the Ground Ypsi is brought to you in partnership with Concentrate Media. I'm Lee Van Roth, formerly known as Rylee Barnsdale, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti. Celebrating 60 years of broadcasting at Eastern Michigan University!
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