Originally published Saturday, December 20, 1997

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Margie Detwiler has been working her buns off in the bakery business for several decades . . . and she loves it.

Margie has a smile sweeter than all the napoleons and sticky buns and apple turnovers in the display cases at the International Biscuit Co. bakery in Seward Park.

And this is the place to go for everything from holiday cookies to sweet braided challah bread and rolls made every week for Shabbos. Several hundred challahs are made at the end of the week for the Jewish Sabbath, or Shabbos, because this is, after all, a kosher bakery. Slicing the challah loaves at your own table is an integral part of Jewish tradition. But there's nothing to prevent you from ordering a fresh challah and telling Margie: "Slice it."

No matter how you slice it, International Biscuit Co. is one of the finest little shops in this neighborhood. But their baked goods go farther afield, into area QFC stores and other outlets because the owners obtained many of the recipes and wholesale baking contracts from the defunct Brenner Brothers Bakery in Bellevue.

Brenner Brothers is where Margie, a resident of Seward Park since the mid-1950s, worked for almost four decades. "I was their retail manager my last five years there," she said. "They never reopened at a new location, but when the new owners of this place opened last year, I wasglad.

"The customers in this neighborhood, and even the ones who come a distance, are all great people. After a while, you get to being on first-name basis with most of them, and you know their favorites."

Kay and Tim Vergillo are grabbing breakfast here on the morning commute. Kay, on her way to work downtown at Puget Sound Energy, says she and her contractor husband like stopping here "because it's clean and comfortable, and because the baked goods are really good!"

What had been an undistinguished neighborhood bakery got a new image last year when several dentists looking for investment opportunities took a little Mercer Island wholesale baking operation and moved it into this little shop.

"It was pretty barren here, and also pretty dirty," Margie recalled. "We all pitched in to help clean the place up." Today, the large front windows beam a cheerful good-morning welcome into the dark corridor of Wilson Avenue South when the bakery opens at 6 a.m. for commuters and early risers.

By the time Margie unlocks the door, Eugene Cleaver has been baking for almost a full normal shift. And he'll work another shift, back-to-back, turning out breads, cakes, rolls and pastries before he's done. Midway through the morning, Nobuko Christensen, the cake decorator, will arrive for her busy back-shop shift.

Nobuko, who worked for years with Margie at Brenner's in Bellevue, says she is "very happy" as she dashes from the hot ovens to the cookie presses to the cakes. "But I don't bake at home . . . not at all!" she confessed.

Eugene, of Renton, concedes that this wasn't the career he had in mind when he was a part-time Safeway box boy in Auburn. "They needed a doughnut fryer there, and one thing led to another. I originally was going to go into drafting; then I had plans to go into marketing."

He moves, weaves broken-field, actually, among the shelf racks and work tables as he prepares various dough batches and keeps the three huge gas ovens going full-bore. With only one helper to wash bowls and pans, Eugene rarely takes a break. "I actually enjoy the work, especially when I get to develop new products or baking procedures," he said as he checked one of the ovens.

An exceptionally clean and organized back shop is due partly to weekly kosher inspections, he conceded. "They're stricter than the health department!"

But the bakery is not exclusively kosher, explains owner-manager Rosita Yousefian, "because we serve a much wider clientele, and because we want to be able to sell some of the very popular items such as the cheese Danish."

All the front-shop items are on shelves marked to indicate dairy ingredients, since kosher laws are strict about mixing any dairy-based foods with meat items at the same meal. At International Biscuit, Red- or Green-Label items are non-dairy; Blue-label items have dairy ingredients.

(And believe me, if you ever were tempted to fall from grace, their cheese Danish would be the way to go. A small bag of cheese Danish brought back to the office lasted approximately 12 seconds!)

Rosita, who has been literally running with, into, after and around the business ever since those first round-the-clock remodeling and pre-opening days last year, rarely has a quiet moment in her little office behind the retail space. She can't hide behind the glass-paneled office door, and she can't even close it.

"The door now is gone because one day I had to bring our son, Ryan, to the shop and when I walked out into the bakery he locked the door. He thought it was a game; we all tried to get him to open the door but he wouldn't.

"After more than an hour, Gene finally broke the door knob and we took it out. And we've been too busy to replace it."

That's how the cookie crumbles in the busy little bakery business. Their first anniversary, with special samples and prices, will be next month.

Jon Hahn is a staff columnist who writes three times a week in the P-I.

International Biscuit Co. Bakery, 5028 Wilson Ave. S., is open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Closed Mondays. Phone: 206-722-5595.