When people hear “Pittsburgh,” many may think of steel mills, Heinz ketchup or the Steelers football team. Marc and Susan Serrao want to add Oakmont Bakery to that list. The bakery is located in Oakmont, Pa., a small enclave 14 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The town may be best known as the home of the Oakmont Country Club, which has played host to several professional golf tournaments. However, Oakmont Bakery is gaining prominence. The former borough manager told Serrao that when she goes to meetings and people find out she is from Oakmont, they often comment on their experiences with the bakery.

“That's one of the best compliments I've ever received since she represented Oakmont for more than 50 years,” Serrao says. It appears he is succeeding in making Oakmont Bakery a Pittsburgh icon.

He started his baking career at 15 as part of the cleaning crew at the Donut Shack, and by 18, he was managing the shop. After graduating from high school, Serrao worked in several supermarket in-store bakeries.

In 1988, he and wife Susan purchased a bakery located in Oakmont's central business district. The bakery had only been open 10 days when the owner suddenly died, and it featured brand-new equipment and stained glass fixtures.

“It was perfect, and something I would never been able to afford myself without the help of the previous owner's estate's financing,” Serrao says. Although he was starting a mom-and-pop bakery, even then he envisioned something much bigger.

In the beginning, he wholesaled product to the in-store bakery where he had previously worked, but after a few months he found he was focusing on the wholesale orders and not the retail shop. He credits it with keeping the business going in the first few months, but his passion was retail. “So, I made a decision that we would do no wholesale at all. I think that was the best decision for the bakery,” he adds. “I believe wholesale is wholesale and retail is retail. They are two separate businesses.”

Within five years of purchasing the bakery, he was out of space. Serrao moved the bakery to the center of town and into a 4,500-sq.-ft. car showroom that his father, a contractor, completely remodeled into a retail shop with production in the back. Five years after that, the auto shop across the parking lot became available, so Serrao moved the retail shop into that 4,500-sq.-ft. building and expanded the production space in the old building. The former retail space became a cake decorating room. Employees move product from the production building to the retail building in enclosed keeper carts.

But Oakmont's expansion was not complete. A few years ago, Serrao purchased the building behind the bakery and converted it into a 5,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, complete with loading dock and parking. Trucks go directly to the warehouse for deliveries, and the warehouse allows Serrao to buy in larger quantities for better pricing. He recently purchased an extra four pallets of sugar when he noticed prices rising. Each day, the maintenance crew drives needed ingredients to the production building in a golf cart.

Round-the-clock production

The bakery is in production almost 24 hours a day. The first shift arrives at 10 p.m. to start the doughs, then a shift comes in at 4 a.m. to start finishing product to ensure products are ready for the bakery's 6 a.m. opening. Then, a baking shift arrives at 5 a.m. Serrao's son Tony runs production.

Serrao added a daytime baking shift about five years ago, which allows the staff to really focus on producing for that day. “It's the best idea we've ever had,” Serrao says. “Tony comes in at 8 o'clock and bakes with his crew all day, so people know when they come in they're getting fresh product. Often, afternoon customers leave with product that is still warm.”

He doesn't worry about staling and doesn't hesitate to bring in a fresh tray of product at 5 p.m., even though the bakery closes two hours later. “It used to be that you tried to make just enough that you'd sell out by the end of the day,” he says. “I realized when I first opened that people stopped coming in by 6 p.m. and we didn't close until 7 p.m. It was because my cases had almost nothing in them. Now we keep the cases full. My biggest pet peeve is empty cases.”

Some automation is necessary to keep up with the demand of baking all day, but Serrao is careful about how he chooses to automate. He will not purchase a machine that requires him to change his formulas. “If it just makes it faster and easier, we love it,” he says. The bakery uses a bagel machine, a die-cut cookie machine and a batter depositor, all of which work with current formulas. He purchased a cake icing machine last year but had to return it because he had to change the icing too drastically.

Freezing product also is necessary to keep up with demand, and sometimes to improve the finished product, Serrao says. The production building has 1,500 sq. ft. of freezer space and 1,000 sq. ft. of cooler space. The retail building also has a freezer and cooler. Donuts, pastries and breads are never frozen, but cakes and cookies always are. “I actually believe that freezing the cakes and cookies increases moisture,” he says.

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