Bakery expands reach through new wholesale partnerships

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

September 1, 2025

RHINELANDER – What started as a one-man operation in rented kitchens has now landed on the shelves of grocery stores.

Butcher Shop Bake Company – which Owner Dustin Chronister said is known for its massive half-pound cookies and bold dessert flavors – recently secured commercial partnerships with Festival Foods and Save More Marketplace – a major milestone for the small-town bakery.

Chronister said the deals, which place select Butcher Shop Bake Company cookies and desserts – “specifically The Club and It’s Yo Bday” – in Festival’s bakery section and Save More’s Minocqua location, are the latest step in his mission to bring crave-worthy sweets to more people across the state.

“In the world of food specifically, there are so many not-great options out there that still cost a good amount of money,” he said. “So, if I could help fill that void [by] offering a great product at a great price to as many people as possible, then that is mission accomplished.”

Chronister said the new accounts with Festival and Save More represent the culmination of years of groundwork – slowly scaling from small coffee shop orders to large-volume clients.

Slow-baked success

Once focused on a fitness career, Chronister said several years ago, he shifted gears and turned his focus to desserts – which led to the launch of Butcher Shop Bake Company.

Graduating from college with a business degree, Chronister said baking wasn’t necessarily top of his mind when considering a career path.

“I have no formal training,” he said. “I have a business degree, and I took a couple of culinary classes, so to speak, that the local college offered, but that wasn’t my focus.”

However, Chronister said that didn’t stop him from entering the world of protein baking while working as a fitness and nutrition coach after school.

“I was a fitness and nutrition coach and my biggest philosophy… was everything in moderation,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie. People jump on diets or, on the first of the year, they restrict themselves, and then they fail. So, that was my biggest focus.”

Starting a website dedicated to healthy, “blog-friendly recipes,” cookbooks and protein-based food reviews, Chronister sought to “bring some more awareness” into an industry that he said is saturated with pseudoscience and misinformation.

“We all see claims every day of ‘this is amazing,’ or ‘this will do this [for you],’” he said, “so I was just trying to bring a little bit of light on the food side of things – of what actually tastes good and what’s good for you.”

Over time, Chronister said he found his work and his food “lacked flavor.”

“So, I flipped the script and said, ‘Okay, I spent so long not eating fat and not eating sugar – I really want to know what richness tastes like,’” he said. “So, I jumped headfirst into that world.”

Because he started his baking career “in the health and fitness industry” with a protein focus, Chronister said he sought out sweet-specific training from local candy stores and bakeries.

“Protein baking kind of snowballed into [me] going from sweet shop to sweet shop [to gain experience], and I ended up in a bakery here in Rhinelander,” he said.

Finding he “wasn’t happy” at the bakery, Chronister said he got a job at a local restaurant that needed a staff baker.

“I walked in and said, ‘I know you guys need cookies, I need a job, [so] I will make cookies for you and wash dishes or anything you need,’” he said.

In that restaurant, Chronister said he developed his own sweet recipes that quickly garnered attention from other Rhinelander-area businesses.

“A gas station [owner said], ‘Hey, these are really good cookies, [and] we’re interested in [selling] them,’” he said. “At the time, one of the restaurant owners looked at me and said, ‘Maybe you should make this into a company instead of just making it for us.’ That was in 2017, [and] then we officially formed in 2018.”

The name, Butcher Shop Bake Company, Chronister said, pays homage to the first official location for his business.

“When I first started, it was in the back corner of this dingy basement that the [business] used as a butcher shop,” he said. “I’m very big on loyalty [to] where you got your start, so when I was thinking of names, [I thought] ‘Well, I got started in the butcher shop.’ [It’s] a little reminder to myself of humble beginnings, and [to not] forget where you came from.”

Half-pound hunks of love

Transitioning from renting various kitchen spaces to operating his own storefront at “the beginning of 2024,” Chronister said it wasn’t until last year that he left his job to work on the bakery full-time.

“Up until 2024, I still worked a full-time job to make the bakery work,” he said. “At the end of 2023, there was a conversation about [how] we were potentially losing the space we were renting, and we needed to figure out what the next step was.”

Chronister said his “next step” was found in a former bar located at 66 N. Brown St. in Rhinelander.

“We’re based in a small town, so there aren’t a whole lot of [real estate] options,” he said. “We found a space that was an old bar. It wasn’t ideal for what I wanted, but it was open, and it was very close – right downtown – so it’s a good location.”

