Later, his high school\u2013aged brother, Joey, stops in to help churn out more sourdough, the bestselling bread. Alongside them is Daryl, who effectively came with the bakery when the boys\u2019 mother, Brenda Sabbag \u201983, bought it 17 years ago.
When Sabbag started Provencal Bakery and Cafe in Middletown, R.I., she set out to run a successful business to support her children after spending years in the printing industry. Little did she know she\u2019d create a community \u2014 more like a family \u2014 around the food produced there. Sabbag has no formal training in baking or cooking but, she says, \u201cI like it, I\u2019m good at it.\u201d
By the way: This is also a story about good food. The Provencal staff makes a lot of it. The items on the menu read like pages in a recipe book, passed down through generations. Sandwiches are named after important people in Sabbag\u2019s life. \u201cPeople invent them and then the name sticks,\u201d she says. For example, the Mary Lou, composed of brie, apple, honey mustard, and fresh turkey, is named after her mother. There\u2019s also a traditional Newport mocha cake, which is a well-kept secret recipe that\u2019s made for Provencal by the building\u2019s former owner, a fifth-generation baker. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely hard to make,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople try to make it and they fail.\u201d
Sabbag also relies on the Generation Z members of her team to give her more modern ideas, like the recent addition of bubble tea. \u201cThe young kids, they\u2019re like, \u2018Why don\u2019t we try this?\u2019 That got me into [modern times],\u201d she laughs. She also leans on them to market her business on social media: After employee Breyanna quickly cores moist chocolate cupcakes and fills them with a fluffy buttercream filling, she snaps a few photos for Instagram.
Rewind to 2005, when Sabbag and her then-husband bought the bread bakery, which is a separate location from the cafe. At the time, she did printing sales for small business owners, and she undertook marketing for the bakery on the side. She opened the cafe in 2010 after getting an itch for making treats like lemon squares and chocolate cake. In 2011, she left the printing business and pursued the bakery and cafe full time. Newly divorced with two small children, it was no easy feat. \u201cI took a business that was in rough shape and did six, seven farmer\u2019s markets a week \u2014 anything to get our name out there,\u201d she remembers.
Her work paid off. Provencal produces 3,000 loaves of bread per week, made by hand; fresh baguettes, asiago bacon loaves, and pain de campagne<\/em>, among other breads, are sold wholesale around Rhode Island and Massachusetts. People are starting to take notice: Sabbag and co. were recently featured on an episode of The Great Food Truck Race<\/em>, hosted by Food Network chef Tyler Florence.
Sabbag took a leap of faith by buying her bakery all those years ago. But, if you were to peek into the window of her Colgate rental on West Kendrick Avenue in 1982, her success might seem a little more predictable.
Late at night, Sabbag would stay up kneading bread or baking lasagna from scratch for her roommates. One such roommate told her recently, \u201cThis was fate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/10\/Provencal-Colgate020-1024x683.jpg\")
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