Bring in the Dough: Breadwinner Opens Shop

Tempted by leftovers on Thanksgiving night 2005, Geoff Melkonian opened the refrigerator of his Sandy Springs home and noticed two-dozen eggs sitting there. His sister Wendy offered to whip up some pumpkin bread, using their grandmother’s recipe. Her friend Jenny "Souper Jenny" Levison had offered to sell the bread in her popular Buckhead eatery. The rest is history.

With Geoff’s wife, Katie, the pair baked all weekend, producing 10 loaves of the sweet, dense bread. On Monday, they took the breads to Souper Jenny, where they sold out in just an hour. It was then that Breadwinner Inc. was born.

"We all love being in the kitchen," said Katie, a former marketing manager at Cartoon Network. "I grew up with freshly baked products in my home all the time: cookies, brownies, breads. Geoff worked in the kitchen at Murphy’s, and Wendy is a huge baker; she absolutely loves baking."

After trying to mass-produce bread using their home’s double oven and KitchenAid mixer, the Melkonians realized their need for a more efficient system and began renting commercial kitchen space in synagogues and churches. They spent hours trying new ideas – including many variations of family recipes –†and garnered a large fan base.

"We saw this need for specialty homemade food products, and it launched our entire company," Katie said. "We were getting calls from people who wanted to buy bread to give as gifts for holidays and birthdays and the like." The family was also selling the breads online and mailing them across the country.

Eventually, they began baking out of a space in Norcross, and last October, they opened a retail location in Sandy Springs. Offering six different breads at a time, Breadwinner prides itself on personal customer service and high-quality specialty foods. The 9-inch-by-3-inch breads weigh two pounds and are wrapped in decorative boxes and adorned with different color ribbons.

The breads have creative names like Papa Don’t Peach, Party at My Place Pumpkin, Better Than a Bubble Bath Mocha Chocolate Chip, Sweet Home Ala-Banana, Lemon Poppy-razzi and The Legend of Sleepy Challah Bread, all of which are baked without preservatives, and can be refrigerated or frozen.

In addition to breads, the cozy retail location sells coffee, tea, Souper Jenny soups and gourmet grab-and-go items like shrimp salad and Lox of Love salmon wrap, accompanied by sides such as homemade broccoli salad, summer corn salad and penne pasta salad. This summer, Breadwinner will also feature a special Chastain grab-and-go menu for concert-goers.

The breads are still the main attraction. Sold individually for $15 or in gift boxes with two breads, called Bunk Breads, or three-bread packs, called Breadage a Trois, they have been featured on the Food Network and NBC’s Today show. With new flavors being tested all the time, customers can look forward to a not-yet-named cannoli bread and other delectable sweets in the near future.