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| Ryan Morgan (right) via Facebook. |
Everyone knows the age-old saying that
when a door closes, another one opens. In the case of Fort Thomas
resident Ryan Morgan, those doors just happened to be bakeries. But
not just any bakery. Morgan is the owner of Sixteen Bricks ArtisanBakehouse, which provides bread items for many of the area’s top
culinary hotspots.
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| via Facebook |
Morgan built the Sixteen Bricks bread
empire from the ground up beginning in 2012 when he took over Sweet
Williams bakery, which had been owned and operated by his mother and
step-father. His parents had attempted to move Sweet Williams to
another location, but the move had proven to be more difficult than
expected. “You know, when you move a bakery it’s down for a couple
of weeks, so they ended up going out of business actually. It never
was able to come back to what it once was. She tried, and tried, and
never let go of the bakery. It was a thorn in her side, basically,”
said Morgan. At the time, Morgan had a solid six-figure job Johnson &
Johnson, and originally wasn’t willing to give it up to become a
full-time baker. However, Morgan and his brother decided that it was
best to give their parents a break, and they took on responsibility
of the bakery and changed the name to Sixteen Bricks.
Opening a new bakery is easier said
than done. When Morgan’s brother accepted a new job, Morgan was left
to build their bakery himself. This sometimes meant grueling 20 hour
days, and solely dealing with any obstacles that accompany the launch
of a new business endeavor. When asked what the most difficult part
of launching a new bakery was, Morgan’s answer was simple:
everything. “There were times when I was sitting here, and didn’t
have anything to eat but peanut butter and a baguette. I was counting
change thinking, ‘Should I put this gas in my car so I can go home,
or do I sleep here so I can put gas in the delivery van and get bread
to the customers?’ And inevitably I would be sleeping at the bakery.
There were a lot of new business trials and tribulations,” said
Morgan.
In the early days of Sixteen Bricks,
Morgan running the bakery alone. He did have a delivery driver to
help distribute the bread, but all the baking and administrative work
were on Morgan’s shoulders. This meant that he personally dealt with
every aspect of running a company – the good and the bad. “When
people didn’t like the bread, they called me directly to complain
about it. Going from a high paid salary job at Johnson & Johnson
to basically being poverty stricken to do this bakery was difficult.
Building a name for myself was very difficult,” said Morgan.
Morgan takes the baking process
seriously, and prides himself in creating delicious, fresh, and
nutritious bread items. Sixteen Bricks bread is made fresh daily at
the bakehouse, hand-shaped, and put in the oven by hand. “When each
piece has its own personality it’s because each piece has some of our
personality in it,” said Morgan. Their fermentation process is one
of the many things that sets Sixteen Bricks apart from other
bakeries. According to Morgan, “We’re most proud of our
fermentation because there’s no additives, no added flavors, nothing
added to it. It’s all based off old-world stuff.”
Morgan’s passion for bread and the
creative aspects of being a baker are what keep him motivated each
day. “The ever-changing crazy life of a bakery – there’s nothing
about it that I don’t love. I love the smell of sourdough when it
comes out of the oven. I have a whole crew that works for me. There’s
about fourteen of them that work here. You know, training them and
growing them to be better with their life and the bakery is something
that I’m extremely passionate about. Those are some of the things
that really keep me going, so to say,” said Morgan.
Morgan’s hard work and determination
has definitely paid off. Along with their bakehouse located in
Cincinnati, Sixteen Bricks bread can be found in 52 restaurants
throughout the area. The success of Sixteen Bricks is not only a
testament to Morgan’s dedication to the bakery, but how Morgan was
able to create meaningful relationships with some of the major
figures in Cincinnati’s culinary landscape.
“One of the biggest
things that ever happened was that I got introduced to Todd Kelly at
Orchid over at the Hilton. Todd was one of my very first customers,
and he was one of the people that really pushed me to do more. He
kept pushing, and pushing. And that’s when we became Sixteen Bricks
is when Todd kept pushing to me to do more sales and make more bread,
and it was a really nice thing,” said Morgan.
Those types of
relationships are what helped to bring Sixteen Bricks bread to many
of the area’s top restaurants. If you’ve enjoyed a meal recently at
Red Feather, Maribelle’s, A Tavola, Bouquet, Orchid, or Lachey’s Bar,
then you’ve likely had some Sixteen Bricks bread with your meal.
“There’s nobody that I’m not super proud to be with,” said
Morgan.
One of Sixteen Bricks’ recent additions
to their client list is the newly-opened 15 North in Fort Thomas. “He
(15 North owner Ed Gossman) had been looking for an artisan baker
here, had tried my bread, and reached out to me luckily. We got
together, he tried some bread, talked ovens,” said Morgan. The 15
North owners and Morgan hit it off right away, and their
collaborative spirit helped to make for a perfect partnership between
the two businesses. “We’re very happy to be able to provide for
them,” said Morgan.
Morgan is especially excited about
adding 15 North to his esteemed roster of clients for many reasons.
He is a supporter of local businesses, he values his relationship
with 15 North’s owners, and he has a deep appreciation for the city
of Fort Thomas in general.
When Morgan was struggling to get Sixteen
Bricks off the ground, his grandfather offered up his Nob Hill home
to Morgan and his young son. “Because I was struggling so much back
then, he had me move into his home. I was lucky enough to get to move
into his place, and have since purchased it. That was some of the
backing that I had was getting to move into his place while I built
this bakery. He was a great man,” said Morgan.
Morgan’s grandfather was a prolific
inventor, most notably for a chemical used in perm hair treatments.
According to Morgan, “He was a great genius of a man.” Morgan’s
grandfather not only helped him in a time of need, but also instilled
in him many important values that he carries with him today,
including charity work and the importance of giving back to your
community.
“He always did a lot of donations to the Fort Thomas
community, and it’s important to me to carry on that tradition,”
said Morgan. Additionally, Morgan’s appreciation for the Fort Thomas
community is evidenced in the fact that Fort Thomas is the only
Farmer’s Market that he participates in each week. Sixteen Bricks has some exciting new products that will soon debut at the Fort Thomas Farmer’s Market, so be on the lookout for them next time you’re perusing the booths for delicious locally grown food.