ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996            TAG: 9601170016
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 8    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES FOOD EDITOR    As any entrepreneur can attest, 
unexpected changes in business plans are par.
   So setting out to buy a pro golf discount franchise and ending up with a 
big-city-style specialty bread bakery really isn't all that odd. At least it 
isn't to Dave Linden, who with his wife, Lisa, her sister, Cathy Hartman, and 
Cathy's husband, Bob, owns the Heartland Bread Co., which officially opened 
Jan. 3 on the lower level of Towers Shopping Center.

WHOLE-GRAIN BAKERY BOASTS OWN GRIST MILL FOR ITS DAILY BREADS

Linden said he and his brother-in-law have backgrounds as sports management consultants and as sporting-goods reps. Hence their interests in a sports-related business. Cathy, a banker, and Lisa, a licensed pharmacist, shared their entrepreneurial vent. But the golf shop was going to require considerable overhead. Then, a visit to a Great Harvest bread shop in Michigan, which Linden described as a "McDonalds of bread stores," gave rise - so to speak - to a new idea in the would-be business people's heads.

The couples hired a consultant to help them with the equipment, construction and recipe-development phases of their project, and when everything was done, they had a whole-grain bread bakery, similar to franchises found in many big cities, but with that extra personalization that comes of being family owned.

Heartland's centerpiece attraction is the mega-sized, $10,000, 2,000-lb. stone grist mill occupying its front window.

"It's like something out of Willy Wonka," Linden laughed.

It is used daily to mill the wheat for the breads. Those breads include five basics plus two or three specialties each day and cost about $2 per one-pound loaf; $3.25 to $3.75 per two-pound loaf.

The two-pound Triple Chocolate loaf, however - made with light and dark chocolate chips, cocoa and chocolate coffee - will lighten your wallet by $4.25 and increase your weight by more than you care to think about, and two-pound loaves of Challa - a hollow Jewish-style bread baked only on Fridays - costs $4.50. The shop also bakes muffins, cookies, cinnamon rolls and scones.

The bakery is mostly a take-out affair right now, although a few chairs and tables can accommodate people who'd like to while away some time. Linden said the bakery won't serve deli-style sandwiches because co-tenant Subway sandwich shop has that exclusive right. However, Heartland eventually may branch out into soups, he said. In the meantime, it serves coffee and soft drinks and generous free samples of its baked goods.

"We believe in letting customers try before they buy,'' Linden said.

The store is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Call 342-7323, or go to Towers Shopping Center's lower level and follow your nose.

LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Jennifer Brown ices cinnamon rolls
          at Heartland Bread Co., which recently opened at Towers Shopping 
          Center. color.