Telluride Mountain Village, Mountain Village Properties, Town Of Mountain Village, Mountain Village, Telluride Colorado Weather

16 months after bakery burned to the ground, a new Baked in Telluride opens

By Katie Klingsporn Associate Editor Published: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 6:11 AM CDT

On a frigid, black February night in 2010, Baked in Telluride — one of Telluride’s most iconic, familiar and well-worn businesses — burned to the ground amid spectacular flames and billowing smoke after dry wood beneath the bakery’s oven ignited. The event sent shockwaves through the community and beyond — BIT’s loyal patrons ranged from pizza-grubbing teenagers to Bluegrass festivarians and early risers looking for coffee. With blackened earth where the familiar red tin building once stood, something was amiss in the community. But in the wake of the fire, owner Jerry Greene — who had run the bakery for 36 years — mobilized. Soon, land use permission was granted, plans were drawn up and construction commenced. In a town where development often moves at the speed of molasses, the process that built the new BIT unfolded remarkably fast. And on Sunday morning at 5:22 a.m., 16 months after a piece of Telluride’s history burned down, the newly built Baked In Telluride unlocked its doors and opened for business. Its first customers were waiting on the porch. Telluride high school students Keith Hill, Bridger Johnson and Brendan Kelley had shown up at 4:30 a.m. to make sure they were the first to eat BIT’s donuts. Johnson bought the first donut, Kelly the first ham and cheese croissant and Hill bit into the first chocolate croissant from BIT’s new oven. “It tasted delightful,” Hill said. “It tasted of victory.” Dawn patrol for a couple donuts may seem extreme, but it’s evidence of the intense loyalty shown by Baked in Telluride’s long-term customers. That loyalty was on display mid-morning on Tuesday, when BIT was humming with people. A line snaked out from the register, families occupied tables in the dining area and on the porch and people peered into the glass cases, plucking out onion bagels, cinnamon twists and chocolate chip cookies. The new building was designed by architect Peter Sante and built by Bone Construction. Although it closely resembles its unmistakable red predecessor on the outside, the interior is drastically different. It’s airy and expansive, with natural light falling through skylights and an open layout — a change from the dim and low-ceilinged former bakery. It’s almost stark in its newness, with smooth new tabletops, gleaming bakery equipment and bright walls. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Greene asked after he stopped moving for a few minutes to sit down for an interview. Greene, whose life was tied into Baked in Telluride, has worked tirelessly since the fire to open a new bakery. Though he drove the project, he said he has a long list of community members to thank. The Zoline family, Peter Sante, Becky Small and Chris Wair all merit credit, and there are many more whose roles were uniquely essential to the success of the new bakery, he said. “This is only some of the people ... There are so many,” he said. Though the interior is different, much of the menu is familiar: BIT is serving the same loaves of bread, pies, cookies and donuts, breakfast burritos, pizzas and sandwiches that were on the menu before. The glass case hold the same plate-sized peanut butter cookies and everything bagels that were there all those years. Even some of the faces are familiar. Susana Lopez, who had worked at BIT for eight years as a cashier before the fire, was back behind the counter. Lopez said that while she found other work in the interim, she always planned to come back to the bakery. “It’s a good place to work,” she said. Greene was there on Saturday when the first batch of cookies came out of the oven, and he’s been working since to iron out kinks and get operations up to speed. When asked how he feels, he started to say tired, but changed his mind. “I’m back at work,” he said. There’s no end in sight.” He would comment on how the customers feel, however, now that BIT is rolling out bagels, serving pizza slices and selling apple fritters again. “Everybody’s happy,” he said. Telluride local Marc Froehlich was in line to buy up a burrito. “I’ve been here every day since opening day,” he said. “I’m happy as hell to have it back.” Froehlich, who has been eating at BIT since 1993 — years before he moved here full-time — said he comes for the baked goods, the wholesome food and for the fact that it keeps late hours. “And the people who work here are really nice,” he said. The morning after the fire, Froehlich remembers walking down to see the charred remnants of the building. “It was kind of like being at a funeral,” he said. “It was a large chunk of the community.” And while some come to see what rose from the ashes, others still come for the bagels. Bob and Barb Sayler and their dog, Taddy, were eating on the porch Tuesday. The couple is traveling from their home in Seattle all over the U.S., and popped into Telluride for a couple days. They weren’t aware that BIT had burned down; they were just looking for a place to get bagels. “We love bagels,” Barb Sayler said. “We came here for the food.”