Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer And Ben Johnson.
Hi Jennifer and Ben, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We accidentally opened a bakery. The four of us — Chef Todd Ginsberg, Ben Johnson, Jennifer Johnson, and Shelley Sweet — had opened The General Muir in January 2013 with the goal of making, from scratch, the best possible version we could of traditional New York Deli classics, including pastrami sandwiches and corned beef Reubens. To make the best sandwiches, we needed the right bread. We sourced from a couple of local bakeries at first, but had trouble finding rye bread that was just right for us. Then, in November 2014, we opened Fred’s Meat & Bread in Krog Street Market, which is an entire menu of classic sandwiches: burgers, cheesesteaks, banh mi, po’boys, etc. We suddenly needed A LOT of bread, a lot of really good bread. We started to bake our own bread within The General Muir, which turned us into a 24-hour-a-day operation there. The pastry team, responsible for things like The General Muir’s cheesecake, Brooklyn Blackout Cake, and black & white cookies, would come in at the crack of dawn and leave mid-afternoon, just as the bread team was arriving to work overnight, finishing up just as the pastry team returned the next morning. And we were running out of space for the bread to cool before we could bag it! Right when we were at a breaking point, the business next door closed and the landlord asked if we would be interested in expanding The General Muir. We pitched the idea of our building out that space as a full-scale, albeit small, commercial bakery, with limited hours of public retail but near constant scenic bakery activity and fresh bread smells wafting out into the Emory Point development. And, so, TGM Bread was born in January 2016.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We did not open TGM Bread with a real plan, but were just trying to solve our internal bread-supply problem. A retail bakery is a very difficult business model in this country because Americans are just not used to buying fresh bread every day. We knew from the start that our retail hours and retail revenue would be only a small component. Our own restaurants – at the time West Egg Café, The General Muir, Fred’s Meat & Bread, and Yalla – needed enough bread that we could make a go of it. We would be our own biggest customer. But now we had a full commercial bakery with all the equipment and staff needed to run it. We could make more bread than we needed for ourselves and surely were not the only restaurant in town looking for locally-made, high-quality, fresh bread. We have a product we are proud of. Let’s sell to some of our friends. Why not add a few outside accounts?
Turns out, there are a lot of restaurants looking for locally-made, high-quality, fresh bread in relatively small batches. We quickly had more wholesale demand than we could handle. Also, the wholesale bakery business is very different than the restaurant business. Yes, it is all making and selling food, but the production process for a bakery is on a different scale, accounts receivable becomes a much larger part than it ever is in a restaurant, a delivery fleet becomes necessary which leads to additional staffing, insurance, and vehicle maintenance needs, not to mention delivery route planning and getting product to our customers every day through Atlanta traffic. It was like learning a whole new language only tangentially related to the one we already spoke.
Of course, the problem of keeping up with demand is vastly preferable to the problem of chasing demand. With our great staff, we sorted through, sometimes stumbled through, figuring out our new business model. We have had to make some hard decisions: some restaurants don’t order enough volume for us to justify the costs of delivery, some are just too far outside our delivery area, and some have unique product needs that we just cannot produce at a price anyone would want to pay. It pains us to say no — it goes against our hospitality DNA — and we still recall the sting of being told “you’re not a big enough customer” from vendors back when we opened our first restaurant, West Egg. But we very much remain a small business, so we have to be realistic about what we can take on and still maintain the quality of product and service that we want.
We’ve been impressed with TGM Bread, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We now have about 60 wholesale accounts and are incredibly humbled by the support. It’s very fun to have someone mention a restaurant, or visit it ourselves, and say “they use our bread!” We also sell retail from the bakery seven days a week from 11am to 3pm and at Peachtree Road Farmers Market (Saturdays), and Grant Park Farmers Market (Sundays). Our Bakery & Market Manager, Carrie Hudson, loves the farmers markets and the opportunity to get out of the “office” and interact directly with customers — and she is adored by them. She also gets to hear what special items they may be looking for, so over time, in addition to challah on Shabbat, we’ve started to offer panettone at the Christmas holidays, hot cross buns at Easter, and seasonal sandwiches at the markets (think BLTs during tomato season!).
We are in the unique position of being led by a two-time James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef, Southeast — Chef/Partner Todd Ginsberg. Once we got in the groove a bit at the bakery, we added a lunch element to our offerings, expanding and complementing our offerings at The General Muir next door. For a while it was paninis — like the “Bee Hive,” mozzarella, soppressata, roasted tomato, chiles, honey, or the “Flying Pig,” prosciutto, brie, and fig jam, served with a side of tomato bisque. Then, our “Pita Popup,” with our pita and a rotating menu of hummus and veggie bowls, inspired by our Krog Street Market stall, Yalla. Next came rustic pizzas by the slice, and finally — Soup & Bread (aka TGM Soup Co.), which proved to be what guests were looking for, and is still going strong nine years later! Sometimes the simplest, most comforting, thing — a choice of soups, paired with just the right kind of bread — is what folks are looking for; easy to pick up and take back to work, or get in quarts to take home along with a loaf of gorgeous bread. Over time we’ve added fresh grab & go salads to the mix as well.
How do you define success?
Success is a financially-sustainable business that ensures a healthy working environment and a good living for its team while providing a product that we are proud to serve. We feel there is a sweet spot in the market for a bakery that is large enough and capable enough to be a consistent and reliable partner to restaurant customers while remaining small enough to ensure that the quality always stays high. We remain our own biggest customer, which gets back to why we got into this business
in the first place: we want to make the best bread because we want to serve the best bread.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thegeneralmuir.com
- Instagram: @tgmbread, @thegeneralmuir
