B-Cubed Bakery sits on the corner of a lot mostly covered in weedy asphalt at 741 Emerick St. in Ypsilanti Township, adjacent to the former Gault Village shopping center at the heart of the Gault Village neighborhood. 

The neighborhood had become a food desert since the shopping center declined, landlord promises went unfulfilled, and redevelopment efforts stalled. But B-Cubed owner Benjamin Brown's shop has been bringing local baked goods, plus coffee from Ypsi-based Hyperion Coffee Co., to the neighborhood since last October.

"The only [local food] options people have are going to the other end of Grove Road for fast food or the gas station toward this end of [Ford Lake], so people have loved having us here," Brown says. "People are able to walk here and get food."

B-Cubed is just one of three new locally-owned bakeries that have opened in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township in the past two years, all emphasizing local ingredients, community involvement, and networking with other small business owners.

B-Cubed Bakery

Brown's path into baking was somewhat unusual. He went to the University of Michigan for software engineering and worked in that field for many years, moving to Kansas City, Mo., and then back to Michigan. But he eventually felt he needed a change of pace. He'd always enjoyed baking sourdough, so he applied to culinary school and gave himself two years to see if he could find a viable new career path.

Brown was in luck. When he applied to the Great Lakes Culinary Institute in Traverse City, it was the first year the school had offered a baking-specific program that was only one year long. 

After graduating, he sold bread at local farmers markets, baking at home under cottage food laws. But the COVID-19 pandemic changed the small business landscape, and it didn't take long for him to decide he wanted to run his own brick-and-mortar bakery. 
Doug CoombeB-Cubed Bakery owner Bemjamin Brown.
He envisioned a little neighborhood bakery like the now-defunct Fervere in Kansas City, where he says customers would line up at opening time three days per week.

"I really wanted it to be like a neighborhood bakery, and it turns out that is exactly what we have gotten here," he says. "Being here in Gault Village, the neighborhood is super appreciative of us."

Brown moved into the Gault Village space in May 2024. After a brief build-out, B-Cubed opened in November 2024, offering bread, cookies, and coffee.
Doug CoombeCustomers at B-Cubed Bakery.
Many of Brown's recipes are very simple. They're made with whole grains, and many use only three ingredients. But when they do have extra ingredients, like asparagus or whole garlic cloves, he sources them from local farmers. He's also sourcing grain from a regional supplier in Blissfield, and hopes to mill grain himself in a compact mill kept on site.

In addition to providing fresh baked goods in the midst of a food desert, Brown is hoping to give back to the community in other ways, such as hosting a farm stand trailer with fresh produce courtesy of Ypsi Township's Old City Acres farm, owned by Alex Ball.

"People can come and get their bread here and then go get produce, or if they have a CSA subscription through Alex, they'll be able to pick it up here," Brown says.

Beara Bakes

Cat Spencer has been running Beara Bakes for about five years, evolving from a monthly bake sale to a pop-up to a wholesale operation supplying locally owned outlets like Roos Roast and Argus Farm Stop. Spencer graduated to making baked goods out of the Growing Hope incubator kitchen in downtown Ypsilanti for two years before moving into their current digs at 10 N. Washington St. in downtown Ypsilanti, a space formerly occupied by Go! Ice Cream.

When Spencer heard that the ice cream store was shuttering its doors, they asked for a tour of the space on a whim. They quickly decided it was the perfect place for the bakery since it already had much of the equipment they needed and they didn't have the money to do a major build-out. Beara Bakes opened for business in September 2024, offering baked goods made with locally-sourced ingredients. The bakery specializes in laminated pastries like croissants and Danishes, along with coffee and a rotating house-made soup.

Doug CoombeBeara Bakes owner Cat Spencer.
"The lamination process is basically like layering dough and butter so that you get this puffy, flaky, beautiful dough," Spencer says. "It involves a lot of chilling, resting, and then rolling out again. It's very labor-intensive. But there's not a lot of bakeries that do it in this area."

The bakery's model has shifted to about 65% retail and 35% wholesale, as opposed to its more heavily wholesale-oriented past model. Recently, Beara Bakes has branched out into offering breakfast sandwiches as well.

"We're trying to expand more lunch and breakfast items because it's hard to find a quick meal for a lower price point downtown," Spencer says. "So we're kind of trying to fill that void. And so far, it's been amazing."

Spencer says you might think Beara Bakes sees Bird Dog Baking, located a mere city block away, as a rival. But, they say, "we sell such different stuff that it hasn't been an issue." Beara's winter season was a bit slow since the business doesn't get much walk-in traffic when it's cold. But in general, Spencer says the business has grown through word of mouth over the last 10 months, and they're getting to know regulars who pop in multiple times a week.

Spencer is hoping the future will hold monthly bake sales, much like the ones they held before Beara had a brick-and-mortar space, with a percentage of sales going to charity. Spencer is also hoping to add a day of service for the business – maybe Monday, since many other restaurants in downtown Ypsi are closed that day.

Bird Dog Baking

Jennifer Haglund and Mark Bogard met and started dating while making bread together at a bakery in San Francisco, so it's not too surprising that they ended up opening Bird Dog Baking at 100 W. Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti.

After moving back to Michigan to be near family in early 2020, they knew they wanted a storefront. However, the pandemic changed their plans. They began by baking loaves at home and delivering them by car to customers in the summer of 2020.

As a transition to opening a retail space, they worked out of the Growing Hope incubator kitchen. But after just a few months, they opened their current space in spring of 2024. The pair began by wholesaling their bread while they built out the space to include a cafe and retail area. 

"That way, we could pay the rent here while we were doing the construction without having to take a huge risk or have a huge debt," Bogard says. Since then, their team has grown from two to eight employees. 

Their current focus is on making sourdough bread with regional grains and supporting local farmers. Future plans include holding community events and maintaining their focus on local sourcing and community support.

They're committed to sourcing grains regionally and making connections with local farmers for other local ingredients, Haglund says. They offer Hyperion coffee in the cafe and use produce from Old City Acres, for instance.

Bogard says they enjoy doing community events and fundraisers, and they're always looking to "build out the menu a little bit." He says they'd like to add a pizza night, featuring handmade sourdough crusts, and maybe offer bread-baking classes in the near future.

However, their main focus right now is getting into a flow so they can step back to focus on family and let their employees handle a little bit more of the business' daily operations.

There are no grand plans to significantly expand the business, Bogard says.

"We do this because we love it — the repetition of the dough-making and the craftsmanship that goes into it," Bogard says. "So we're definitely going to be here forever, and we don't have any plans to start up a franchise or anything like that. Being involved in the business is kind of our goal." 

The owners of B-Cubed, Bird Dog Baking, and Beara Bakes all say they feel supported by Ypsi-area residents and fellow small business owners.

"I think one commonality between the three of us is that none of us started these businesses to make a bunch of money, but because we have passion," Bogard says. "So it doesn't really feel like we're in competition with one another. It's obvious there's room for all of us to thrive."

Photos by Doug Coombe.