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Loyal customers of Clear Flour Bread Bakery, Brookline, Mass., are patient. Consider that they wait in queues often stretching 50 ft. or more down the sidewalk. Tantalizing aromas of fresh-baked European artisan breads and viennoiserie maintain customers' resolve. And, they willingly wait despite New England's fickle weather, especially during the winter.

Fifteen years ago, when Modern Baking first visited Clear Flour, the scene outside was different. The bakery's delivery van transported artisan breads and rolls from the bakery's back door; three-fourths of sales went to wholesale accounts. Since then, the business has flipped — retail sales currently account for 70 percent of sales.

Tucked among single-family homes in this Boston suburb, Clear Flour earned a reputation among residents for producing unique, high-quality bread products. The bakery, founded in 1982 as a wholesale operation, sold excess product through its small storefront. While the wholesale business grew steadily, retail sales began to grow more rapidly as word of Clear Flour spread among residents and eventually throughout metropolitan Boston.

Pioneer bread baker

Christy Timon opened the bakery in 1982, well before authentic artisan breads began capturing Americans' taste buds. Timon learned bread baking while attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she studied dance. As with many struggling dancers, she took a job in a restaurant.

In 1980, Timon moved to Boston to dance professionally. While trying to spark her dance career, she supported herself working for a caterer and a gourmet foods wholesaler. After two years, Timon had to choose: dance or food? “Food became a more realistic avenue for me,” she recalls.

In 1982, she and a partner launched their own catering business. They rented a 600-sq.-ft. storefront, now home to Clear Flour. Timon began baking again, supplying mostly sourdough breads and rolls to upscale food markets and restaurants.

After several months, the partnership dissolved. Timon kept the space and focused on baking for wholesale clients. In 1983, she met Abram Faber and contracted with him to handle remodeling projects and to deliver the bakery's daily production. That business relationship led to romance, marriage and twin daughters, now 15 years old, and a mutual passion for artisan baking.

Above: Clear Flour’s bread display. Left: Owners Christy Timon and Abram Faber with daughters Coco (left) and Tracey Faber.

They divided their responsibilities so that Timon directs production, conducts product research and development and purchases ingredients, while Faber handles the business side, including facilities management, governmental issues and equipment purchasing and maintenance. Carrie Flickinger, general manager, who has a degree in hotel and restaurant management, wears many hats, among them managing retail sales and wholesale business.

In 1986, the couple rented an adjacent 600-sq.-ft. space. They purchased a 30-pan revolving tray oven, which enabled production to increase from 4,000 lbs. of dough a week to between 11,000 to 13,000 lbs.

They replaced the revolving tray oven in 1994 with an eight-door, four-deck hearth oven. “It allowed us to put the finishing touch on the breads that we wanted,” Timon recalls. It also jump-started Clear Flour's reputation as the Boston area's leading wholesaler of authentic European sourdough, French and specialty breads and rolls.

Shaped dough pieces proofed in ambient conditions, subject to the vagaries of Boston's unpredictable weather. In 1999, Faber built a 10-ft. by 33-ft. temperature-controlled room. Kept at 70°F, the space provides a stable environment for dough fermentation and houses temperature-sensitive ingredients, notably flour.