YOU CAN EXPECT the rebirth of the Marquette Baking Company soon, according to co-owner Brian Quale. Likely by late May.
Quale and Courtney Dalman bought the bakery last year and have been working ever since to get up to speed as bakers.
Quale had been working in construction, though he’s had plenty of kitchen experience, and Dalman was working at the Marquette Food Co-op when they decided to take the leap.
“It’s just something we’ve wanted to do,” Quale says. “We’ll have a lot of the old recipes, and some new ones, as well.”
Even though the doors have been closed to walk-ins for the last few months, they have been baking products for other businesses–The Crib, Contrast Coffee, the Food Co-op, Farmer Q’s, the NY Deli, and the Superior Entertainment Center (the bowling alley), among others.
They’ve also been doing some renovation inside the bakery to make it more welcoming to folks who just want to come in, sit, enjoy a cup of coffee (from Dead River, right around the corner), and a scone. New furniture, new lighting, a new wall.
The business will be an exciting adventure for a couple of young folks who now call Marquette their home (he’s from California, she’s from downstate).
And it’ll be the welcome revival of a bakery that so many of us came to love.
SO YOU WERE thinking that that condos project to be located in the old Customs House was dead because we hadn’t heard much about it in the last several months?
Wrong, according to developer Nicole Meloche Gregory. She was brought up in Marquette but now lives in Grand Rapids.
“We’re moving forward with the project,” she says. “We just have a few issues we have to settle with the city.”
Further, she tells us, she already has two pre-sales on the condos.
Her plans are to add on to the Customs House and build six condos altogether. 1200-2100 square feet each. Price range? $400,000 to $700,000.
Lots of outdoor space, fire pits, and what she calls a “European design.”
She’s currently working with two banks and hopes to break ground this summer. We’ll be watching and waiting. That charming old building, dating back to the 1860s, has been sitting idle and neglected for years.