Help, You’re Eating Faster Than We Can Bake 

Hi! We are Michael and Robert Lillegard, the brothers behind Duluth’s Best Bread. We are a small but cheerful European bakery in Lincoln Park specializing in crusty sourdough, flaky croissants, and gourmet Pop Tarts and Orios—plus giant pecan caramel rolls and Big Fat German Pretzels!

When we started the bakery we wanted to bring a true taste of Europe to Duluth. We basically did what anyone would do: 

1. Learned fluent German.
2. Visited dozens of bakeries in Germany, France, and Italy.
3. Built a wood-fired stone oven in the backyard.
4. Cooked 1,000 practice loaves.
5. Stayed up all night baking for months.
6. Sold croissants for $3.

But even though it was a simple, straightforward model, people kept saying things like “I haven’t had croissants like this since I lived in France” and “this is absurdly good” and “seriously? You’re sold out of cinnamon rolls?” 

Sometimes they add: “it’s only 10am”.

I am sorry! We cannot keep up! We built shelves on top of our shelves, put an oven on top of our oven, and some days it feels like we’re baking on top of each other too. 

And there’s the problem. Because baking in small batches is so labor-intensive, the extra money has been going towards raises for our staff. So even though we’re busier than ever, we’re slowly going backwards financially. Either we cut our hours and get small again, or we get big enough to produce efficiently on a larger scale. But starting up is really, really expensive. 

So we would LOVE and APPRECIATE your help to expand to a SECOND LOCATION!!!!

The New Space: It’s Four Times Bigger!

We want to open a bakery-cafe at 120 E Superior Street, where Blacklist Brewing is currently. (They’re moving soon). This location will be FOUR TIMES as big as our current location which will allow us to do several things.

FIRST, we’ll be able to create a true European café experience. We’ll have our full line of French pastries, German breads and pretzels, baguettes, and more to take off-site or eat there. We’ll be serving cappuccinos, espressos, and other coffee drinks. It’s a beautiful space with plenty of comfortable seating and free WiFi. Plus, we’ll deck the place out in custom local artwork. We’re pretty much the DiMedici at this point.

SECOND, we’ll dramatically expand our baking capabilities. We plan to turn the entire basement into a production space. This will allow us to expand wholesale production to more grocery stores and restaurants, double our Taste Tester Box program, go to more festivals, and expand our mail-order options.

By centralizing bread and macaron production in the new space and croissant production in the Lincoln Park location, buying high-efficiency equipment, and streamlining processes we’ll be able to employ more people, produce more product, AND keep prices down. That’s a triple win!

THIRD, this spot will set up for a big future. Everything I’ve discussed above is only the start. This space is large enough to grow with us as the market continues to evolve. Will we do a full-on restaurant? Offer baking classes? Continue running our underground nightclub, with DJ Mikey spinning only the freshest house, trance, and trip-hop? Who knows! One thing I do know is we can either grow or fade away. And right now…it’s time to grow.

We’re Asking The Community to Invest In a Locally Owned Small Business

When you partner with us, you’re doing several things for the city.

The first is to providing authentic European baked goods. If people want delicious cookies, brownies, or doughnuts, there are a lot of great places they can go. But we want everyone in Duluth to have access to real German pretzels, French croissants, and crusty sourdough. You may not see the countless hours and rejected test batches behind every new item we bring out, but it’s there.

The second is creating good jobs. We aim to create 20 full-time jobs in downtown Duluth with retirement benefits and profit sharing (we already offer both).  Foodservice doesn’t have the best reputation for stability, but we want people to be able to make a career out of baking.

The third is feeding the hungry. We might not have a lot of dough, but we do have a lot of dough. So for each donation you make to us, we will provide one meal’s worth of high quality baked goods to someone in need in Duluth. 

Plus: helping us open a bakery is so much FUN. 

What We Need

Opening a bakery is expensive. Like, heinously expensive.

We are asking for $55,000, which is enough to pay for a Bongard Soleo M4 oven from France.

This oven is incredible. It will MASSIVELY increase the amount of bread we are able to make. Crisp fresh baguettes, buns, all the regular breads, new varieties of CHEESE BREAD, etc. The oven is steam-injected for that crispy crust, it’s got stone decks, a loading system for speed…naturally, it will be perfect. You’ll love what we’re able to bake up!

Stretch Goal: Macaron Depositor ($32,500)

Additional funds will go towards a macaron depositor. This machine will double our production speed on macarons, allowing us to add new flavors, offer wholesale macarons, and even ship them by mail!

Let’s Get Going

That’s our story. Two brothers—and now a terrific group of employees—out to take on the world. We’re a small family business, working hard, trying to make Duluth just a little bit tastier.

Will you join us? 

Thank you for your help. We can’t wait to share a croissant with you in our new space!