WLM | business
We had heard about The Bread Doctor Bakery of
Torrington from one of our arts center instructors, and Levi
was incredibly impressed with this true family business
when he visited for the photo shoot. Like many Wyoming
entrepreneurship stories, this venture began as a dream and
a learning opportunity that fell close to home as soon as we
heard it …
Dr. Ezdan Fluckiger is a family practitioner who has
practiced in Torrington since the summer of 1999 (and
delivered over 800 babies!). He felt a pull to create the
bakery from one of the strongest magnets I know of: his
daughter, Eleanor, a bright and energetic young
lady with disabilities and a great joy to the Fluckiger
family. “A few years ago I realized that as Eleanor got
older we were going to need an ‘after plan’ once she
left high school,” Ezdan shares. “I felt strongly that I
wanted to be part of her life on a daily basis through
the future years, and did not want to live in my own
parallel universe in the medical clinic. That seemed too
disjointed to me.”
The search for a second career for Ezdan became a
search for something both father and daughter would
enjoy, in the chance Eleanor’s decisions for the future
changed and Ezdan continued the new business on
his own. “I have had a small wish to have a bakery in
the back of my mind for decades, but figured it was
impractical,” Ezdan says. “The idea kept coming to me
that Torrington needed a bakery – {the community}
had supported the Cassel Bakery for 30 years. I began
to research what it would take to get the culinary
education I would need to see if I had the ability to
bake as a business -- or should I just drop the idea.”
The family took a leap of faith, and Ezdan took a
one month sabbatical to attend The International
School of Baking in Bend, Oregon and test his baking
abilities. “It was a huge investment to leave my practice and
to attend class, but I remember after the first day being so
elated,” he says. “We worked 8-10 hours daily and I was the
only student. It was a perfect incubator to help me develop
my skills as a baker.”
The idea of a bakery also fit Eleanor’s personality.
“{Eleanor} is very good with people and loves to talk and
interact socially,” Ezdan says. “I thought that front desk/
wait staff in a bakery would be perfect. She used to play
waitress all the time when she was younger, taking our
orders, etc.” With a plan in place and Ezdan’s creativity
piqued, the family organized The Bread Doctor Bakery,
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Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Spring 2016