The backstory
Originally from Russia, Mikhailovich said he previously worked as a district manager for Papa Johns and ran a food truck where he sold Russian pastries. After a back injury however, he was forced to take time off work and spent time learning how to make Italian bread via YouTube.
“What I learned at Papa John's is when you make a pizza, you have to make a pizza that you'd be willing to serve your own family,” Mikhailovich said.
His passion for baking Italian pastries led him to learn the proper way to make focaccia, an Italian flat bread.
Mikhailovich said he spent close to $40,000 in ingredients while perfecting his focaccia recipe. The bread is made during an 18-hour fermentation process followed by five to six more hours to make the dough.
After a decade spent crafting the ideal focaccia recipe, Mikhailovich partnered with his brother-in-law, Mario Morales, to open their own bakery in Kingwood.
While The Focaccia Bakery began as a vendor at the Kingwood Farmers Market, Mikhailovich said they opened a brick and mortar after receiving positive feedback from the community.
To offer the community bread made fresh on a daily basis, Mikhailovich and Morales alternate going into the bakery at 2 a.m. to bake bread for the day.
The Focaccia Bakery strives to be a trusted local bakery where customers can get freshly made bread similar to the offerings of local bakeries in Europe, Mikhailovich said.
‘It's not just freshly baked,” Mikhailovich said. “It is freshly made.”
The Focaccia Bakery offers a variety of sandwiches for lunch as well as breads and pastries, such as Buñuelos. Morales said the Buñuelos recipe comes from a company in Monterrey, Mexico and is a traditional fried Mexican pastry covered with cinnamon and sugar.
With plans to expand their menu by adding pizza, Morales and Mikhailovich said they hope to perfect their pizza crust recipe by the end of this year.
“We had to postpone making the pizzas because now we're having to catch up for that whole month lost during the hurricane power outage,” Mikhailovich said. “We lost $5,000 worth of food supply.”
With the mission to provide the community with quality and consistency, Mikhailovich said The Focaccia Bakery plans to continue holding its principles to offer freshly made products.
“Our business model as we grow will always preserve the same principles,” Morales said. “We’ll never go frozen.”
- 110 McClellan Road, Kingwood
- www.thefocacciabakery.com
