A bakery in Stanley with Sawtooth views has a line out the door most summer days. Why?

As a light rain fell one June morning, Tim Cron walked his dogs while carrying a cup of coffee. He explained how a native of one of the nation’s most densely populated states had ended up running a popular bakery in small-town Idaho.

After taking the dogs home, Cron slipped back into the Stanley Baking Co., where the smells of coffee, pancakes and eggs, and the clatter of dishes welcomed visitors vying for a seat on the porch in view of the Sawtooth Range’s craggy Williams and Thompson peaks.

By 7 a.m., there was already a line out the door of the bakery tucked up on Wall Street in Stanley, the recreation nucleus of the Sawtooth Valley.

Inside, some patrons perused the breakfast menu, while others sat with mugs of coffee at tables below log beams, waiting for their orders. Behind a line of diner stools and an espresso bar, employees whipped up the day’s offerings, starting with a full tray of diced sweet potatoes.

What locals call “the bakery” has been owned by Cron, 47, and his wife, Becky, 52, since 2003, six years after Cron moved to Idaho.

In the 20 years since, the cafe and bakery has become perhaps the most well-known business in town, drawing throngs of hikers, river rafters and tourists on summer mornings.

The bakery is open from May until October and closed for the winter, when temperatures in Stanley can plummet deep into the negative digits. But in the summertime, the bakery is a popular way station, where visitors from the Boise area can find a surprisingly broad range of food before venturing afield in the valley.

What’s on the menu?

Colleen Higman and her husband used to live in Hailey — over an hour’s drive from Stanley — while her daughter and her partner lived in Boise — more than a 2½-hour drive away. Yet the two parties would meet at the Stanley Bakery for lunch, just for the day trip.

In 2018, Higman’s daughter was married in Stanley, and they bought 75 cinnamon rolls from the bakery each morning for the wedding guests. Higman now lives part-time in Hailey and her daughter in Driggs, but they still return to the Stanley, and to the bakery.

“If I have people in town, I take them there all the time,” she said by phone.

When the bakery announced in May on Facebook that it was opening for the season, one commenter said it has the “best breakfast in the USA.”

Each day, the bakery serves breakfast egg specials, pancakes, french toast, oatmeal and sandwiches.

The menu includes a number of vegetarian, gluten free and even vegan options. The oatmeal pancakes — starting at $5.25 for one large pancake — are the most popular item.

Cron’s favorite dish is the quinoa breakfast, which consists of quinoa bundles topped with eggs or tofu, almond cream, sauteed vegetables and toast for $11.75. He also likes the homemade sauerkraut.

The classic breakfast — eggs, meat, potatoes and toast — costs $10.75. A beet patty with turnips, carrots, zucchini, sweet potato, rice and hazelnuts on arugula with egg or tofu, avocado, almond cream and toast costs $13.25.

The bakery’s range of dietary options – which Cron said was spearheaded by his wife – has put it in a different category.

Cron said he often hears from people who are vegan, or gluten-free, who get frustrated when they go to restaurants that don’t have options for them.

“We’re pretty proud of the fact that you can get a breakfast here … that is specific to your dietary restraints,” he said.

Coffee features prominently, with large thermoses available throughout the day, as well as espresso drinks made to order.

“Coffee is the drink of the gods,” Cron said. “It’s our opinion that if you’re a breakfast place, you’ve got to serve good coffee.”

Oat milk lattes are a popular order. The bakery’s beans are sourced from a company in Eugene.

What’s the draw?

Stanley is a gateway town surrounded by the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, a remote region of high peaks, alpine lakes and abundant wildlife.

Cron said the bakery supplements the recreation hub’s offerings.

“We think it’s a little destination,” he said. “People come to Stanley to see the mountains and be in nature. But I think a lot of people like starting their day here.”

When Stanley gets overrun with visitors in the summer, running the bakery and cafe is a full-time focus. As is preparing for the season, in May, which Cron said takes about two weeks.

In the summertime, Becky runs the bakery, while Tim helps manage both the bakery and the Sawtooth Hotel, a nine-room hotel and restaurant which the couple bought with Cron’s sister-in-law in the mid-2000s.

The hours can be long.

On July 6, Tim said Becky started her day at around 4 a.m. and left at around 5 p.m.

“She’s an incredible worker and loves being in there creating all those treats,” he said.

The bakery relies on employees, some of whom live in nearby housing provided by the bakery. The bakery would be “sunk” if it weren’t for the eight to 10 employees who return each year, he said.

Stanley faces a major housing crisis, as there are not enough places to live for the seasonal employees that local businesses rely on. Cron, who also serves on the City Council, camped the first year he owned the bakery, he said.

Though not a carpenter by trade, Cron helped make an addition to the bakery building, which was initially built in 1999. He also was the “general contractor,” as he put it, for the renovation of the Sawtooth Hotel, which was initially built in 1931 and is only two blocks from the bakery.

Now, he’s working on building a house on the edge of town, which takes up a lot of his time in the winter. The bakery and hotel close down during the coldest months, leaving time for the owners to ski and pursue other projects.

Cron said that just as moving to Stanley was a lifestyle choice, so was choosing to close down in the winter.

“You want to be able to have time and, you know, peace and quiet,” he said. “We’re all ski bums, and having our winters to be able to ski every day was more important than trying to make winter business work.”

And while the bakery remains a popular hub, Cron said the number of restaurants with high-quality, “handcrafted” food in town has increased over the last few years, with additions like the Stanley Supper Club on Niece Avenue.

“We have this little niche of cool, soulful restaurants,” he said.

‘As close as we can to nature’

Cron grew up in Fairfield, Connecticut, where his parents were math teachers.

At Middlebury College, in Vermont, he got hooked on skiing. Later, he came out to Ketchum and started working for the ski patrol at Sun Valley.

He also got a job in the kitchen at the Pioneer Saloon in Ketchum. As a broiler assistant, he was in charge of the baked potatoes. There he met Becky, who had moved from Eugene, Oregon, to ski and was working at the saloon as a waiter.

While they were dating, the two would drive up to Stanley to go mountain biking. They would visit the bakery, then under different ownership.

“We were always intrigued with the thought of living in Stanley and trying to make a small business work,” he said.

In 2001, they got married in Stanley, and when the bakery was put up for sale, “we both had one of those moments where it’s like, we could do this,” Cron said.

Cron said that life in Stanley is dominated by the natural landscape.

“We have the Boulder-White Clouds, we have the Sawtooths,” he said, referring to nearby mountain ranges. “We’re living, I feel, as close as we can to nature.”