“We’re not certified organic, but everything is,” she says. “We don’t use any preservatives in our products.” She tears a chunk from a heaping mound of dough as an employee working across from her does the same. The pair will continue to roll, twist and bake fresh pretzels for hours until they’re joined by others who’ll take over the task until about 5 p.m. Baum has hired 10 new employees in 18 months to meet the needs of Brezel’s fast-growing business. The recent growth spurt was triggered when she partnered with a local company to sell her pretzels in grocery stores. Eat Well Distribution, the Columbus-based food distributor that introduced Brezel’s pretzel twists to market freezers throughout the Midwest, was co-founded in 2012 by Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. Like Baum, Britton Bauer got her start in the North Market, opening her business there with now-husband Charly Bauer in 2002. Today, Jeni’s pints are sold on 1,000 shelves nationwide—as well as in Kuwait and Dubai—and scoop shops are popping up in cities as far from Columbus as Atlanta and Chicago. Britton Bauer’s commitment to using natural, locally sourced ingredients for her handmade ice cream—in unlikely flavor combinations that have become her trademark—has earned her national recognition. Britton Bauer’s network is growing, her star is rising—and she’s bringing some Columbus favorites with her. Brezel is one of 12 brands represented by Eat Well, and the common denominator among the products is wholesomeness. Like Jeni’s ice cream, the foods are made with natural, unprocessed, mostly local ingredients. Even housewares line Made by AmyD uses recycled plastic bottles to make reusable coffee-cup sleeves. Columbus staple Block’s Bagels and newcomer Harvest Pizzeria are among the brands, as are
vino De Milo
What: Wine-based pasta sauces, salad dressings and bruschetta Born in: 2003, Athens Who: Jonathan Milo Leal Where: Bexley Natural Market, Clintonville Co-op, Delaware County Community Market, Giant Eagle Market District, The Hills Market, Huffman’s Market, Meza Wine Shop, Nature’s Path Market, Ohio Tap Room, Raisin Rack, Rife’s Market, Statehouse Museum, Weiland’s Gourmet Market, Whole Foods Market
Callie’s Charleston BisCuits
What: Handmade frozen biscuits Born in: 2005, Charleston, S.C. Who: Carrie Morey Where: The Fresh Market
MaDe By aMyD
What: Reusable coffee sleeves made from postconsumer plastic bottles Born in: 2005, Columbus Who: Amy Dalrymple Murphy Where: Celebrate Local, Touch of Earth, Wexner Center bookstore, Whole Foods Market (Dublin), Wholly Craft
siMPle squares
What: Organic, gluten-free snack bars Born in: 2011, Chicago Who: Kimberly Crupi Dobbins Where: Giant Eagle Market District, The Hills Market (Worthington), Weiland’s Gourmet Market
Athens’ Shagbark Seed & Mill corn chips and Vino de Milo pasta sauces. “These are not highly processed, fake foods. These aren’t science projects,” says John Lowe, CEO and co-founder of Eat Well Distribution and CEO of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. “That is part of the Eat Well mission. We think that the more we can do to get more good food frozen quickly and then enjoyed easily at home, the better our world will be.”
W
hen hiring a CEO to guide their growing business, Britton Bauer and her husband saw a perfect fit in Lowe, a longtime friend they met at Short North Tavern one night in 1998. Selling pints of ice cream in grocery stores was not a priority or even part of the business plan when Lowe, a lawyer, joined the team in 2009. Jeni’s was preparing to open a fifth scoop shop in Dublin. Online ordering was the only way to bring home a pint of Jeni’s—unless you happened to live near Foragers, a specialty grocer in Brooklyn. “I asked them, ‘How did you get your pints on the shelves at Foragers?’ And they said, ‘Foragers called us and asked us if they could sell our ice cream,’ ” Lowe recalls. “That doesn’t happen in the real world. I said, ‘Maybe this truly is a world-class product.’ ” Lowe set out to quickly build a wholesale business for Jeni’s. He began by cold-calling grocers and shipping 45 pints of ice cream under 20 pounds of dry ice to each of them. Four years later, pints are shipped by the pallet from a production facility in Harrison West to every Jeni’s retailer. They’ll send ice cream anywhere it can reach in two days, whether on trucks emblazoned with Jeni’s recognizable logo or shipped via FedEx. And they still pack shipments with dry ice and buy more of it than anyone else in Ohio, Lowe says.
Brezel
What: Hand-rolled, Bavarian-style frozen soft pretzel twists Born in: 2008, Columbus Who: Brittany Baum Where: Bexley Natural Market, The Hills Market, Huffman’s Market, Weiland’s Gourmet Market
harvest Pizzeria
What: Hand-tossed, wood-fired frozen pizzas Born in: 2011, Columbus Who: Chris Crader and Bethany Lovell Where: The Hills Market, Huffman’s Market, Weiland’s Gourmet Market
BloCk’s Bagels
What: Kosher, natural New York-style water bagels Born in: 1967, Columbus Who: Hal Block Where: The Hills Market, Lucky’s Market, Weiland’s Gourmet Market
BolsanaDa
What: Handmade empanadas Born in: 2013, Columbus Who: Mike Gadd, Tomos Mughan and Matt Sefcovic Where: Look for these empanadas on market shelves starting next spring.
Columbus Monthly • December 2013
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