Getting to Know Solano Baking Company's Kendra Benz

For the past 22 years, owner Kendra Benz and her dedicated staff have been serving fresh baked goods to hungry Dixonites and freeway travelers.

Solano Baking Company, situated on Pitt School Road in the Safeway shopping center, has become a unique, must-stop destination for lovers of doughnuts, pastries, cookies, cakes, sandwiches and coffee.

Each morning at 4 a.m., the staff at Solano Baking Company begins rolling out the dough for the day’s supply of doughnuts. By 5 a.m., the first batch is ready and by 6 a.m., they are set inside the display case for all to choose.

The shop is a family-orientated business says owner Kendra Benz, that’s focused on providing customer services with a smile. Kendra and her staff know many of their customers and the customers know them as well. Kendra wouldn’t have it any other way she says.

Since 1973, Kendra’s family has operated several doughnut shops in Fairfield, Vacaville at Alamo Plaza, Lake Tahoe and Florin. Her grandparents, parents and uncle were owner-operators of several Winchell’s Doughnuts stores throughout the region.

Solano Baking Company opened back in 1981 in what’s now the Westfield Mall in Fairfield. In 1990, Kendra moved her business down the highway to Dixon, where she’s been ever since.

Years of baking in Solano County has given Kendra a bevy of delicious doughnut, cake, cookie and pastry recipes – something that has set Solano Baking Company apart and helped it earn its place in Solano County lore.

Dixon Patch had a chance to talk with Kendra during a busy morning last week and ask her some questions.

Do you do much baking at home?

“No. One year my husband got me a bread machine.  I was like ‘What the heck are you thinking?’ My sister told him and I was like ‘You guys are funny!’

(Kendra has some seller’s remorse from selling her late great grandmother’s bread machine for a low price, prompting the gift idea, Kendra explained.)

“I had seller’s remorse from that they got the idea that I wanted a bread machine.

How did you name Solano Baking Company?

“My parents, my grandparents and my uncle had Winchell’s Doughnuts shops so they were going to do a doughnut shop and they were going to name it Happy Time Doughnuts and they decided on Solano after Solano County. But I get asked if my last name is Solano all the time.”

What was your first job?

“My family’s been doing this since probably 1973. We grew up folding boxes for a penny a box. My brother, my sister and I, we’d fold a hundred and then we’d get a dollar and we would go to the arcade next door and we’d go play pinball. We’d fight over the fourth quarter.”

What do you like about this community?

“What’s not to like? Everybody’s really nice, it’s just a really, really good community. This store is a little different. This is not just about Dixon because we get so many freeway travelers. We get the most fascinating stories, people traveling from Europe, people who’ve been coming here for 20 years. But we also get the community. I get the kids from high school working here every year. For them to work here, it’s just a different kind of place because it’s not fast food and it’s family owned.  I have a different management style, family first. Everybody here is like family." 

How do you come up with your recipes?

"Some of them are old, old recipes. From different decorators over the years. I search them over the Internet. I’ll tweak them. They are old family recipes.”

Which one of the doughnuts, baked goods that you sell in your store is your favorite?

“I love to make doughnuts and selling doughnuts, but not really eating doughnuts. I would say the quiche and our ginger molasses cookies and our rolled shortbread cookies.”

Who is your hero?

“I look up to my mom., Donna. She passed away two years ago January. She was a working mom like me. The things she did for me and my sister, she helped me a lot with my kids. Because of her passing away, I’ve made some changes in life. You have to balance and grow. You need to be the best at both and I have such awesome people, here that I am trying pull myself back a bit and spend more time with my family.”

What do you do for fun?

“Come up with bakery ideas. My goal right now is to start thinking of new things. I read a lot I do stuff with the kids. Play tennis, we do a lot of Millennium (Sports Club). We go to San Francisco a lot.”

What is your favorite book?

“That is a really hard question. I was into books on India for a while. I just finished “The Hunger Games.” I didn’t read it for all those years it was popular because I thought it was going to be like “Twilight.”

What’s your favorite style of music?

“Right now? Light rap, the contemporary stuff on 102.5. My husband listens to that old-school stuff like Flock of Seagulls. When we listen to Pandora he goes all to that. When I want to hear something, give me 50 Cent. Snoop Dogg, I’d love to go. I love Drake , but I love other stuff too.  I’d love to see Andrea Bocelli. She’s going to play in November.”

If you could have dinner with any person – famous or not, living or deceased – who would it be?

“I would like to have dinner with someone who could make a change in the world. I’m a big advocate for children. So I’m thinking maybe Oprah Winfrey because she puts her money behind it, she steps up to the plate.”

What do you love most about your job?

“Everything, the people definitely.”

Solano Baking Company is located at 1160 Pitt School Road and is open from 6 a.m., to 5:30 p.m., daily. Stop by on Saturday and Sunday for a visit with the Easter Bunny. From 10 a.m., to 2 p.m., on both days, the kids will have the opportunity to take a photo with the Easter Bunny.

Solano Baking is also open on Easter Sunday, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will have an assortment of iced Easter cookies and cakes for sale.

If you are a business owner who would like to sit down for a chat and be featured in this special column of Getting to Know, contact the editor at carlos.villatoro@patch.com