By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/YachatsNews
WALDPORT — Almost everyone from Yachats to Newport has stood in line at Pacific Sourdough Bakery in Waldport at least once. Many are there every week, lining up before the bakery opens at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to purchase their favorite breads and desserts. And virtually every summer tourist seems to be just as keen to join in.
But what is it like to be one of the people responsible for filling the shelves in this small, intimate bakery each week? Nic Agoff and Emma Sadtler oversee making all the mouth-watering breads, the first section of the bakery everyone passes by as they file through. Sadtler is the morning baker, and Agoff is the afternoon baker.
Agoff commutes every week from Junction City, renting a small room in Waldport from Tuesday through Friday. Always interested in cooking and baking, he completed a two-year culinary program at Linn-Benton Community College in 2019. As part of that program, he was required to do a two-week internship, which he did at Pacific Sourdough one summer, living the whole time on bread from the bakery and mussels he harvested on the beach. When he finished his degree bakery co-owner Katie McNeil offered him a job, which he happily accepted.
Sadtler is much newer to Waldport, having moved here with her boyfriend a year ago when he got a job in Newport. She grew up in the Astoria area and is taking natural resources classes online from Oregon State University. She worked for several months at Bodhi bakery in Corvallis and on her first visit to Pacific Sourdough asked if there were any baking positions available. She was in luck, taking over the morning baking position from McNeil’s husband and co-owner, Mike Smith, freeing him up to be more retired.
After its usual January break, Pacific Sourdough is scheduled to reopen Saturday, Feb. 3
How did you decide to become a baker?
Agoff: I loved sandwiches when I was a kid, so much so that when I was about 13 my mother finally suggested that I learn to make bread. I struggled a bit trying to figure it out, and I finally made my first perfect loaf when I tried baking a loaf in my grandmother’s Romertopf pot. Romertopf pots are clay pots, very heavy, with tight fitting lids. They trap the steam as the bread bakes, creating a perfect crust. It was such an emotional experience to have created something so beautiful. I liked cooking, too, but I learned in the culinary program that restaurant work was too stressful for me. Only two weeks of the program were about baking, but those two weeks plus the internship led me to baking. Now I am sure I was born to bake.
Sadtler: When I was a toddler my nanny’s parents owned the iconic Danish Maid bakery in Astoria. I spent hours and hours at the bakery. I remember riding my tricycle and hiding among the sacks of flour and sugar in the basement where the preparation and baking occurred. In grade school my friends always said I smelled like a bakery. I always expected my first job to be at the bakery, but then when I was 16 one of the owners passed away and the bakery closed. I didn’t come back to baking until 2022 when I got the job at Bodhi bakery. Now I’m sure baking will always be part of my life.
Would you please describe your workday?
Agoff: I’m in charge of preparing all the yeast bread dough, the sweet bread dough and most importantly, the sourdough. The sourdough requires lots of attention. The first thing I do when I arrive in Waldport on Tuesday afternoon is go to the bakery to feed the sourdough starter so it will be ready to mix into bread dough on Wednesday morning. And then I must do that each evening that I’m here to be sure it’s ready for the next day’s bake. Katie created the starter almost 30 years ago.
Sadtler: I get to the bakery very early –usually about 1:30 or 2 in the morning. I bake bread until about 9:30, then I make toffee or croissants for a few hours, and then I shape bread for the next day. I love being in the bakery by myself in the early morning hours. I am in constant motion while I’m baking the bread, but it’s a very meditative process.
What is the best-selling bread in the bakery?
Agoff: The best-selling bread is the regular sourdough loaf. We sell 40-60 loaves each day, depending on the season. People are always a bit sad if their favorite specialty has sold out, especially cinnamon-raisin.
What kind of mistakes have you made in the bakery?
Agoff: We have what bakers call “polite” recipes. In other words, if we follow the recipe carefully the bread will turn out perfectly. But sometimes things happen. In the first few months that I was working I ruined three batches of dough … that’s a lot of money in ingredients. I felt terrible.
Sadtler: I’ve had the most trouble learning how to make toffee. Making candy is a whole new world to me and Katie has been so patient in teaching me. She makes every mistake that any of us make a teaching opportunity, and so all of us are always learning.
What do you do when you are not baking?
Agoff: Besides visiting with my family and friends and baking and cooking for them, I do yoga regularly. Baking is hard on one’s body; there’s lots of lifting and squatting and kneading. Yoga helps.
Sadtler: I love the outdoors. I grew up hiking and hunting with my dad, and now I backpack and hike with my boyfriend whenever I can.
Tell us a secret:
Agoff: Everyone thinks I should like watching the Great British Baking Show, but I don’t. I always feel so sad for whoever is eliminated in each episode. I feel their pain, knowing how much effort they have put into their bakes.
Sadtler: The only thing that would make baking better for me is if I could do it outdoors. Then I’d be combining two of the things I love the most.
- Pacific Sourdough Bakery, 740 N.E. Mill St. , Waldport; Phone: 541-563-3044; Website here; Facebook: Pacific Sourdough Bakery
- Kathleen O’Connor is a Waldport freelance writer who can be reached via email at kmoc8916@gmail.com
- “5 Questions and a Secret” appears every other week on YachatsNews. Have a suggestion for a subject? Send your ideas to YachatsNews@gmail.com
Simply the best. (Tina Turner)
I love that place. Everything is delicious. Also I’ll never forget during covid having to learn to bake bread for myself, with no flour on the store shelves because everyone was doing the same. So I called Pacific Sourdough and asked if they’d sell me five pounds of whole wheat flour. “Of course,” was the answer, and when I showed up to gratefully pick it up, the owner wouldn’t take any money for it. “Always love to help a fellow baker,” he said. So you can imagine how loyal a customer I’ve been, which is not difficult given the basic deliciousness of everything in there!