In the last year, Dario Muciño Trujillo, 30, and his wife and business partner, Macy Davis, 33, along with their 4-year-old daughter, Maya, moved to Bend, leased a commercial baking space, re-launched their small business at two weekly markets, signed an agreement for a corner commercial space in the Old Mill and started renovations to open M’s Bakery.
“From literally the first 24 hours we were here it was so obvious to us that people value community, they value small businesses,” Davis told the Source Weekly.
The family was in Southern California before moving to Bend, but their story goes further back, spanning countries. Muciño Trujillo is from Mexico City and met Davis in her home state of Arizona while on a culinary work visa. The two were soon married and moved to Southern California where they opened a bakery in January 2020, just after they married and months before the world shut down. The couple spent the next couple of years pivoting, according to Davis. A chance trip to Bend on Labor Day of 2023 led the couple to a big leap.
“We loved that tighter community feel, we felt it immediately,” Davis recalled. “People were so friendly. There was less traffic, less noise, it’s just less stimulating in general.”
Talking with people in town, they felt there was a need for the type of bakery they hoped to one day open, and one month later they moved.
To build a name for themselves they started selling their bakes at the Northwest Crossing and Downtown Bend farmers markets.
“We had an incredible market season,” Davis said, adding that she was grateful for the tight-knit market community and loyalty of market visitors. “And it’s just really valuable to build that community.”
It’s a community that she hopes will show up for them at the Old Mill when they open their brick-and-mortar there next month in a space that has been vacant for years since Jimmy John’s left.
In addition to their breads and pastries – all made with organic flour – M’s Bakery will offer small breakfast and lunch fare alongside imported wine, coffee and chocolate from regions throughout Mexico as an homage to Muciño Trujillo’s roots. They’re also planning to host baking workshops for all ages and work with nearby restaurants to offer incentives for customers.
“It there’s any types of partnerships we can do where we can have Mom and Dad go out for date night and get a discount on their bill, and we take your kids and make pizza and feed them. And decorate cookies for them to take home…it’s kind of just a win-win,” Davis said. “It’s just that continued tight-knit community feel, that collaboration. There’s no competition, there’s room for everybody.”
—This story is powered by the Lay It Out Foundation, the nonprofit with a mission of promoting deep reporting and investigative journalism in Central Oregon. Learn more and be part of this important work by visiting layitoutfoundation.org.
This article appears in Source Weekly November 21, 2024.
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