TULSA, OK — While change has been a key part of Farrell Bread & Bakery’s business over the years, its 26-year-old sourdough starter and original bread formulas remain essential to the artisan baking process.
“This is how it’s been since ’99, and if we tried to change it, we’d lose our customer base,” said Rick Burgo, owner of Farrell Bread. “Farrell has that name already, and it does artisan bread. We have to keep that going.”
Maintaining the integrity of the recipes also means retaining essential ingredients such as King Arthur Special Patent Flour and Farmer Direct Foods Rye Flour.
“We want to keep the product and the bakers’ work as consistent as possible,” Rick explained, noting that the quality of the ingredients outweighs any cost savings in switching to an alternative ingredient at a lower price point.
Retaining that quality and consistency keeps customers near and far coming back for more artisan breads from the retail front of the business.
“People come back for the quality,” he said. “There are people who will drive a long way for it, even some who come up from Oklahoma City, even though we sell there.”
The retail revenue is split about 75-25 bread and non-bread products, which includes refrigerated items and pastries. With high-volume bread production as the bakery’s top priority, keeping the rotating pastry items to a minimum grants Farrell Bread the ability to consolidate its offerings to what will be most successful.
“I’m not really interested in throwing a lot at the wall and seeing what sticks because we already do something that works really well,” Rick said.
Farrell’s future
Farrell Bread has fueled the Tulsa community with artisan bread for more than two decades, but the bakery is headed in a new direction. Looking toward the future, Rick aims to increase the bakery’s distribution by partnering with food distributors since Farrell Bread currently does all of its own distribution. This includes upping the Oklahoma City route to five days a week and broadening its footprint geographically.
“I want Farrell Bread in every possible grocery store; I want everyone to have access to it,” he said. “Wholesale is where we’re at, and national distribution is what we’re going for.”
To reach that goal, Rick noted that the bakery is likely to outgrow its current production space, and around the second half of the year, the search will begin for a facility to hold completed products for further distribution. He’s also eyeing investments in slicing and bagging automation.
“We could still produce here for the foreseeable future,” he said. “Because shaping the bread is the most talent-consuming part, I would move the people we have to just shape, and we’d hire more people to handle other aspects.”
Tom Farrell may no longer be a part of the business, but he remains a recurring customer, dropping by every once in a while to pick up some bread, just as many Tulsa community members do. With those original recipes and a highly skilled team of bakers, Farrell Bread is poised for growth and bringing artisan baking to more and more customers.
This story has been adapted from the March | Q1 2025 Craft to Crumb mini-mag. Read the full story in the digital issue here.
