A Czechoslovakianderived bakery item is featured at Golden Kolache Bakery.
A kolache is a bread with a filling on the inside, says owner Paul Milam. Golden Kolache Bakery typically uses fruit toppings such as apricot for open-faced selections but also gouda and cream cheese or spinach artichoke.
The gouda and cream cheese kolache also includes cilantro, roasted peppers and chives, and the spinach artichoke one features mozzarella cheese. Both of these are $1.85.
The closed kolaches typically have savory fillings, such as meats and cheeses.
Milam says the bakery’s bread is soft and sweet, and these fillings tend to be on the salty side, which is a good combination. A few of the popular kolaches at the bakery are sausage and cheese; sausage, cheese and jalapeno;
bacon and cheddar; and ham and Swiss, he says. Each of these is $1.85.
Milam and his wife, Isabella, opened the Golden Kolache Bakery in October 2011, along with owner Ruth Pianka, who is based in Los Angeles. He says he grew up in Fayetteville and then went into aviation, moving to places such as Dallas and Houston. While he was living in Houston, people on a flight he was chartering said he lived close to a kolache place and asked if he would mind picking some up for the flight. He had no idea whatthese baked goods were at the time. When he reached the venue, there was a line of people out the door. He tried it, and he and his wife fell in love with kolaches, he says.
The couple came back to Fayetteville about six years ago and noticed there were no kolaches, he says. He said to Isabella that they should open a kolache shop, and that it would be fun and unique with a “good product no one else has in the area.” She noted that he wouldn’t want to get up at 3 a.m. for work.
“It’s tough, and neither one of us are really early morning people,” he adds.
Milam says he and Isabella share a love for cooking, but they are not professional cooks or bakers. It is “just fun for us.”
“We really worked to perfect the kolache recipe,” he adds.
They went to different kolache festivals, tried awardwinning recipes and came up with a bread they really like.
They sell about 400 kolaches a day and close when they run out or run low on product, which is usually early afternoon.
He adds that among the joys of working at the bakery are the customers, who “become like an extended family.”
Some of the other items sold include fresh baked bread for $5.50 a loaf, along with pecan sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, cream and fruit pastries and baked fritters. These range from $1.85 to $2.
Drinks include milk, natural herbal tea blends, orange juice, sodas, cappuccinos and steamers and PT’s Coffee.
Whats Up, Pages 19 on 11/23/2012