Rain Elfvin, six-month owner of Elfvin Bakery, and one of his delicious creations.
Rain Elfvin, the newest owner of Lola’s Sweet Life Bakery, now Elfvin Bakery, has been in business just long enough to brave the latest of Cook County’s crazy tourist seasons. Despite the season’s frenetic tendencies, Elfvin said it was a good time to start because the higher demand on the bakery meant more financing.
Prior to taking over, Elfvin had some time to work with Staci Lola Drouillard, the former owner, to make the transition a little smoother.
“I got a month of training and understanding the recipes and how the business functioned,” Elfvin said. Then he and his sister, Patricia Elfvin, a professionally trained pastry chef, were on their own.
Elfvin also had prior experience in baking and business to help him get started.
“I’ve been a lifelong home-baker. I’ve always been since I was a little kid,” Elfvin said. “I’ve always had a love for it.”
He had also originally planned to start up his own bakery in Duluth. However, building a business from the ground up was a challenging and time-consuming project. While working out the details, the opportunity at Lola’s Sweet Life Bakery appeared. Elfvin set aside his plans for the Duluth bakery and began working at Lola’s while he waited for financing to purchase the bakery.
“It worked out good because the financing I was trying to get took a long time to get through. And it was getting to a point where she [Staci] was needing someone to help her,” Elfvin said.
Since transferring ownership, the bakery has maintained many of the same customers and accounts. While the bakery does take orders from individuals for cookies, cakes, pies and nearly any pastry a customer could want, Elfvin’s time is mostly devoted to supplying various restaurants throughout Cook County along with the Whole Foods Co-Op.
Recently, Elfvin has also added bread to the list of baked goods that are sold at the Whole Foods Co-Op. The endeavor was a success as the bread sold out within an hour.
Elfvin currently resides in Grand Marais with his wife and two children, an 11-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. While he says neither of them is ready to help out in the kitchen, they do take advantage of Grand Marais’s location, going hiking and enjoying the small community, which, Elfvin says, has been very welcoming.
When asked about any potential expansions for the bakery, Elfvin said he planned to stay with what he has right now, keeping the business relatively small for the time being.
“I’ve thought about it,” he admitted. “I think at first I had really big aspirations. I thought I’d get this business, then we’d get a retail space, and we’d hire a bunch of people and make it a big operation, but I think I really just have to do one thing at time.”
Although no expansions are on the horizon yet for Elfvin Bakery, the owner already has his hands full covering all aspects of running the business and supplying Cook County with excellent baked goods.
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