BOISE, ID — If you've eaten anywhere in the Treasure Valley that uses some kind of bread or other bakery item on it's menu, there's a good chance you've scarfed down something from Zeppole's in Boise. In today's Made in Idaho, Six on your Side's Matt Sizemore takes us into the award-winning bakery.
Since 1993, Zeppole's Bakery has been cooking up delicious breads and pastries and selling them all over the Treasure Valley and beyond, but big changes came 13 years ago.
"In again 2006, we took over the business and have grown it and added many new types of items, pastries, and breads," said Zeppole Bakery owner, Charles Alpers.
It was a business decision that may not have happened without their hungry teenage son.
"Our son had actually introduced us to Zeppole when he was at Boise High, and he would go there for lunch, and he would say Mom, you have to go there cause it's the European style bread. I'm from Scotland, so we did, we went there, and became a fan," said Zeppole Business Owner Alison Alpers.
Already successful business owners, Boise residents Charles and Alison Alpers took over the business in 2006 with big dreams for the small bakery.
"We thought we could make a difference in this community, and rather than buy a bar that was open until 2 in the morning, now we bought a bakery that was open 24/7. So that kind of backfired in that respect," said Charles Alpers.
Part of that dream came true about three years ago turning that small, 1800-square foot bakery into something huge.
"Now our bakery is a little over 4,000-square feet and our volume is...in fact, October of this year was the busiest month in the history of the company," said Charles Alpers.
But when they took it over, they weren't going to just sit back and hope things went well.
"So we didn't come in here as bakers, in fact we had to go to the San Francisco baking institute and take a baking course to make sure we knew what we were talking about and through osmosis over the years, we've stepped in and we've done things in the bakery and learned how to do it, and we eat a lot of bread!" said Charles Alpers.
The Alpers and their 35 employees say they've put their heart and soul into the bakery, and the valley and local businesses have noticed.
"We've won Best of Boise most every year for best bakery that has been in existence, then in 2010, the Boise Chamber named us Boise's best business, or small business of the year," said Charles Alpers.
And with their amazing sandwich breads, pastries, rolls, and other delights, this Made in Idaho bakery is sure to keep winning awards for quite awhile.
"People are sometimes surprised at the quality of what comes out of Boise, and sometimes you look at whether we could have done this in other cities or whatever, I don't know, we love Boise, we've been here for 17 years, we've raised our children here, we don't picture ourselves moving, we've lived in many states, this is the longest we've ever lived anywhere together, it's home. It's home and it's a lovely place to live," said Charles Alpers.
