This article has been edited since it first appeared in print.
Rich and Sher Lahvic of Montana Gold Bread Co.
Montana Gold Bread Co.
3543 W. Cary St., 804-359-7700
“I never baked a loaf of bread in my life,” says Rich Lahvic, 73, who, with his wife, Sher, opened Montana Gold Bread Co. in the International Shopping Center in Carytown in 1994.
Unlike many bakeries, the shop didn't stem from the owners’ deep adoration for watching dough stretch or naming starters, or from folding pages of cookbooks with flour-dusted fingers. Rather, the bakery was born from a desire to pursue a business with both a past and a future.
“You're looking at the second-oldest profession in the world,” Lahvic says. “Bread has been around forever.”
Traveling to 30 bakeries and 20 states, Lahvic researched and explored potential locations. With years of experience in restaurant marketing, he saw bread as a venture that would succeed financially. He uprooted his wife and two daughters from Florida to start Montana Gold in Carytown, drawn to the area's walkability, the surrounding neighborhood and its proximity to a nearby grocer.
Taking notice of a shift toward more health-conscious options in the industry, he sought out baking lessons from a friend while also reading books and learning along the way.
"Healthy, whole-wheat bread seemed like a good business,” Lahvic says.
That belief has proven to be true.
When they first opened their doors Lahvic says, “We were overwhelmingly successful — we could barely keep up.”
To bake bread each morning, a small team mills wheat in a stone burr mill. They source wheat from the same supplier they have used since the bakery started, Montana Wheat Farms. The breads that sell the quickest are honey whole wheat, cinnamon swirl and Lahvic’s favorite, nine-grain.
“It’s an honest, steady, hardworking business,” Lahvic says. "Almost every day, one of us, my wife or I, is there, and it’s intrinsically rewarding.”
Tony Dean of The Treat Shop
The Treat Shop
6114 Jahnke Road, 804-918-5125; 14736 Village Square Place, Midlothian, 804-608-0181
With a wide variety of offerings, each of The Treat Shop’s two area locations has multiple identities, serving as a cafe, an ice cream parlor and an eatery. But when asked about the most sought-after item from the bakery, Tony Dean, vice president of public relations, doesn’t hesitate: “Our doughnuts,” he says.
“They take the center stage,” he continues. “Particularly the maple bacon and cinnamon bun,” the latter of which Dean says he directs every customer to try when they visit.
Owned by husband-and-wife team Shawn and Essie Davis, The Treat Shop first began emitting the scent of deep-fried dough at its original Jahnke Road location in October 2014. The Davises, Richmond natives, wanted to offer a one-stop carnival-themed shop, offering amusement park fare such as fried Oreos, funnel cakes and candy apples
The Treat Shop sells more than a dozen varieties of cake and yeast doughnuts, made fresh throughout the day. The menu features everything from hot dogs and a Jahnke Road burger to breakfast sandwiches and 32 flavors of Hershey’s ice cream.
Open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week, the neighborhood fixture has experienced double-digit growth each year. “Between the two stores, there are over 200 customers a day on average,” Dean says.
Customers are known to swing by two to three times a week. One of their longtime patrons, Walton Marcy, encouraged their expansion into Woodlake in January.
“He told us about [Woodlake] and said they wanted us to be in their neighborhood,” Dean says.
Laurie Blakey of Pearl’s Bake Shoppe
Pearl’s Bake Shoppe
5811 Patterson Ave., 804-285-2253
When Laurie Blakey speaks about her late grandmother, Pearl, her Southern-tinged voice is filled with adoration.
“I saw people melt in her hospitality,” says Blakey, the owner of Pearl’s Bake Shoppe. “I started this because my grandmother bought so much joy to people.”
When Pearl's family’s farm was in danger during the Great Depression, she ensured its survival by selling meats, butter, yogurt and produce. While working at a voter registration center in Charlottesville, she enticed people to sign up by serving three hot meals — biscuits with jam, chicken salad and iced tea for lunch, and fried chicken for supper — from a little stove.
Working in real estate, with plans to retire from the industry at age 50, Blakey was looking for a new project. As she studied businesses that started during the Depression that are still viable today, she noticed they all had one thing in common. “They were low-cost luxury items,” Blakey says. “Something that made people feel good.”
Enter cupcakes, inexpensive handheld indulgences that are an ever-changing vehicle for flavors and serve as the foundation for Pearl’s Bake Shoppe, which Blakey opened as Pearl's Cupcakes in March 2010 with a partner before taking sole ownership in 2018.
Inside the bakery, a display case holds a rolling pin and cookbooks from Pearl with personal inscriptions, while her table holds cakes and pickup orders. From family photos on the wall to a namesake cupcake inspired by Pearl, Blakey keeps the memory and spirit of her grandmother alive and well.
