To Build a Bakery is a Craft to Crumb series featuring stories of growth for bakeries of all scales. From establishing a first brick-and-mortar location to multiple shops and beyond, the series connects with bakers from across the country about how they’re scaling up their businesses. If you would like your bakery’s story to be considered, please email Annie Hollon at annie@avantfoodmedia.com.
HEALDSBURG, CA — There’s nothing quite like the grind of a baker, the early hours and controlled chaos culminating in consumable art day in and day out. It takes a special kind of culinarian to make it work, and Melissa Yanc is one of them.
Alongside her husband and fellow food veteran Sean McGaughey, Melissa created Quail & Condor, which grew from a pandemic pop-up to a notable brick-and-mortar bakery in just five years. The Healdsburg, CA, bakery’s public praise includes, but is not limited to, being named one of the 22 best bakeries in the US by The New York Times in December 2024 and earning a semifinalist recognition from the 2025 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards in the Outstanding Bakery category.
Getting to this point, as well as expanding the business with its sister restaurant Troubadour Bread & Bistro, required grit and passion.
Return to roots
From an early age, Melissa had a knack for logistics and process, two traits that carried her throughout her career, which has included a pastry arts education at Johnson & Wales University, a bakery in Denver she opened at 23 years old, and work experience at Bien Cuit in New York and Gjusta in Los Angeles.
“My dad always knew I was an entrepreneur first and a baker second,” Melissa said.
With this experience in her back pocket, an operations-driven mindset and an itch to create, Melissa possessed the perfect storm for a pop-up baking venture in 2019. To say this side hustle was successful is an understatement.
“I liked that it was lucrative and flexible,” Melissa recalled. “And the farmers market was insane. It was the longest line I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Diving into this venture gave Melissa a taste of the abundance of baking, one she hadn’t realized she missed while working in a restaurant.
The surge in popularity of Melissa’s pop-up operation — as well as the pandemic shifting the business into a porch pick-up model in 2022 — prompted a conversation between her and Sean on how to take this venture to the next level. A walk around town opened the literal door to what would become the future home of Quail & Condor.
“During COVID, we were walking around town because it was the only activity you could do, and we walked by this space,” Melissa said.
With some calculations and in-depth planning, the couple found a way to make it work and took the risk.
Funds and friends
Fiscally speaking, Melissa and Sean bootstrapped the build of Quail & Condor, investing $80,000 to get the bakery from a farmers market stand to a brick-and-mortar business.
Of that sum, a little more than $20,000 came from a Kickstarter campaign. This portion of the funds supported Melissa and Sean’s biggest investment: a Revent rotating rack oven.
“I told my husband, ‘I really need this thing,’” she said. “‘I’ve worked with it in so many bakeries; this is going to crush for us.’”
This purchase helped take the bakery’s volume to the next level, increasing output and making the baking process more manageable from a timing standpoint. The space, already equipped for foodservice with an oven and walk-in fridge, still required some love, which the pair received from friends looking to fill their time during the pandemic.
“We sacrificed a lot,” Melissa said. “Our friends worked for tips, we didn’t pay them hourly. People were just looking for stuff to do and that helped us a lot.”
In addition to creating a brick-and-mortar bakery, Melissa and Sean continued making product for farmers markets to keep funds rolling in, all while raising two kids.
“It was like building the plane while flying it,” Melissa recalled.
Quail & Condor officially opened its doors in 2020, and once it got rolling, Sean quit his job to join Melissa at the bakery full-time.
His and hers culinary experiences
While Melissa found her footing in the bakery, Sean sought out a way to express himself in a culinary space of his own. Enter Troubadour, which opened in 2022 within a year of Quail & Condor’s debut.
“It’s turned into this ‘his and hers’ thing that’s become our brand,” Melissa said. “Both of us are type A, very alpha leaders of the pack, and we work wonderfully together, but we need to each have our space to be the decision maker.”
The businesses operate in tandem. Troubadour, a little under half a mile down the road from the bakery, tackles the assorted breads, which range from Yecora Rojo to Danish Rye and are made using sourdough with a 51-hour ferment. This saves space for Quail & Condor’s ovens to focus on assorted seasonal pastries such as citrus marigold and nectarine creme brulee Danish.
“We love exploring different ways to express seasonality,” Melissa said. “We try to use different parts of the plant and fruit and show our audience something a little more playful and in-depth than just the flesh or skin of the product.”
The sister businesses give Melissa and Sean a chance to play to their strengths and also provide various culinary experiences to the Healdsburg community.
People-first practice
Melissa and Sean are no strangers to the culinary world, cutting their teeth in restaurants, hotels and wineries. In fact, the couple’s time at 3 Michelin-Star restaurant SingleThread influenced a lot of how they approached managing their own business.
“It was ultimately me and my husband being like, ‘Okay, how do we take everything we’ve ever cared about functionally in a restaurant and then cram it into one?’” she said.
In pulling best practices and lessons from her previous roles, she was able to shape the operating structure of Quail & Condor to her liking, putting people and their needs at the top of the priority list. This includes making space to serve as a mentor for up-and-comers interested in the food and beverage industry.
“I really want to give people a clear vision of what they can do,” Melissa said. “I like helping people in this industry and strengthening it, because I feel like it’s a dying breed.”
Ensuring her team is set up for success is a worthwhile endeavor.
“As culinarians, we’re such ‘yes’ people; even if it puts you out, the greater good feels so good,” Melissa said. “Especially when it comes to management and owning a restaurant … even though it puts me out and I’m not making that extra amount of money per year because I’m spending it on healthcare, that fills my cup infinitely.”
Reimaging the menu
With a pending relocation, Melissa is looking to take Quail & Condor’s offerings to the next level, leaning into flavors and menu items inspired Melissa’s Turkish-Filipino heritage.
“We’re four and a half years in the mix now, and I’m actually starting to realize what direction we should go into, especially with the move” she said.
In this process, Melissa and Sean have learned to take a step back and take care of themselves and their loved ones.
“I know that my staff is really well taken care of, I know that we’re taking care of our community and providing quality for what they’re paying for, but you forget to take care of yourself when you’re in hospitality,” she said. “I want to be a better parent for my kids, make food and take piano lessons, but I’m also trying to remember myself in this thing.”
With the addition of Troubadour, Melissa and Sean have also learned a lesson in taking a beat when investing in third-party contractors for business aspects such as accounting and marketing to ensure the investment is the right fit for the business.
“I found out a lot of things later down the line that would have come easier if I took the time to read what was in front of me and ask those questions,” she said. “You have a vision and something to provide the world, and they just want to be a part of it. If you don’t ask these questions, they’ll just assume that you know what’s going on.”
As it enters its next growth phase, Quail & Condor is poised to flourish, offering an abundance of high-caliber offerings to the Healdsburg community.
