Bill And Ruth’s Turns to Tulsa Business For Help After Bready Supply Issue

A Tulsa sandwich shop turned to a local business for help, after a national bread company abruptly stopped selling some of its dough.

The owners of Bill and Ruth's on 15th Street said the bread they are using now is exceeding their expectations. In the kitchen at Bill & Ruth's, Bryan Main gets in early every morning to bake bread for the day. He noticed the differences in the new dough right away and worked to perfect each detail on how to bake it.

“I mean it is such a better quality, such a better quality,” Main said.

“It’s a little bit heavier. I wouldn’t say it’s – it’s not dense. It’s light, fluffy, airy; it has more of that bread, yeast smell to it,” Owner Jeff Kuykendall said.

Kuykendall said back in February, he learned in an email that Euro Pastry was putting the dough his restaurant buys, on hold immediately. He said he now has the option to buy that dough again, but Kuykendall and his wife have already discovered, that all their needs can be met just 10 minutes down the road.

Pancho Anaya, a fifth-generation company that started in Mexico back in 1912, is the solution.

“We wanted to present something that we would be proud to sell to them, but also that they would be proud to sell to their customers,” President Francisco Anaya said.

Francisco worked with Bill and Ruth's for weeks to develop two new recipes, for wheat and white subs.

“I want to thank Bill and Ruth’s for believing in us and giving us a chance to develop their product so, I’m grateful for that as well,” he said.

Kuykendall said he is already noticing an increase in sales. Knowing the dough is local, makes the deal taste even better.

“It makes me proud, ya,” he said.

“Tulsa has a lot of potential and I think a lot of businesses are willing to go out of their way to find solutions to help their fellow Tulsans,” Francisco said.

In February, Euro Pastry said in an email all of its manufacturing plants are running well. It said, “We periodically discontinue or prioritize our product offerings, but since our factories are fully operating, customers do have the option to order alternate products that we manufacture.”