By Karen Lambert
Rich Grains Bakery is the newest retail bakery in Milan to open its doors.
Located in the cozy brick building once occupied by the locally famous Zilke Farm Kitchen, there’s a busy commercial kitchen in back where they use the finest ingredients and a neat showroom in front to share their creations with customers.
The sellers of artisan breads, cheesecakes, gourmet cookies, and other fine foods, will have soft openings every Saturday in February from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at their new location at 1115 Dexter St. in Milan, before adding additional days and hours in March.
Owner Kyle Purcell took over the lease after the Zilke family’s recent retirement. He started sub-leasing use of part of the Zilke’s kitchen about two and a half years ago so he could win the contract with Original Gravity in Milan to bake the bread for all their sandwiches. He then expanded to sell his sourdough and artisan breads, croissants, cinnamon buns and other items wholesale to other vendors around Washtenaw County.
His friend Eric Kinsler-Holloway, owner of EK Cheesecakes, will sublease part of the space to sell cheesecakes and other baked goods alongside Purcell’s breads. Purcell, a York township resident, used to work as a manager at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Kinsler-Holloway was one of his employees.

Alongside cheesecake flavors like Tiramisu, Turtle, and Banana Walnut, Kinsler-Holloway also offers those with dietary restrictions cheesecakes like Vegan Black Razz and gluten-free Lemon.

They will also offer gourmet cookies made by their friend Jerome Nowak, owner of every bite bakery, baked out of an incubator commercial kitchen in Ypsilanti called Growing Hope.
Nowak said he specializes in four-inch cookies that weigh four ounces before decoration. His most popular is his Apple Pie Cookie, which has apple pie filling with caramel.
Kinsler-Holloway said the cruffins were the first items to sell out and the strawberry mascarpone went really fast, during the first soft opening on Feb. 1. He said customers were pretty understanding that first hour as they dealt with the large number of customers.
“We’ve been pretty busy,” Nowak agreed. “After that first hour it’s come in waves.”
By the time the bakery closed at 3 p.m., there were only three vegan slices, two carrot cake cupcakes and three blondies remaining.

“Kyle completely sold out; Jerome had a few cookies left. I sold over 200 slices, eight full cheesecakes and sold out of the banana bread, brownies, blueberry muffins, four-inch cheesecakes, bread pudding and chia seed pudding,” said Kinsler-Holloway.
The opening brought some of the bakers’ fanbase from other areas, along with regular customers who have been attending their popups in Milan.
Stacia Zellner of Ann Arbor, said she first met Kyle at the Saline Farmers market and now buys his products at Vestergaard and Kerrytown in Ann Arbor. She’s excited to be able to come to their storefront in Milan.
“I love it. I will continue to support everything they do,” she said. “It does not bother me to come out here.”
Pauline Carr of Milan has been coming to popups for Rich Grains as long as they’ve been doing them.
“I’m so happy [they have a storefront] because it seemed like there was a lot of time between the popups and they were so good at taking orders ahead of time,” she said. “Everything I’ve had is delicious.”
Milan Mayor Ed Kolar and his wife Denise came mid-morning Saturday. They were first-time customers.
“It’s awesome to have fresh options, Ed Kolar said. “We were happy to see the news they were opening.”
Lisa Keilman of Milan said she wanted to support a local business.
“I just knew that they just took over this building and I wanted to try the fresh bread,” Keilman said.”

Yspilanti resident Ben Brown, came to support his friends and fellow bakers. He owns his own bakery B-CUBED in Ypsilanti.
“I’ve been friends with these guys for years and years. We came out of Zingerman’s foods, which is mostly where all the bakers around here met. I’m super excited for them to have their own space here.”
Brown, who opened his own community-oriented bakery just three months earlier, said he was delighted that two other bakeries also opened in Ypsilanti around the same time – and is excited about Rich Grains Bakery in Milan. He said he doesn’t see the new bakeries as competition, but rather it speaks to a healthy local food ecosystem, where they all work to fill different niches and keep money in the local economy.
Some of the Purcell’s products found at Rich Grains Bakery are also sold outside of Milan at Avalon, Vestergaard, and Arise Bakery and Café. EK Cheesecakes are also sold at: Stadium Market, Sparrow Market, Vestergaard, Klavon’s Pizzeria, Cattleman’s café and Wurst bar. Plus, Drop Top Pizza in Saline uses the cheesecakes in their strawberry shakes.
