Baking bread was a mere pastime — a way for John MacMillan to spend unhurried time with his three young daughters on Saturdays.
Then the hobby grew serious, as he envisioned perhaps someday owning his own bread-making enterprise. A manufacturing executive, MacMillan methodically researched the idea, visiting as many bakeries and patisseries as he could on business and family trips to Europe. Then his employer wanted him to relocate from Hudson. After so many corporate moves, he didn’t want to move the family again.
It’s time to live the dream, MacMillan thought.
So in 1998, he began Great Lakes Baking Co. in Hudson. Today the enterprise runs six days a week, with MacMillan and others baking several types of bread daily, along with muffins, scones, cookies and other treats.
“This was a hobby, turned serious avocation, that turned into a vocation,” MacMillan likes to say. “I was never trained as a baker. I’m pretty much self-taught. It was such hubris.”
Fifteen years later, MacMillan’s cheery Great Lakes shop is a hometown favorite and a stop for foodies throughout the region. The kitchen is open to a small area boasting wood tables and chairs, where customers can enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the bakers at work.
Great Lakes also has picked up many fans who have never been to the shop at 85 S. Main St. (state Route 91). They know Great Lakes Baking as a regular farmers market vendor. MacMillan and his wife, Fern MacMillan, will be on hand April 5 as the nonprofit Countryside Conservancy celebrates the 10th anniversary of its area markets with a downtown Akron birthday bash. MacMillan, one of the original Countryside vendors, will join about 40 food producers and farmers at the birthday market. (See box for more information on this event.)
Each Tuesday through Sunday, MacMillan or another of the Great Lakes bakers is at the shop early in the morning, baking loaves of white, wheat, baguette, cinnamon swirl, multigrain, ciabatta and rustic French, along with cheddar pepperoni rolls and more. For his baguettes — which his customers rave about — MacMillan is still using a recipe he picked up in the mid-1990s at a three-week crash course on bread-making taught by famous baker Didier Rosada at the National Baking Center in Minneapolis. “It was that recipe that we’ve been serving ever since we opened,” MacMillan said.
Other breads come out of the ovens just once a week — including Jewish rye, kalamata olive and challah.
About three years ago, Great Lakes began offering hand-tossed pizza from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturdays. Employees David Smith, Eve Salsberry and Hilary Desaussure run this venture. A rustic French or whole grain crust is available, with white, red or pesto sauce topped with a variety of cheeses and toppings.
MacMillan, 68, is quick to praise his employees’ talents. He employs about 15 full- and part-timers, including part-timer Cam Salsberry (Eve Salsberry’s mother) who specializes in artfully decorated iced and shortbread cookies.
On a recent day, the hot-chocolate-like smell of chocolate cherry bread permeated the bakery. MacMillan explains it’s made with bittersweet Callebaut chocolate (available at some food specialty shops) and tart cherries.
Callebaut is a Swiss-based company, but MacMillan tries to find as many ingredients as he can from local sources. The cocoa powder in the bread comes from Benjamin P. Forbes Co. in Broadview Heights.
At 5:30 p.m. that day, MacMillan was still at work, weighing dry ingredients. That afternoon, he’d delivered loaves for his three restaurant/bar clients in Hudson. Bread for an indoor farmer’s market was cooling. He had started his workday more than 12 hours earlier.
“It keeps me young,” MacMillan said.
He’s not planning to hang it up any time soon. “I enjoy it, I like it … the interaction with customers, engagement in a productive activity that produces products that people love is very rewarding.”
Ballpark restaurant opens
Game Grill + Bar, the new street-level restaurant at Akron’s Canal Park, will open its doors at 5 p.m. Thursday.
The place in the minor-league baseball stadium at 300 S. Main St. will then be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner starting at 7 a.m. Friday. The kitchen will stay open until 10:30 p.m. daily and later on Akron RubberDucks game nights. A brunch will be served at 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
The menu will include several Akron-area classics, including sauerkraut balls and Whitey’s chili, said Ken Babby, owner of the RubberDucks, formerly the Akron Aeros.
The restaurant will offer valet parking for every meal, including breakfast.
Steve Smith, formerly with One Red Door in Hudson and Ken Stewart’s in Akron, is executive chef.
Archaeological dinner
Guests of “A Taste of Greece and Rome” on April 9 will feast on food prepared using recipes representative of those ancient cultures. They also will hear short presentations about Greek and Roman dining practices, including etiquette and entertainment, and Plato’s Symposium.
Organizers with the Akron-Kent chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America hope the event, open to the public, will be the first of annual archaeological dinners. The dinner, at the University of Akron’s Crystal Room Bistro inside Gallucci Hall, 200 E. Exchange St., Akron, will be prepared by students in UA’s hospitality management program. Tickets are $40, $35 for members of the Archaeological Institute and $30 for students. The evening will feature music and an auction of classically inspired art.
For tickets, call Marlene Harmon at 330-972-7875 or email mharmon@uakron.edu.
The local Archaeological Institute chapter is made up of UA and Kent State University educators and their students as well as others simply interested in archaeology, said Evi Gorogianni, a UA professor.
The Rail in Belden Village
The Rail, which specializes in half-pound burgers made with Ohio beef, has opened its third site at Belden Village Mall in Jackson Township.
The Belden Village site pours 24 Ohio beers — twice as many as at the original, smaller Rail at Summit Mall in Fairlawn, owner Mike Mariola reports.
The Belden Rail is in a former Talbots clothing shop and totals 3,500 square feet, 1,000 square feet larger than the Summit restaurant. Both locations have patios. Mariola said he’s employing about 50 full- and part-timers at the Belden location. Cory Hoffman is kitchen manager. Eric Thomas is general manager.
Mariola, the 36-year-old owner of Wooster Hospitality Group, is continuing with his business model of opening his burger joints in area malls. Last year, he opened his second Rail site in the renovated Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted.
Mariola also owns and operates the City Square Steakhouse in downtown Wooster.
Rockne to keep cooking
Rockne Becker has closed his Rock FRESH restaurant at 3883 State Road in Cuyahoga Falls. The place opened in late 2011. Rockne, who founded the local chain of Rockne casual restaurants but is no longer involved with that venture, said he has bills to pay and plans to keep on cooking. He continues to use the Rock FRESH name, offering his cooking services at area events. He’s working on updating his website, www.rockfreshfood.com.
Menu makeover
Spaghetti Warehouse, including its location in downtown Akron, has added several new dishes, including some gluten-free entrees. It also notes that diners can substitute gluten-free pasta for $1 in any of its spaghetti diners.
The focus on gluten-free pasta and other additions come as the Dallas chain of 15 Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurants reveals a new look for its menu. The Made Fresh Daily menu now looks like a newspaper and features stories about the chain’s history.
Spaghetti Warehouse at 510 S. Main St., Akron, is now a longtime part of the city’s ongoing downtown redevelopment. The chain, which often locates in reawakening industrial/warehouse areas, opened in the former B.F. Goodrich tire factory complex in 1992.
Cupcakeapalooza
The Akron area will host its second Cupcake Camp from noon to 2 p.m. May 10.
The events are held all over the world, bringing together bakers and cupcake lovers. It’s free, and you can bring cupcakes, or just show up to eat them. Contests — Best Tasting, Best Decorated and Most Unique Ingredients — will feature amateur as well as professional divisions. Organizers say the Mike Miller Band will play to help attendees work off “some of that sugar.”
The event will be at the Parish Life Center of Queen of Heaven Catholic Church, 1800 Steese Road, Green. Free-will donations will benefit Boy Scout Troop 334. Visit www.cupcakecampakron.com for more information, including baker rules and registration information.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.