Companion celebrates 20 years with a new marketplace and reaffirmed fundamentals
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY ROSE EVANS
Companion Bakeshop hardly needs any introduction. This beloved Santa Cruz business represents a pioneer in the community for organic treats, artisan bread and a level of quality that locals and visitors have all come to trust. This year marks 20 since Companion got its start at area farmers markets, and 15 for its flagship Companion Bakeshop location, providing an opportunity to reflect on how things have evolved.
Long before everyone and their mother developed a pandemic sourdough baking hobby, owner and baker Erin Lampel was crafting loaves. And what really planted the seed of Companion was the apprenticeship program at UC Santa Cruz’s Farm & Garden (also known as the Center for Agroecology).
Lampel explains that the ethos that was born in that program still
guides Companion’s core philosophy.
“My time there really shaped my interest in sustainable food systems [and] I thought I would go into farming,” she says, noting her degree from Cal Poly is in Fruit Science and Agriculture, “but I started baking.” She designed a business plan to use local ingredients whenever possible, make connections with local farms and producers and generally immerse herself in the local food scene.
“I wanted so badly to have a farm and a bakery, but soon realized that I wouldn’t have time for both,” she says, “but I’m really proud of the way we have held… thoughtful sourcing as our number one goal.” That remains apparent, as it has since the start. In the early days of the shop, Lampel was slammed, even with a much smaller roster of offerings: those wildly popular buckwheat scones, the simple picnic bread loaf, and—oh yes—the pies, from strawberry-rhubarb to lemon- buttermilk to sticky walnut.
She was also busy working with Pie Ranch up the coast, providing pies for their roadside farmstand, as well as baking sourdough loaves for the Life Earth Farm CSA, a very early supporter of her products. And as the shop got busier, she added items like galettes (see recipe below), cookies and tea cakes, all of which have also become what locals consider Companion classics.
There were certainly bumps along steep learning curves, including day one of the first store opening. (The Aptos location on Soquel Drive debuted in late 2018.)
Lampel et al worked overnight to get the shop ready, then encountered a serpentine line and sold out so early she decided to bake all the scones and cookies that she had prepared for days following. Oh, and they forgot to stock plates or forks or, she recalls, “really anything for people to sit down and enjoy food.”
“So we had three of us juggling a line of people with no plates—it was comical!” she says. “I think we asked a customer in line to run to the store for us to get some paper plates!” Then came what she calls “the sinking realization we had to get up the next day and do it again.”
“It felt overwhelming and impossible!” she says, noting there was about $200 in the bank. “There was a bit of pressure there, but we were fueled by the excitement of it all and feeling like ‘Wow, we actually might be able to pull this off!’”
Since that first week there have been many episodes that Lampel can pull up, from the day an elderly customer got locked inside the bathroom—“She was happy she already bought her scone!”—to the time 2-year-old Quinn Rye (Lampel’s son) was found under a table eating crumbs and a customer came up to the counter to report a loose baby.
“The list of the moments that have made us laugh and kept us humble goes on and on,” she adds.
New products came online—slowly at the beginning, mostly due to limited kitchen square footage and making sure everything could be made within a very specific time frame. But they got some systems down, learned how to work with bulk batches, and adapted recipes for growth, adding croissants and new bread varieties.
“Decisions on growing our offerings came down to space, interest and excitement in a product, and customer feedback,” Lampel says. “I honestly never thought about the cost of ingredients… believe it or not, we just jumped right in and figured it out.”
And she is the first person to proclaim that “figuring it out” was a team effort—it turns out Companion is aptly named. Lampel credits community and staff as integral to their sustained success. “I have learned that making real connections in the community and finding businesses where we can create partnerships is the key to sustaining a small business,” she says.
The key partnership: employees who have left their mark.
“The success of Companion is… the team of employees— learning how to be a leader [who] listens and works alongside my team has been my biggest success and by far,” she says. “I’m super thankful for all the wonderful people who have come our way!”
One of those co-workers is Jennifer Eckert Bernau. And while she is technically a recent hire, she is far from new to the cause.
She and Lampel have been friends since the early days up at the UCSC apprenticeship program, raising kids together and hosting delicious holiday cookie swaps. In fact, Eckert Bernau was one of the original bakers with Lampel when she started renting commercial kitchen space from Feel Good Foods, and the two ran the farmers market.
“[Just] a simple setup of a table, tablecloth, hand-painted sign and the amazing sourdough bread that is still much loved in Santa Cruz!” Eckert Bernau says.
When Eckert Bernau was at a career crossroads last summer, she dove right into the new Market & Community Outreach role at Companion, and has a lot of ideas for the future, overseeing the new mercantile section of the recently revamped café space on the Westside. It’s a sweet, curated assortment of goodies, gifts, cookbooks and picnic items that Eckert Bernau is excited to grow, including more programming and events, like some fun book signings with regional and national cookbook authors.
As for Lampel’s thoughts on what’s ahead, she reports she’s ready to come back to basics.
“We are really looking forward to honing in on what we do best and getting back to our original model of a tight-knit small business,” she says. “I see growth happening in new ways that don’t mean new buildings or cafés, but growth within our company to be the best we can be at the size we are at. I’m looking forward to focusing on the people, farms, businesses and community that have brought us success.” She pauses for a beat.
“It’s sort of a feeling of putting the growth to rest and getting settled back into our little corner,” Lampel says. “A different kind of growth, but one that I feel will lead us to success in our future.”
About the author
Amber Turpin is a freelance food and travel writer based in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
