Brian Miller wants you to have fun with your buns. That would be hamburger, slider, sausage and hoagie buns.
Miller owns Miller Baking Company, an 88-year-old local firm that has traditionally been known for its rye bread. If you go to fish fries, you have most likely eaten Miller rye.
But the firm bakes 175 different items, from muffins and donuts to cakes and holiday stollens at its plant at 5th and Vliet. The goods are sent to supermarkets and food service providers who supply hotel, restaurant and institutional customers. Retail stores Miller Baking once operated on 48th and Burleigh and east Wisconsin Avenue have been closed for longer than a decade.
An unusual product developed by Miller and his master baker, Tom Posanski, is creeping onto menus and into stores across the Midwest. Order a hamburger at Stack'd, and you will have the option of it being served on a pretzel bun baked by Miller. The same choice is available Downtown at Port of Call.
Grab a brat on the Club Level at Miller Park or at the Usinger's booth at the State Fair, and a pretzel bun is an option. You can also dine on a pretzel bun or roll at Saz's and Mader's.
Home grillers can buy the special buns at Sendik's, Grasch Foods, selected Sentry stores and Whole Foods markets across the Midwest. They are being sold under the Pretzilla name, a moniker Miller has trademarked.
A new Pretzilla Web site went live last week with the expectation that customers anywhere in the country will be able to make Internet purchases of the buns by May. Miller Bakery shipped its pretzel buns to private Super Bowl parties in Michigan, Arizona and California before the Packers' victory.
Brian Miller bought the baking company from his father, Richard, in 1997. His dad had purchased the firm from the original owner, who was also named Miller but was not related.
The youngest Miller was in his mid-20s when he assumed ownership, and he knew little about the industry. But the firm has prospered using an Old World business model -- high quality, low volume -- suited to Milwaukee tastes. Miller's youth translated into energy and a zest for entrepreneurship.
Miller Baking didn't invent the pretzel bun. In Europe, dense and chewy pretzels are sometimes sliced for sandwich use, and other American bakeries have riffed off of that with their own pretzel-based products. Brian Miller wanted to develop something different and unique.
"Pretzel's tend to be heavy," he recently said while sitting behind a desk in his office, the irresistible aroma of baking bread wafting into the space. "I wanted something lighter, airier, with a touch of sweetness. I wanted the bun to have flavor but not overwhelm the protein.
"The bun should win the best supporting actor award."
Miller and Posanski began working on development in the spring of 2007, and they spent four to five months on the project, adjusting and tweaking the formula. Sales have steadily grown since the product hit menus and stores.
The best sellers are Pretzilla burger, sausage and dinner rolls, which are being renamed mini-buns. They work well for sliders. Miller also sells a hoagie bun and a 3-pound pretzel twist to be sliced for sandwiches or pulled apart for dips.
The appearance of all the Pretzilla products is distinctive for its top cuts and mahogany brown sheen. As sales volume increased, so did the need for specialized machinery to perform some of the steps in the baking process.
"We have proprietary methods for making the Pretzilla products, and we spent three years searching for a piece of equipment," Miller said. The issue was finally resolved with the delivery of a custom designed machine.
"There have been daily challenges with this product," the company owner added.
Miller thinks he is on to something with his Pretzilla line, and sales figures appear to confirm that. He explains, "Pretzels have been a part of Americana for generations. I'm not trying to make creme brulee on a stick."
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
