Brian Evans - Chef/Business Owner | Q&A
After 20 years of running one of Cleveland’s most successful bakeries, owner Adam Gidlow started working on a succession plan with managing partner Brian Evans. Starting next January, Evans will reach a new goal and take majority ownership of the Cleveland Heights artisan bakery.
Brian Evans - Chef/Business Owner, a 2008 graduate of International Culinary Arts and Science Institute, found his passion for bread-baking while working for Chef Doug Katz in the now shuttered Fire in Shaker Square. In 2010, he moved to On the Rise and began learning every aspect of baking. “I really just worked my way from the bottom up,” says Evans, who discovered both an inner baker and inner entrepreneur. “After the first two years, I really had a strong foundation running the oven and was doing a fair bit of baking.” The eventual ownership transition was a natural.
“Adam will remain part of the bakery and plans to be there a few more years,” says Evans. “He’s moving into less involvement and is getting ready to step back a bit and allow me to continue to manage and run and grow the bakery.”
“We plan to not skip a beat,” he says. “All we’ve done is secure a future for the bakery that everyone has come to know and love.”
The bakery is known for European-style breads made with basic ingredients – flour, water, salt and yeast. All flours are unbleached and unbromated. And the recipes contain no dough conditioners or preservatives.
Evans is working on a couple of projects. One is to create partnerships with local farms to maintain, and even improve, flour quality.
“We really hope to put a focus on sourcing flour and continuing to expand on using local growers and millers,” he says. “We’re using as many organic grains as we can.”
Evans is concerned about agricultural practices that use the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) to kill wheat and prepare it for harvest earlier than usual. Lately, the herbicide has come under increased scrutiny. The U.S. EPA has ruled it safe when used as directed, while the World Health Organization’s cancer group, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, has classified it as a probable carcinogen. While the debate rages on, Evans says On the Rise is not taking chances.
“We’re finding growers and millers and farmers that are not using that practice but harvesting wheat the more traditional way,” he says.
The challenge with this approach may be getting enough special flours to consistently repeat the same recipes.
“When we’re trying to work with local farms, there’s an 18-month turnaround from the decision to plant to the flour arriving,” he explains. “We could only do a limited time special with one of the flours -- rouge de Bordeaux. We had to be OK that loaf would go away for a while. The next harvest is in July with product in September.” Overall, Evans expects breads to remain the same or improve.
“Within the last two months one of the projects was to revamp our focaccia,” he says. “We felt it was time for us to put our efforts toward a different way to do it. Now we have hydrated the dough more, increased pre-ferments and added some sour dough culture. Pre-ferments aids in digestibility and improve the texture.” In the future, he says, they hope to introduce more specialty bread.
On the Rise Artisan Bakery is at 3471 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland Heights. The bakery also sells bread and baked goods at Van Aken District Market Hall, 3441 Tuttle Rd, Shaker Heights.