Though Butcher Shop Bake Company still rents its space, Chronister said the business went from operating out of dark kitchen corners to having a “presence on a busy street.”

“We’re on a main street, and we have a big storefront window,” he said. “That was the beginning of 2024 when we moved into our own space, and then our retail started kicking off about May.”

At Butcher Shop Bake Company, Chronister said customers can select their new favorite sweet from an assortment of his muffins, dessert bars, cheesecakes – whole or by the slice – as well as a wide variety of gluten-free, high-protein, full-fat and/or full-sugar gourmet cookies.

“I have five flavors that are protein-specific and lower-calorie, but what put us on the map or got us famous, so to speak, is our half-pound, giant cookies,” he said.

Back in 2018, Chronister said Butcher Shop Bake Company didn’t have much competition in the Rhinelander area.

However, he said that didn’t mean the shop would become a “bandwagon” bakery.

“I don’t follow trends,” he said. “I like to make sure whatever we’re doing is what we’re good at and what I feel good about. So, at the time, I [thought], ‘I can make cookies, but everybody can make cookies – so how do I set myself apart?’”

Drawing on inspiration from a New York City-based bakery, Chronister said he developed his signature giant cookie through “trial and error, and a ton of different recipes.”

“I thought, ‘It needs to be something that you walk past and you have to stop and look at it,’” he said. “So, literally, [to figure out the size], I measured the dough in my palm, and [it] ended up being about a half a pound.”

Chronister said Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Brownie were his first recipes, and are now his flagship flavors for “the biggest cookies in town.”

“When my cookie gets set down in front of you, not only is it going to make a sound because it’s huge, it’s [also] decorated so cool, it’s bigger than you’ve ever seen [and] when you cut into it, it’s not only crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside,” he said. “And, a lot of times, they’re stuffed – so there’s an extra surprise on the inside.”

The year he opened his storefront, Chronister said he “had nothing but challenges,” as he and his team of four – “Micah, Kenzie, Brittany and my mom, Kris” – worked to establish the retail facet of Butcher Shop Bake Company.

“This time last year, I was on Indeed looking for jobs because I wasn’t sure if we were going to survive, but it’s been great,” he said. “The addition to the retail [store] has been fantastic, because it’s allowed a much wider customer base to find out about us.”

Prior to having his own storefront, Chronister said customers became familiar with his products via third-party distributors he contracted with to stock and supply with desserts.

“The No. 1 thing I probably hear is, ‘I never knew about you,’ or ‘I didn’t know you existed,’” he said. “Even though we’ve been around so long and we have products in so many places, we’re kind of behind the scenes.”

Mixing up momentum

By the end of his first year of business, Chronister said he had “three or four” wholesale accounts with various local retailers.

Butcher Shop Bake Company’s staff, he said, is the reason the company’s distribution network has grown over its last seven years in business.

“[In the beginning], I was by myself – so it was early mornings, late nights – but then, I was able to [add] one staff [member] and then a second staff [member], and [the accounts] just started snowballing,” he said. “Without them, we wouldn’t be around – they make the wheels turn.”

Leaning on his previous experience with social media marketing, Chronister said they slowly built Butcher Shop Bake Company’s awareness and grew its book of business to more than 30 accounts.

“One thing I learned [during] my early social media days, when I did my healthy stuff, was [posting] quality, consistent content,” he said. “People love that – whether it’s users on the other end of a phone screen, or businesses that want a product they can always count on.”

After developing products that “travel well, freeze well and [are] presented well to minimize staff and labor costs” for his customers, Chronister said it was a combination of social media and word-of-mouth recommendations that helped grow his business.

“Obviously, my social media presence helps, but in the beginning, we struck a partnership with local coffee shops,” he said. “That was, really, our big launching pad.”

Chronister said his product offerings grew concurrently with the size of his wholesale accounts as he quickly garnered the attention of restaurants and supper clubs.

“Interest from these coffee shops and things like that [is] great, but [they order] 12 muffins at a time versus an account that would order 1,000 muffins or something like that,” he said. “Those are security.”

Growing its capability over time, Chronister said Butcher Shop Bake Company eventually got to the point where he could comfortably take on larger accounts like grocery stores.

“I’m definitely a go-getter, and I don’t love complacency,” he said, “so I always want to be better and do better. That was the drive – especially in the wholesale market.”

For more on Butcher Shop Bake Company or to order any of its transit-friendly desserts, visit its website – butchershopbakecompany.com.