Mt. Hood Baking Co. Business Booms First Year

Is it their warm sourdough bread fresh from the oven? Is it their selection of seven savory sandwiches? Or is it their croissant pastries that melt in your mouth? It’s all of those things and more that keep customers coming back to this quaint bakery tucked away in Welches.
The first year is often the toughest for a new business. Trying to make it on the mountain is no easy task. But all the hard work seems to have paid off for Mt. Hood Baking Company owner Susan McWilliam, who is celebrating her first year of doing business.
Susie Blue, as she’s also known, said business has been better than expected since opening to rave reviews the first weekend in May last year, when she sold out of everything.
“It was amazing, really great,” Susie said. “We have a lot of regulars who get sourdough bread every week. That kept us going through the slower times in the winter. The summertimes are really busy with all the people who go up to the mountain.”
Susie is enjoying brisk business this summer, with all the hikers, cyclists and Airbnb renters visiting the mountain. She sells an average of 70 sandwiches a day and 100 whole loaves of sourdough bread a weekend – a three-day weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
She does all the baking from scratch herself, with a little help from her pastry chef friend every other week. Although she’s open only three days a week, she works at the small 600-foot bakery on days it’s closed for business.
Susie, who lives in Sandy, has worked as a chef in the restaurant business for years. She and her wife and co-owner Jessie Hawkins ran the Redwood Restaurant in Portland for 10 years before they invested in the bakery.
“We’ve been really lucky and appreciate this community that we found up there,” Susie said. “It’s really cool and friendly, lots of artists and stuff like that, just a really great community we didn’t realize was up there. They’ve kept us going and we appreciate that.”
A customer posted good things about Mt. Hood Baking Company on Yelp:
“Came in for a quick bite before the Hoodland Farmers Market. Got a BLT that came on their in-house sourdough bread. So fluffy, so tasty. We went back in for a loaf. I'll definitely make time to stop by whenever I'm in the area.”
A singer-songwriter who plays guitar and piano, Susie grew up in Mexico City and spent time in New York and Los Angeles pursuing a career in music.
“I’m a musician,” Susie said. “I never made any money playing music so I was always working restaurant jobs.”
Mt. Hood Baking Company is located at 24525 E. Welches Road in Welches. Hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Find more information on the web at mthoodbakingcompany.com, or phone 503-322-6623.