Saratoga Business Journal
By Jill Nagy
Bakery Suzanne, a new bakery on Route 50 in Wilton, got off to a cautions start. It was open on April 29 for a “trial run,” just for one day.
“It was our first morning in a new space,” owner Wilson Keenan explained, and they were just getting the ovens going. “We didn’t care if we even sold a loaf of bread.”
The following few weeks, Keenan planned to open for the weekend—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then, he said, “We will grow gradually to Wednesday to Sunday.” On the first day, “there was not even a sign on the street,” he recalled. Now, he is ready to try to promote the business.
The bakery will be a wholesale business selling to restaurants, co-ops, and grocery stores, as well as a retail outlet. They use local grains and mill their own flour. The bread is made without yeast, “wild fermented.” Many of the pastries are based on croissants. “We are refining the classics,” Keenan said, “Nothing crazy.”
Before coming to Wilton, Bakery Suzanne was based in the Catskills. Keenan moved there in 2018-19 from San Francisco, “a town with great bread,” where he learned how to bake. In time, he found that “I was over my career in tech,” not fully engaged in his work, so he became a baker instead.
In the Catskills, he found it difficult to build out a team. There were never enough people on staff and he couldn’t take a day off. Things were further complicated by the fact that his wife was working in New York City. In his new location, he has two bakers on staff and two more people in the front of the shop. He plans to add another baker.
The shop is located at 4284 Route 50, just past Wilton Mall, a neighborhood without much foot traffic, he noted, but “the area is growing like crazy.” He was pleased to find a building with large garage doors. That enabled him to bring in his ovens and other equipment without having to dismantle them.
The bakery is named for Keenan’s mother, “a crazy artist that I’ve always admired.”