RANDOLPH – Jenn Bell opened a bakery in the small town of Randolph five and a half years ago. She wanted a place where the town’s people could gather. The place would be open every day but Sunday.
She found an old gas station and began leasing it. Bell remodeled the front of it into the cozy R Bakery. She installed a commercial oven and mixers and started to churn out pastries.
R Bakery serves dirty sodas and all kinds of baked goods including donuts, muffins, desserts, breakfast, lunch, sheet cakes and more. They’re open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m. year-round.
The store is clean and the people working there are cheerful and accommodating.
Bell also has a local corner where she purchases townsfolks’ handmade crafts and puts them on display for people to buy.
“I buy the merchandise and put it on display so people can purchase them,” she said. “I want to include the community in what we are doing here.”
Over time the reputation of R Bakery grew and so did the customer base. It turned out not only the locals patronized it, but the bakery began to attract folks from other towns including travelers from Salt Lake City going to Bear Lake in the summer months.
Highway 16 through Randolph’s Main Street is a busy road during the summer and retail stops are scarce in the Rich County seat.
In one day, recently, the customer base included high schoolers, a business owner buying lunch for his employees and a group of ladies from Garden City. The ladies made the 25-mile one way trip for lunch.
“I have six employees,” Bell said. “We begin mixing dough at 4 a.m. and others of our staff start showing up an hour or two after to start the baking process.”
The menu changes daily to give customers a different reason to eat there.
“The Crawford Trough, the restaurant in town, is not open all the time. When they are open, I try and keep my menu enough different from theirs that we don’t compete,” she said. “Besides our donuts and muffins, we also serve breakfast sandwiches and burritos.”
Around lunchtime they offer sandwiches and soups.
Jenn and her husband Kameron moved to Randolph after living in Farmington for 15 years. They wanted to raise their children in a rural environment. Kameron grew up in Malta, ID and preferred the slower pace.
While the bakery is serving the public, Jen is in a shop she created in the back of the store where the old garage of the gas station was. She operates a sewing machine making nets for fish hatcheries. They are stronger and more fortified than the average fishing net.
“This me helps keeps the lights on in the bakery,” she said. “I sell these nets to hatcheries in Canada and Mexico as well as the United States.”
The extra job helps keep the small bakery and its mission afloat.