Mohns serve up past hot out of the oven

By Susan Larson | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, March 10, 2008

In a world where you can buy doughnuts while gassing up your car on the way to work, the corner bakery has become something of a rarity — maybe even an oddity.

But for 53 years, Mohn’s Bakery has stood at its same location — 420 Minnesota Ave., Breckenridge — offering people a taste of times past, when the world wasn’t pre-packaged and quick-frozen.

Six days a week, 52 weeks out of the year, owner George Mohn and his wife, Cynthia, are at the bakery by 2 a.m. — yes, 2 a.m. — baking the day’s goods. It’s early, but it ensures their customers have the freshest there is to offer.

By 9 a.m., “But sometimes it’s 11 a.m., depending how busy we are,” George said, they go home for lunch and some rest. They’re back at the shop by 4:30 p.m., taking inventory of what will be needed and to start preparing for the next day. By 6 p.m., they finally go home.

By George’s own admission, bakeries such as his are a dying breed.

“The industry has changed,” he said. “Consumers have become one-stop shoppers. Supermarkets have banks, floral arrangements, even bakeries. It’s a two-income family world now and it’s a matter of convenience.”

In a sense, the fast pace the world has adopted has even affected their product line.

“Pastries are still our biggest item,” George said. “Buns used to be, but people don’t eat at home as much anymore. Burgers are fast food now.”

But people still appreciate quality, and that has kept the doors open all these years.

“The only thing that keeps us afloat is there are still people who enjoy the old-fashioned products,” George said. “Everything we make here is our own formula from scratch. Some places use frozen dough and things like that because it saves time. But it doesn’t taste the same.”

It’s not an easy life, but it’s the only one George, a certified master baker since 1987, has known. His father, LeRoy Mohn, a life-long baker, built the store in December 1954.

“It was a vacant lot before,” said George. “We were living in Granite Falls, but we were our way to Phoenix, Ariz., to open a bakery there.”

On their way to Moorhead to say good-bye to family, they stopped in Breckenridge to eat.

“The restaurant owner told my dad we they needed a bakery here. Mom wanted to stay close to her family in Moorhead. We stayed overnight and Dad went into the bank the next day and bought the lot. We never got to Phoenix.”

In that instant, George’s life was shaped, like the countless loaves of bread he has baked over the years.

While he worked in the bakery growing up, in 1967, George worked for a time making flax pulp in Breckenridge. After six months, he went to work for his dad. When their father retired in 1969, George’s brother, Milan, took on the business. George briefly worked for his brother, then for Jim and Pearl Greenwood at the City Cafe and Bakery in Fergus Falls. After about a year and a half, Milan got out of the bakery business, deciding it wasn’t for him. George took over in 1972.

It hasn’t always been a sweet life. While George and Cynthia enjoy the customers, the business “is a social killer,” George said. “The only day we have off is Sunday, and even then sometimes we end up coming into work. We haven’t had a vacation in 15 years. We don’t know what to do with out time when we’re not here.”

When he retires, George speculates his business will end with him. The Mohn’s only child, daughter Jennifer, used to help out in the family business. The couple is adamant about her not taking over the family business. She is now a restaurant manager in Fargo.

“I told her to go to college, be a teacher or something,” George said. “Something where you can have some kind of a life.”