BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist, loved scalloped veal, cheese, caviar, mushrooms and fruits, but said, “There is not a thing that is more positive than bread.”
That’s Bryan Fine’s kind of guy.
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Fine is the exceptionally positive man behind Mission Road Foods, which bakes and delivers homemade breads, among other things, and that’s not to say plastic-bagged loaves of Wonder Bread, but any of about 10 varieties. Artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, bleach and bromination have no place anywhere near Fine, according to News 6 partners Florida Today. Creative flavor combinations do.
There are three-cheese and black pepper, onion and rosemary sourdough and Eve-Rye-Thing, his “mash-up between seeded rye bread and an everything bagel.” And there are plainer, simpler loaves too, like Fall Honey Wheat Sourdough or his best-seller, Butter Blond Sourdough.
Mission Road has caught on in a little more than a year and Fine regularly sells out.
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“I ordered bread for delivery today from Mission Road Foods, and let me share with you that the bread is amazing and the dipping oil is packed with flavor. I ordered a few things,” Kathy Saunders-Holem wrote July 8 in FLORIDA TODAY’s Facebook group, 321FlavorWhereBrevardEats. “The blonde sourdough, pumpernickel, banana walnut bread and the dipping oil. Communication was incredible, delivery exactly when he said it would be. ... If you are looking for fresh-baked bread that is delivered to your front door, Mission Road Foods won’t disappoint.”
The post received a chorus of agreement.
A food industry veteran of long-standing who learned about dough and what to do with it while working at a pizzeria in Tallahassee, Fine says he makes bread because “something about it is so joyous” and got the idea to bake after a friend opened a restaurant in California.
A food industry veteran of long-standing who learned about dough and what to do with it while working at a pizzeria in Tallahassee, Fine says he makes bread because “something about it is so joyous” and got the idea to bake after a friend opened a restaurant in California.
“I was working at a delicatessen in Melbourne, but soon everybody was working from home,” he says. “That kind of gave me the idea to do something, and I thought, ‘What is the simplest, most satisfying thing I could go with? Carbs.’
“So I looked through recipes and started working. ... One day, I was baking bread and before I knew it, I was baking a lot of bread.”
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The first loaf he developed was Fall Honey Wheat, which, like much of what Fine makes and sells, is based on a recipe from his grandfather. The baker has a deep appreciation for tradition and nostalgia, and in conversation, “family” is mentioned frequently, as is history. Clearly, he finds joy in that too.
“They ate really heavy loaves of bread,” he says, and, with enthusiasm, describes his product as a tribute to another time and place. He loves discovering and putting into practice, diverse methods too. “I’ve mixed some French techniques with some Danish (ones). Every day, I learn something.”
He learned to handle success early and well.
Fine’s original loaves went to family and friends, who told their friends. His mom brought bread to her place of business and fellow workers told their friends too.
“It happened in stages, but really quickly,” the Indialantic resident says with a laugh. “I had to figure out what to do with it. I didn’t have a business; I didn’t even have a name. Last August, I went to a friend who does graphic art and said, ‘Hey, I think I need a logo.’ So now I have a logo and a website.”
The latter is crucial because that is the way Mission Road does business: You go to missionroadfoods.com, click on what you want, enter the information. Orders are taken from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and deliveries take place from noon to 3 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, from Palm Bay to Viera and from Melbourne Beach to the Pineda Causeway.
For the moment, Fine, who is conscientious about such matters, is covered by the Florida Cottage Food Law, which allows individuals to use unlicensed home kitchens to produce and sell certain foods that present a low risk of foodborne illness. Considering his success over the course of the past year, he may have to rethink that too.
“The future?” the single father asks with friendly wickedness. “In the future, I want to put Panera out of business. Really, I see a nice bakery somewhere in Melbourne, and maybe I’ve got a truck.”
Suddenly Fine becomes serious: “If it ever comes about that I can’t make foods, I don’t want to eat. I quit. There is such satisfaction in making your own food, such satisfaction in baking your own bread.”
For more information, or to order by phone, call 321-986-7724 or visit missionroadfoods.com.
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