Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511200002
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
For McNinney, 3:30 a.m. daily is the proverbial "time to make the doughnuts." This is when he rises to create sticky buns, cinnamon rolls and bagels for those still slumbering peacefully in their beds throughout the New River Valley.
They will stop in on their way to work and grab the breakfast sweets created in an early morning flurry of flour and sugar. Created long before the sound of birds, the hum of construction work and sun through window blind slats begin most people's days.
"You've got to be a little crazy to do this," McNinney says of starting up a bakery. He remembers reading somewhere that jobs in food service rank No. 2 in the divorce rate.
A year after setting up shop in Christiansburg, McNinney is still cranking out turnovers, eclairs, creme puffs and wedding cakes. Starting up a business is no easy venture when you're not even listed in the phone book (when McNinney moved here he just missed the deadline for putting Gramas in the yellow pages).
The obvious stress involved with this devotion to baked goods is alleviated by McNinney's mother, sister, brother-in-law and brother, all of whom help keep Gramas' cases filled with pastries and candies. McNinney covers the breakfast items and wedding cakes, his sister does the candy, other cake decorating and pies. And mom? "She's an all-around helper."
Mom was spotted at the bakery one day praising the virtues of bagels to another customer. "I love them, there aren't any crumbs, you can even eat 'em in bed ... my cat likes them, too."
Customers do their part to help out the bakery. "They're my best advertisement," McNinney says. "A lot of people don't know we're here."
(Here, incidentally, is the corner of Haymarket and Roanoke streets.)
The baker says he hopes that "people will be patient" because the business is still just getting started. Patient when his cases "look like Mother Hubbard" because he's in the back trying to finish a wedding cake.
Why does someone voluntarily become "the Dunkin Doughnuts commercial man?"
"Once you decide to start something, you stick with it," says McNinney. "It is a lot of fun, a lot of customers stop and talk." He finds Christiansburg friendlier than his last residence in New Jersey.
In this area where he went to college in the '70s and returned when his mother moved to the valley, McNinney sees a diverse mixture of people with a refreshingly "laid-back" attitude.
A Forestry and Wildlife graduate of Tech, McNinney headed to the Culinary Institute of America when he saw the job market in his field drying up. He went on to become head chef at a number of restaurants in New Jersey, which he asserts is a great deal more stressful than being "head baker" here.
The only problem he finds now are the customers who have yet to grasp the concept of "planning ahead." Example: A phone call from a back room breaks the silence of the empty bakery. He goes to answer and returns with a smirk.
"If you were getting married, do you think you'd know about it before that afternoon?" he asks. "That was a woman who wanted me to make her a wedding cake for her wedding. Tonight."
And another thing - you have to order all your cakes. McNinney finds some people are daunted when they discover they can't "just come in and get a cake out of the case."
McNinney does not own the specialized machinery required to make different kinds of breads that some of his customers desire. "We do it all by hand," he says.
Irksome requests aside, on a positive note - being a baker can keep you from indulging in fattening treats. Squeezing out thick, sugary frosting onto cakes and injecting puffs with chocolate gobs every day seems to be a flooding therapy for someone with a sweet tooth.
"Yeah, I don't eat this stuff much anymore," McNinney says. "It's like working in an ice cream store - it just doesn't appeal to you much after awhile."
Luckily the specialty items appeal to others. McNinney says people come from as far as Roanoke for eclairs and creme puffs. The thoughtful baker also tries to accommodate different needs with items such as sugar-free candy for diabetics.
Bills still hang over McNinney's head and he says he can't "get caught up with them." But perhaps the worst is over. The startup of starting your own business is the hardest part.
Finding an attorney, an accountant, a building, equipment, filing for state and federal tax numbers then the waiting, suppliers (there are not many in this area) who want the money up front and working out the details with his brother till midnight many times. "A lot of banks are not real friendly," he says. "This is a high-risk business and they don't want to deal with you if you don't already have something going."
The regulars who stop in on their way to and from work, the home atmosphere (complete with stuffed grandma and grandpa figures sitting at one table) and "everybody pulling for us." When McNinney gets in his truck and heads home at 7:30 p.m., stays awake long enough to eat dinner and crashes, these are the things that will get him out of bed before daylight tomorrow and keep Gramas going.
by CNB