Q&A with owner of Ginger&Baker, new addition to Fort Collins’ dining scene
Ginger Graham is the owner of Ginger&Baker, a new local dining spot in Fort Collins. Residing in the old Mill House, the company has renovated and expanded to create a place of community and good food for Fort Collins.
I sat down with Ginger on a snowy morning to discuss the background that helped Ginger&Baker come to life.
Q: Hi Ginger! Thank you for meeting with me. You own a business in Fort Collins, what is that like?
A: Right now it’s a little bit daunting. We’ve only been open for ten weeks, we hired about 180 employees and opened up four kitchens overnight with all new recipes and all new equipment and all new people. We’re still working on how to make all of that efficient and smooth and hopefully deliver an unbelievable experience to the Fort Collins community.
Q: So after looking on your website, it looks like you partnered with a chef to create Ginger&Baker.
A: Yes, her name is Deborrah Traylor, we call her Chef Deb. Chef Deb and my husband and I have been friends and working together for different types of food events for over a decade. We love Chef Deb’s food and so we’ve asked her to help us in this venture to pull off the food for the whole enterprise. Nice food in the Cache, brunch on the weekends, breakfast all day and lunch in the cafe, the teaching kitchen and the grab and go.
Q: Wow, what a large operation. You mentioned you’re very proud of your Southern roots, is that right?
A: Yes, I was raised by two amazing individuals. My mom was raised in Southwest Oklahoma which was dramatically affected by the depression and the dust bowl and the war. My dad served in the military and they ended up meeting each other in Southern California…They married and ended up living in Arkansas on a farm, so I was raised in rural Arkansas. I always call it a “dirt road in the middle of nowhere.”
We grew almost everything we ate. We raised beef cattle, quarter horses, but we also had 30,000 broilers at a time for raising chickens, we had pigs on the farm, we just pretty much did it locally. We had a dairy cow, so we made our own butter and had fresh milk. We also had a huge garden, I don’t know how my mom did it. I grew up really experiencing where your food comes from and what it takes to have good food. I have a real appreciation for that.
My parents were also the kind of people who helped everybody, I was really lucky with the role models I grew up with. We fed anyone who was hungry, if your house had burned, you had a baby or were moving, we lent our vehicle or cooked them food, whatever they needed.
That really taught me the power of community, of helping each other. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do from a businesses perspective: have a little flower shop and bake shop, something to make people smile. It’s a way to bring people together and have fun together.
Q: Oh my gosh, now I have so many questions. I’ll start with: Arkansas and Fort Collins are fairly different environments. So, as you’ve brought all of these elements of community, fresh, local foods, the whole shebang here, how have people received it?
A: Fort Collins is very similar to where I grew up. It’s one of the things I’ve loved about living here, and we’ve only lived here only 6 years. We really find Fort Collins to be the most amazing place, we love living here.
Fort Collins is the perfect blend of agriculture and town. By that I mean it has roots, literally and figuratively. It has a story to tell.
The community has been fabulous to us, we’ve been involved since we moved here. My husband was the CSU Athletic Director and was involved with initiating the new stadium. We came here to build the stadium, but then we found this building and think it’s a great part of the community, so now it is fun to do this!
Q: Oh, I love that involvement in community. You’ve only been open 10 weeks, but which is the most popular aspect of the business so far?
A: I would say the part I enjoy watching the most is the teaching kitchen. And I love it because that’s what I was hoping would happen. People would come together, meet new friends, learn new skills, maybe be surprised by a new opportunity and would be a part of their memory making.
We’ve experienced that since day one. We had a class with little girls, their mothers and grandmothers all making apple pies. I stood outside those glass doors watching them and it was just the most heartwarming experience. It’s exactly what I hoped would happen, those three generations together creating precious memories.
We are including partners all around the community to bring their ideas, and I think it can just be that fun gathering place where you meet new friends, try new things, take a picture and remember what a great time you had in Fort Collins.
Our tagline is History, Community, Creativity and Pie. It’s this sense of belonging and Fort Collins has had this building for over 110 years and it has watched Fort Collins grow up over the years. I just want this building to continue being a gathering place for the community.
Q: Going off of that, do you see Ginger&Baker expanding to other locations in Fort Collins, or would you say Ginger&Baker is tied to this building?
A: To me, this building is the anchor to the brand. The brand is supposed to be nostalgic, but it’s a bit of surprise and delight.
We’re trying to introduce old fashioned baking techniques to the brand. Every morning you can come pick up fresh bread. And most of our products are co-made with partners in the community. Bindle roasts our coffee, Swallowtail is a woman here in town who makes our Chai, which is a unique blend for Ginger&Baker. We’re working with a local malt company to do our own cereal, our house is making our own granola, we have our own spice combinations.
Eventually what we would like to do is provide a wide offering from artists, artisans, craftspeople and housemade goods which represent Fort Collins.
We really want the college community to experience Ginger&Baker as well, but in a different way. It’s this idea that there’s a million ways to come and just experience Fort Collins here. And whether it’s your most special day or it’s an event like a graduation party or birthday party, or coffee at the coffee bar, you have a place to stop and experience Fort Collins.
Thank you so much, Ginger!
