POCATELLO — Alisha Christopher-Czopek was working a full-time job and running a micro-bakery out of her home for roughly two years when she decided she wanted to devote more time to baking.
"My parents were in town, and we were looking at ways I could expand my micro-bakery out of my home," she said. "A friend came over and asked how serious I was about expanding — I told her I was pretty serious."
That's when the friend suggested looking at a bakery in Historic Downtown Pocatello that was on the market, Round River Baking. But it wasn't something Christopher-Czopek immediately took to. Then her father made a suggestion.
"I kept thinking about it, and finally, my dad said, 'Hey, let's just go look at it. There's nothing wrong with just looking at it,'" she said. "So we called the Realtor and asked to look at it. Our jaws just dropped at how perfect the space was."
That was in February, and Christopher-Czopek and her husband, Jonasz Czopek, got together with Matt Stanger, the owner of Round River Baking at the time, and within a week had come to an agreement to purchase the bakery.
"It felt like something that was meant to be," she said.
Christopher-Czopek has been operating Round River Baking since February. She said Stanger was helpful during the transition.
"He trained me on most of what he knew, his recipes," she said. "Matt was professionally trained. While I am not professionally trained, I was trained by someone who was."
Her experience and knowledge prior to Stanger's training was years of watching and working with her father and grandmother in their kitchens, learning and gaining a love for baking.
Using quality ingredients is a key to a good product, and they are especially adamant that there is just one source of flour they will rely on.
"We go to Central Milling in Logan to get our flour," Czopek said. "Our other ingredients are either organic or locally sourced."
Christopher-Czopek said the flour is worth the drive down to Logan.
"It's just the quality of the flour from Central Milling," she said. "It really does the bread and the pastries justice. You just notice the difference in how the flour behaves and how you feel after you eat it."
She grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, moving to Pocatello in 2013 to study at Idaho State University. She met her husband and they have made the Gate City their home.
"I absolutely adore it here," she said.
Christopher-Czopek doesn't plan for many changes in the near future. In fact, she has probably made the most significant change she is going to make for a while. Round River Baking has only been open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Czopek said they changed the hours to better tie in with Historic Downtown Pocatello's peak traffic moment: Wednesday's Revive@5 and Saturday's Portneuf Valley Farmers Market. As of April 22, Round River Baking is open Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We wanted to have a mid-week opportunity for people to come by," he said. "It worked out well. We also are open for the First Friday Art-Walk."
Even though they are just open the two days, Christopher-Czopek said Round River Baking consumes more of her time than one might think. She said baking everything for each day they are open is a two-day process. Her offerings will typically include four different types of sourdough bread, scones, chocolate and almond croissants, cookies and other pastries. They will typically sell out by the time they close for the day.
She is busy enough with the shop that she even gave up the full-time job.
"It just got to the point where I couldn't spend the amount of time I needed to at the bakery if I had a full-time job," Christopher-Czopek said. "It is a plus to be able to hang out with my son a lot more. He is just 10 months old. He is our first."
They know that eventually they will want to grow beyond the micro-bakery they are today, but they are not in a rush to do that.
"We do have some thoughts about expanding, maybe supplying restaurants, and doing catering," Christopher-Czopek said. "We don't want to grow too big because we want to retain the quality of our products."