Rising to the occasion: Bakery serves the Flathead its daily bread, and then some

It’s lunch time on a Wednesday in April, and the crowd at Grateful Bread has shifted from morning pastry-seekers to tables of local diners wanting soup and sandwiches, and perhaps a cookie for dessert.

The small shop in Bigfork isn’t as full as it will be in another couple of months, but then it’s the off-season in the resort community. Like many other business owners in Bigfork, Grateful Bread owners Jim and Diana Larsen have figured out a way to make a living in a town that’s crazy busy in the summer and much quieter the rest of the year.

And it’s not easy.

The Larsens are celebrating their 15th year in business come May 6, and while 15 years may not seem like a milestone for longevity, in Bigfork it is. They’ve calculated they’re the second-oldest restaurant under single ownership in Bigfork.

The competition for customers is much greater now than it was when they bought the bakery business in 1996. Last summer Jim drove from the bowling alley near the intersection of Montana 82 and 35 to downtown Bigfork and counted 36 places to eat lunch, including everything from convenience stores to fine dining.

Finding a way to stand out in the crowd is as much of a challenge as stretching those hard-earned summer dollars to make them last all year. Diana said the consistency of their products is paramount.

“I never swap out ingredients” for cheaper or lesser-quality brands, she said. “All of our sandwiches are made with fresh baked bread. We buy from Mountain View Gardens when we can. We try to keep it local. All our soups are from scratch.”

Last fall the couple used a bumper crop of squash from their 10-acre hobby farm for soup at the bakery. They use tomatoes from their garden and any other local produce they can get their hands on.

Grateful Bread’s peasant bread — round over-sized buns with homemade appeal — have become the bakery’s claim to fame, and some of their sandwiches are legendary in the resort town: The Casey Jones, the Chubby Baker, the Southwestern Club.

But Diana likes to shake things up now and again, so not long ago she “went crazy” and added a dozen new hot and cold sandwiches to the menu.

In addition to a full line of breads and pastries and extensive lunch menu, Grateful Bread offers breakfast and does catering, too.

The Larsens credit their loyal local customer base for surviving the recession.

“We were down last year, but not painfully,” Diana said. “This winter, though, we noticed” the drop in business.

The Larsens compensated for the decline in business by cutting their own paychecks, not their workers. They treasure their dedicated and skilled employees and want to keep them on the job.

It takes discipline and delegating to survive as small-business owners in Bigfork, they said.

“You make it in the summer and dole it out slowly in the winter,” Diana said. “You have to optimize the summer months and learn to live within your budget. You have to be disciplined because it can be skinny in winter.”

Diana, a Kalispell native who learned to cook and bake through 4-H and home economics at Flathead High School, decided to jump into the bakery business in 1996 when they saw a small bakery for sale in Bigfork. They have lived in Bigfork since 1978. They bought the place and immediately put their own signature on it, including the name.

Jim, an Idaho native who was a chip-truck driver and diesel mechanic for Owens & Bray in Kalispell for many years, kept his job for the first few years while Diana grew the bakery business.

“I don’t think we did a hundred dollars a day in sales the first year,” Diana recalled.

Originally Grateful Bread was located next to Burton’s Satellite Sales on Montana 35, but the business moved to its current location in the Old Town Center on Montana 35 in 1998.

Jim eased into the bakery routine in 2000 when Diana was short-handed.

“It was spring, going into the busy season,” she said. After putting in early-morning hours at the bakery, “he’d grab a lunch and go be a diesel mechanic.”

Jim eventually joined the bakery full time and is now the head baker. He enjoys the early-morning baking, but said time management is his biggest challenge. If the mixing isn’t timed just right, “the next thing you know dough is running everywhere.”

He’s the lone male on the bakery crew, and jokes that his apron is his “estrogen shield.”

For Diana, learning how to delegate has perhaps been her biggest accomplishment.

“I used to be so possessive, but over the years I’ve learned to delegate,” she said. “It’s impossible to be an entrepreneur, technician and manager all at the same time. Giving up some makes life easier.”

Impeccable customer service is another element of the bakery’s success.

“You have to be really friendly. If you haven’t said ‘hi’ immediately, you’ve waited too long,” Diana said.

Customers return like clockwork every summer, and the Larsens have gotten to know their families.

“One of our first customers was a little girl in kindergarten who ended up working for us for two summers. She’s now in college,” Diana said.

The Larsens’ easygoing rapport and some good-natured teasing are the perfect mix for working together as a married couple. Diana married her beau right after high-school graduation in 1974, and they will celebrate 37 years together in June.

Their two sons, Jesse, who’s married with three children, and Brent, work just down the road at Meissenburg Designs, where Jesse recently designed custom-made tablecloths for the bakery. The Larsens’ daughter, Audrey, lives in England where her husband is stationed in the Air Force.

An upcoming venture for the Larsens may be a wider distribution of their baked goods. Spokane Bakery Supply is interested in exploring the possibility of having ADM, a large milling company that offers research and development, run some small test batches of Grateful Bread recipes to determine distribution possibilities.

The Larsens don’t know what will come of Spokane Bakery Supply’s offer, but in true entrepreneurial style, they’re ready and willing to give it a try.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.