DEC 12, 2024 | FEATURES | By Lorelei Smillie
“I would love to change the way that Colorado Springs eats,” says Brandon DelGrosso.
The visionary behind Provision Bread and Bakery, DelGrosso is bringing fresh baked goods to the city with a taste for creative flavors and locally sourced ingredients. His relationships with nearby farmers have fostered a rotating menu highlighting Colorado’s regional produce.
Provision sells loaves, pastries, and sandwiches in a brightly lit, industrial space reminiscent of trendy bakeries in LA or the Hamptons. Behind a glass barrier, little pecan sticky buns dripping with caramel nudge up against an airy croissant sandwich filled with turkey and roasted asparagus.
As we sit inside the warm bakery, snow piling up outside, DelGrosso tells me how he dreams of a world where gluten is worshipped rather than feared. “People don’t eat as much gluten here because it harms them. We have to convince them that, no, this gluten is actually good for you.”
DelGrosso attributes the uniquely nutritional qualities of his loaves to the dough’s long fermentation process, the use of his own house-milled flour, and a lack of preservatives or other unnecessary chemicals.
Health and good quality food are at the top of this baker’s mind: he opened Provision a year and a half ago to sell baked goods made from mostly organic ingredients sourced from local farms in Colorado.
One of the most popular menu items is the blue corn cookie, which is nutty and sweet with a surprisingly tender crumb. It’s made with blue masa flour from Bow & Arrow Brand, which is part of a ranch near Mesa Verde run by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.
“There’s a sustainability piece [to the business],” says DelGrosso. “We wanted to have a deep connection with farmers. Buy from them every year. You know your farmer, if you will.”
In a world with countless dietary restrictions, Provision is trying to feed people using ingredients that are sustainable, nourishing, and delicious.
Doing so can come at a high cost. Pastries range from four to eight dollars, and the loaves sell for eight to 14 dollars. DelGrosso explains that one of the largest challenges for the bakery was opening up during a period of post-pandemic inflation.
The price of flour rose by 20% in 2022, according to the USDA. Pandemic supply chain issues contributed to the cost, as did the war between Russia and Ukraine due to limited exports of grain.
Although prices are high, business is good. The bakery is sold out of most items by the end of each day.
“I would say a loaf of bread is a necessary product. You go to Europe, there’s a bakery on every corner, and people just go get their daily bread every day, because it’s good for you,” says DelGrosso.
Freshly baked bread in Colorado Springs is hard to find, but Provision does face one key competitor.
Unprompted, DelGrosso tells me “Our good friends at Nightingale already do really good bread. I love David. He’s great, yeah… He’s a great friend.”
The David to which he’s referring to is David McInnis, the head baker at the Nightingale bakery on North Cascade.
Both Nightingale and Provision are trying to fill the void of good, fresh bread in Colorado Springs, but they differ in their business models.
A large part of Provisions’ income comes from their wholesale business, which sells pastries and bread on a larger scale to local coffee shops and restaurants (including to CC!). DelGrosso says that this provides a solid economic base for the business, especially since they’re closed on Mondays and Tuesdays to prepare for the week.
In the future, DelGrosso hopes to expand the wholesale business to corporate companies, which has proven challenging because of a lack of consistency in Provisions’ baked goods.
“We’ve worked with larger corporate folks, and then it just peeled out because they’re like, we need consistency, and our bread is a little differently shaped every time” explains DelGrosso.
To the everyday customer, however, small variations in the pastries are just a signifier that they’ve been handmade with care.
Provision will stay open through the holidays, offering a selection of seasonal baked goods to those who need something warm and comforting to get them through the cold winter months.