Vine Bread & Pasta bakery has served organic foods to the community in the warehouses in front of Satchel’s Pizza for more than a year.
Now, the bakery plans to move to Main Street to become a restaurant.
Teresa Zokovitch and Dean Griebel co-own the bakery, 1801 NE 23rd Ave., Unit C2. They are campaigning to raise $20,000 to relocate downtown.
“There’s no bakery downtown, so that’s first and foremost,” Zokovitch said. “We’ll improve the building. We’ll provide cafe space, so people can come and have a cup of coffee and a croissant.”
Zokovitch and Griebel are committed to the new location. They will relocate Vine even if the bakery only gets $5,000 from the campaign, Griebel said.
The bakery’s campaign, which is posted on www.indiegogo.com, has raised about $6,000 from about 80 donors. There are eight days until the campaign’s deadline.
“The crowdfunding is a new model of helping business like this get its start,” said Satchel Raye, the owner of Satchel’s Pizza. “By a $20 donation, a lot of people can chip in and have a great addition to the community.”
The owners of Vine plan to relocate the bakery to 627 N. Main St., a location the owners have been interested in for a year.
The new spot will give the owners a chance to reconstruct the building and get a license to become a restaurant. They will serve organic bread and pasta made with homegrown ingredients.
Last summer, Zokovitch and Griebel said, they realized the warehouse where the business is located did not satisfy the vision they have for the bakery.
“We want a self-enclosed building that is accessible to the community,” Zokovitch said.
Zokovitch said that during the summer, the warehouse would reach more than 110 degrees. They also had to send customers to shared public bathrooms.
“It’s kind of off the street and out of the way,” Zokovitch said. “We don’t get the traffic in here that we would like to get.”
The bakery has grown quickly since it started in June 2011 at the Union Street Farmers Market. It then sold to Citizen’s Co-op, Ward’s Supermarket and restaurants, Zokovitch said.
The more often customers suggested new products, the more the bakery was able to expand their menu, the owners said.
“I feel like they are making a product that is not really available,” Raye said. “It’s kind of a European- style artisan bread.”
Raye said he supports Vine’s campaign and idea to relocate downtown because he believes in the bakery’s potential.
“What they need to make a viable business model is they need to sell their products more to the consumer,” said Raye. “I think that is where the move is really going to help them the most is that they’ll get their product in front of the customer.”
He said he feels that if the bakery had a location where it had some exposure, it could double its business.
“I imagine something really pleasant and just like home,” Zokovitch said. “I want to bring my home to the community.”
Dean Griebel, 46, sits outside Vine Bread & Pasta on NE 23rd Ave., which he co-owns with his girlfriend, Teresa Zokovitch.
