🤝 Meet Simon Blackwell. He’s the founder and principal owner of Blackbird Baking Co., the Toronto bakery that has become an institution in the city and recently opened its first café-style location. We sat down with Simon to talk about all things bread, building a business, and the importance of seeing every product with his own eyes.
How did you get into baking?
My parents are both bakers. And so is my grandfather and my great-grandfather on my mother's side, so I'm actually a fourth-generation baker. I always had a love of baking and cooking, and I actually went into cooking school straight out of high school and worked as a chef for many years, and then when I decided to try my hand at my own business, I decided, bakery. It was a natural fit for me to move from cooking into baking, especially with the family history, and that was back in 2010. I wrote a business plan, and then baked my first bread in spring of 2011, so we're 15 years in now.
What are some of the biggest lessons you've learned from working in the restaurant industry now for the past 15 years?
The food industry is particularly difficult; it's hard work and it's slim margins, so you really need to pay special attention to all the details, no matter how small, from ingredients to your processes to the people's experiences who are working with you, you can try to keep everybody happy. You need to offer a really consistent product, and that way you can establish some repeat customers, because with a bakery if you don't have repeat customers it's very difficult to keep going.
How have you guys managed to keep prices relatively consistent in such an inflationary environment?
We have put our prices up a bit — we're now in that sort of $7 to $8.50 range [for a loaf], which is lower than some of our competitors for sure. But it's really important to us as a company to keep our bread really accessible in terms of price, so that it's available to a wider demographic of people across the city. There's lots of bakeries with smaller production than us and they're selling loaves of bread for $12, $14. But then it's only a select few people who can afford a $14 loaf of bread, so we try to keep it as fairly priced as possible, so it's available to as many people as possible.
You use Canadian-only ingredients, and this was before the Buy Canada revolution. What was your motivation to commit to a domestic supply chain?
If you're working with Canadian growers, Canadian millers, and Canadian distributors, you're keeping your dollars within the Canadian economy, which is very important to us. We partnered with a Quebec-based flour mill, Moulin de Soulanges, and they're milling flour for Blackbird. It comes to us labelled Blackbird Baking Company on the bag, so it's to our own specifications. All their grain is farmed using regenerative practices, which is very important to us. So there's no pesticides or fungicides or sprays of any kind — so better for the environment, better for the soil, and obviously better for anyone who's consuming our products.
What goes into product development when you want to try out a new loaf or a new baked good?
That's me working with my senior managers: my head of pastry if it's a pastry product, or my head baker/production manager Jordan. We would work closely together, and he might come to me and say, “hey, we've got a line on some really interesting flour from a small mill.” Let's say it's einkorn or emmer or different types of grains, and we will try different combinations with different flours and play with coming up with an interesting loaf of bread. Something that is still to our standard, has good flavour, is naturally leavened, but something new for our customers.
How long does that process typically take, or does it depend?
A few months, I would say, because we like to get it right before we actually start to sell it. So we'll do lots of testing, and flour can sometimes be quite volatile depending on where you're getting it from. If you're buying flour from a massive mill, it's very consistent. But we use small mills, so the flour might not be aged, or it might be different as it arrives in the bakery from week to week in terms of the coarseness of the grain, how much protein is in it, and things like that. So it takes us quite a while to establish a formula that works well for us.
You have this brand new location in the Mirvish Village redevelopment. What went into choosing that spot as your next location?
We were just really excited about that neighbourhood and that block in particular and the revitalization of those beautiful old heritage homes that were owned by the Mirvish family, Ed Mirvish and his wife, Anne Mirvish. There's some really interesting history. The building that we signed a lease on used to be Anne Mirvish's gallery and sculpture studio. So great history, really great architecture, beautiful buildings, and then you're surrounded by the Annex neighbourhood, which is a new market for us.
Do you plan to potentially expand beyond Toronto? Have thoughts like that crossed your team's mind?
They have, but when people ask me that, I usually say that we're real sticklers for quality and consistency, and I want to see the products that we're producing — the breads and the pastries and everything that we're making — with my own eyes every day. People have said, “Oh, you should try opening up in Vancouver or in Montreal,” and I think it's just too far away. I really want to see what we're producing every day.
Do you have any advice for anybody who would want to open up a bakery?
I get asked that quite often. Because, like I said, we've been going for 15 years, some of my employee team have left and started their own businesses, own bakeries. I always suggest starting small. I've seen other people, and maybe more in the restaurant industry, where they really try and do something grand right out of the gate. So I always say, “start small, have a sound business plan.” Having more than one revenue stream, I think, is very important for the baking industry, so retail sales and wholesale sales to keep things balanced.
Retail bakery sales really suffer from January to April, and can be very much weather-dependent in Ontario because of the cold temperatures. And I always also recommend perfecting a tight range of products before expanding your offerings. Have a really solid core group of things that you do very well, that are consistent, that your customers keep coming back for, and once you've established that, then expand your offerings.
What's your star item at Blackbird?
The main drivers of the business, sourdough breads and our baguettes. That's what we make most of.
Who makes your favourite loaves besides your own?
When we're not eating Blackbird bread at the house, we really enjoy here in Toronto a great bakery called Robinson Bread, owned and operated by Patty Robinson. And Broadflour is very good. I like what they're doing where they're bringing in grain from the Prairies. It's all small growers. It's organic, and then they mill on site.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
