I just got back from Ann Arbor, MI recovering from a whirlwind tour of the myriad Zingerman’s projects. An excellent “Half-Italian” sandwich from the deli in the yellow house next door, a thorough tour of the bakeshop out in an industrial park, met the candy bar operation (luckily they had a too-small cashew crunch affair that was the BEST candy bar EVER), sampled some amazing goat cheese in the creamery, had a delicious espresso from some espresso machine that screams “industrial design!” (a Slayer from Seattle), AND got to check out the baking classroom. This is an amazing operation. Everyone knows that Zingerman’s is doing something cultishly right, and after meeting many of the people behind the food I am so happy for their success.

I hung out with Frank Carollo (he serves on the Bread Bakers Guild board with me), who, along with Amy Emberling, own the Zingerman’s Bakehouse. Not everyone knows this, but Zingerman’s is not a monolithic giant company – it’s a series of independent companies, all sharing partnership with Ari. The idea is that having an owner on-site is critical – that expanding one concept cookie-cutter style isn’t the only way to success.

The cool thing for me is that I got some great ideas and will be getting the Roadhouse Bread formula from Frank. It’s based on Thirded Bread – a colonial American staple typically involving corn meal, rye meal and wheat flour. The Bakehouse makes this for the Roadhouse restaurant, it’s a sourdough and has great flavor, moist crumb and a very nice crisp-yet-chewy crust. I also picked up some Cope’s dried sweet corn – maybe that will work in this bread?

Anyway, I had an amazing time with all the Zingerman’s people I met and hope to see them all again. Luckily ours is a small world and I’m confident our paths will cross again soon.