WHY DID WE START A GLUTEN-FREE BAKERY?

From co-founder and Chef Eric Braddock

I have always loved to cook. As far back as I can remember, I was in the kitchen making delicious food for people to enjoy. And I love baking even more. Is there anything finer than the smell of baking bread? Or the hint of cinnamon coming from a batch of oatmeal cookies just pulled from the oven?

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

My culinary journey, as well as my wife, Adrienne’s, has been vast and has taken me all over this country. When I moved back to Columbus, Ohio in 2011, I wanted to have my own business again. I told Adrienne that I make great gluten-free bread and we both agreed that there was a real need for exceptional gluten-free bread and baked goods in the market. So we started on this journey to provide the best tasting, gluten-free baked goods available to the public in our one-bedroom apartment. I was baking four loaves at a time, all night long. I would hop on my Harley and make deliveries in the morning. Adrienne continued working as a chef to support us as we both worked tirelessly to make our little bakery a success.

Our original packaging, with our first bakery name, Eban Bakery, was spotted by Doug Lunne, president and founder of Lunne Marketing Group in Dayton. He is gluten free and loved our products so much that he approached us about helping us reach the next level of our business through marketing our brand.

LMG took our humble, homemade packaging and reimagined it into an award-winning design and brand we know today as Éban’s Bakehouse. They took us under their wing by doing an incredible amount of work pro bono initially. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the help, advice, support, and expertise of many, many people—chief among them the LMG team.

We grew quickly and had to move into a slightly bigger kitchen space so we could continue to grow. As demand grew, we started to recognize how much our bread was loved. We wondered what set our gluten free-breads apart from our competitors. We bought our competitors’ bread and tasted them. It was no wonder people were searching us out. All that was on the market was dry, crumbly bread that was barely edible.

We baked as much bread and cookies as we could and sold it at three to four farmers’ markets a week. Adrienne quit her job and came on board at Eban’s Bakehouse full time in 2013. When we were not baking or delivering, we were sampling at stores. We raised money with the support of friends and family and were able to buy bigger mixers and ovens as we continued to grow.

CONTINUED GROWTH

With the second round of funding, we have grown into 12,000 square feet of bakery space and sell to thousands of accounts across 16+ states. As we continue to grow our bakery, we are excited to develop new products for our customers and to be able to provide a safe and rewarding work place for our hardworking, dedicated staff and for new hires who also desire to grow along with us.

Everything we do is inspired by a commitment to make our customers happy and excited to eat their favorite bread and cookies, now made deliciously gluten free. No gluten. No regrets. We are also committed to operating our business with a low impact on the environment and our planet. To that end, we recycle all of our plastics and paper. We compost all of our fresh eggshells, excess bread dough, scraps, and crumbs from our slicing operation, we even encourage our employees to compost as well. We are striving to only send one percent of all of our waste to a landfill.

Being a gluten-free brand we certainly understand the importance of food restrictions. Word of mouth has spread about the quality and taste of our artisanal products – as a result we began getting requests from the Orthodox community.  Kosher Certification was the  logical progression to make our Shockingly Delicious baked goods accessible to those with dietary or religious food requirements. Now that we have our Kosher certification there is a whole new market segment that can enjoy our products with the confidence that they are Kosher.

The Éban’s motto is simple, yet bold, and it comes to life in everything we do:  No gluten. No regrets. Happy eating!