BUSINESS

Photos and text by: Rick Schultze.

Entering their fifth year of business in downtown Yachats, the On The Rise Bakery continues to pro - vide a variety of treats, dispense information, and serve as a welcome stop for locals and travelers alike. A true family business, the shop is staffed by five members of the Kroeger family, with assistance from family friend Dick DePue.

Dave Kroeger,left Dale Kroeger, Barbara Kroeger, Ray Kroeger, Danny Kroeger, and Dick DePue are picture in front of the On The Rise Bakery in Yachats.

The bakery has a wide assortment of donuts, rolls, pastry,cookies, bagels, espresso drinks, juices, breads, and many, many other freshly made items. The kitchen is large enough to hold the big ovens and bread slicing machine and the counter areas serve as cooling tables for the wonderful smelling items before they go into the display cases. Early in the morning the cases are full but by late afternoon they are almost empty. "After I retired my wife and I wanted to move to the Northwest and the opportunity to purchase the bakery came about." Ray Kroeger says. " I bought it for several reasons one being the chance for my sons all to have jobs together. It's worked really well. David does the baking at night, Danny and Dale work the counter and I fill in when needed. Dick helps in a variety of ways. We still have a daughter who lives in California and two grandchildren so who knows, we might have more family working here yet," he adds with a smile. It was a learning process initially for the Kroegers having no experience in the baking business but, "the fellow we bought it from stayed for quite awhile and showed us the ropes." Ray said. "We learned from him, did a touch of renovating and we took it from there. We added several new items and invented our 'Orca' pastry after Keiko arrived. Don't know if we'll keep that after he goes" He added, "but it's a popular item." Usually the first business to open every morning in Yachats, the bakery has a wide assortment of donuts, rolls, pastry,cookies, bagels, espresso drinks, juices, breads, and many, many other freshly made items. The kitchen is large enough to hold the big ovens and bread slicing machine and the counter areas serve as cooling tables for the wonderful smelling items before they go into the display cases. Early in the morning the cases are full but by late afternoon they are almost empty. "Besides our regular clientele'" Danny says, "We have visitors from all over the country and many foreign countries. We were written up in the New York Times and Travelers Magazine and people mention reading about us. We have one fellow from New York who comes every summer and buys large quantities of our raspberry cookies and some folks from Florida that come for the Apricot Danish. It can be very interesting in here with people from all over trading stories about where they are from and where they are going. Of course what we've found out is that you need to know your geography because people are always asking directions!" "It's been very enjoyable for all of us here," Ray adds, "Yachats is a friendly town and the surrounding community is great. This is a wonderful place to live and that was another major reason we bought the business. We'd like to thank all those who've supported us and are looking forward to continuing to work in this beautiful part of the Oregon Coast." The On The Rise Bakery is open 7 days a week in the summer. 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. most days, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. For further information call 547- 3440. To take part in the formation of the column, E-Mail your thoughts to me at yarick@pioneer.net url of this page -- Revised: 1/11/1996 Design By: System Development & InterNet Marketing larpear@trillian.com