Quick Bites: How The Flour Girl Bakery and Café went from a selling sourdough on a front porch to a Hebron staple
If you told Michelle Nicholson she’d be running both a bakery and café on Main Street in Hebron three years ago, she wouldn’t have believed you.
Turns out, it all started with sourdough.
“It came from a visit to King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont,” said Nicholson. “We were up there for vacation and went to a store making bread, and I wanted to do it myself. I was terrible at it at first. I just kept at it.”
It didn’t take long for her to get the hang of it. Soon, she was cranking out better and better loaves of bread, far more than she or her family could manage to eat. She wound up making a small Facebook group with eight of her closest friends, offering free bread in exchange for feedback.
“If they came and picked it up off the porch they could have it for free, as long as they gave me their feedback,” says Nicholson. “That’s how it started.”
She didn’t expect that same Facebook group to balloon into the hundreds within months. Word of mouth spreads quick, with people happy to pay for a loaf or two of bread. She was taking orders and leaving them in a drop box on her porch before long. What was once a hobby was rapidly turning into a business.
Transitioning into The Flour Girl Bakery and Café
“I was baking out of my house initially, which wasn’t sustainable,” she said. “We got to a point in the spring and summer of 2020 where the website we had kept crashing because our bread would sell out in minutes.”
By then, the pandemic was in full swing. Nicholson found herself in a strange position, where her entirely to-go, budding business wasn’t affected by most mandates and closings. In fact, she’d come to rent out the kitchen at St. Peter’s Church in Hebron, which was, at the time, vacant given that most gatherings and events were placed on hold.
As she increased production and stepped further into running a business, a parishioner clued her in to a dilapidated building being renovated on Main Street.
“It was literally rotting into the ground before a couple from town took it on,” said Nicholson. “They purchased the building and saved it from what would’ve been a pretty quick demise.”
It was rebuilt as a bakery; a perfect location for Nicholson to take her business. As fate would have it, a next-door café would wind up on the market around the same time.
She was close with the owner, whose son worked as a dishwasher for Nicholson at the church. He mentioned how his family was looking to move to Maine, so Nicholson made sure to let his mother know that, if it happened, she’d be interested in buying it.
Not two weeks later, she got a phone call.
“She was offered the job of her dreams in Maine,” said Nicholson. “It was an opportunity that would be ridiculous to pass up.”
In less than two years, she went from baking out of her kitchen to owning a business, all while a pandemic was gripping the nation.
‘Never a time to stop and think’
Nicholson reflects on the sudden change in careers as “an absolute whirlwind.”
“The expansion was so rapid. There was never even a time to stop and think, ‘Do we really want to do this?’ Instead, we had to think ‘OK, what do we do next?’ ”
With both businesses up and running, “next” was how to go about menus. The bakery end turned out to be more straightforward. After all, she already had her bread down pat.
“Our sourdough breads and artisan breads are hand mixed, shaped, and baked. We use a wild yeast sourdough starter, and it starts with high quality flour. We don’t used mixes or anything less.”
Along with breads is a weekly, revolving theme. Last week was Christmas in July. This week is breads and sweets from around the globe. You’ll find her classic sourdoughs along with salt-crusted baguettes, Japanese milk bread, Charnushka rye bread, and more.
While The Flour Girl Bakery doesn’t handle decorative cakes and cookies, you’ll find plenty of unique and delicious baked goods to try nonetheless. This week has desserts like Dutch chocolate cookies, churro rice crispy treats, Victoria sponge cupcakes, and Italian limoncello muffins.
If you’re looking for a delicious latte and something for lunch, however, the café has you covered.
“The thing that sets us apart from most other restaurants is that we’re baking the bread that you’re getting your sandwiches on,” said Nicholson. “Fresh, every day. You go in and get a panini, and it’s going to be on sourdough baked that morning.”
Those sandwiches include their Caprese Panini, Classic Turkey, Epic Grilled Cheese, and The Boss: a loaded pepperoni, capicola, ham, and genoa salami sandwich with tomato, smoked cheddar, and a homemade garlic sauce. They offer soups and salads as well, along with a thorough list of coffees and weekly specials.
What comes next for The Flour Girl Bakery and Café?
While running a bakery-café combo is still fresh for Nicholson, that hasn’t stopped her from looking forward to what comes next.
“About a week ago, we released our special orders menu,” said Nicholson. “We can do dozens of cupcakes and cookies and things like that. We don’t do decorated cakes, cookies, or specialty cupcakes, however. We focus on the product itself and not the decorations on top.”
Otherwise, customers can expect more of the same delicious, baked goods going forward, right on Main St in Hebron. Swing by the café, get lunch, then go to the bakery next door and get a loaf of bread to bring home.
As Nicholson puts it: “It’s a very unique experience. It’s a labor of love.”
The Flour Girl Bakery and Café is located on 4 Main St. in Hebron.
