![\"\"](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2019\/02\/Rahn-Keucher-20668_090-508x324.jpg\")
<\/a>Rahn Keucher, a Wright State University alumnus, sells his bread and other pastries to area restaurants and at a stand in Dayton’s 2nd Street Market. (Video by Kris Sproles \/ Photos by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThis is where I get to do fun stuff like three-day sours and laminated doughs and pretzels and all the things the restaurants aren\u2019t interested in,\u201d he said. \u201cThe retail here at 2nd Street Market is strong and getting stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keucher grew up in an Air Force family. After graduating from Stebbins High School in 1984, he enrolled at Wright State, where he worked as a DJ at the WWSU radio station and served as chair of what is now the University Activities Board in what he called a \u201cbig-boy job\u201d for an 18-year-old kid.<\/p>\n
Along the way Keucher took a number of economics and statistics classes and earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in human factors psychology in 1991.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some really cool and really supportive professors,\u201d he said. \u201cWright State was just a really cool environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Keucher family bleeds green and gold.<\/p>\n
His wife, Gina, is also a Wright State graduate and is program director of student activities at the university. One of the couple\u2019s sons recently graduated from Wright State and another is a sophomore.<\/p>\n
Keucher worked his way through Wright State in what turned out to be the beginning of his cooking and baking career. He landed jobs at Pizza Hut, Bagel Factory and even L\u2019Auberge, a fine-dining establishment that held a coveted and rare four-star rating from the Mobil Travel Guide for 19 years before closing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never quite left the kitchen,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never actually had a sit-down, air-conditioned job in my life. Twenty-and-a-half years on third shift is not something I planned on.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Keucher was working at the now-defunct Euro Bistro, he helped bake bread for the restaurant as well as seven or eight others. But when his partner decided to stop supplying bread for other restaurants, Keucher set out to start his own baking business.<\/p>\n
He sub-let a bakery in Cincinnati and for the next five years would drive from his home in Enon to Cincinnati every night, bake bread and bring it back to Dayton in the morning. In 2000, he began leasing his current space in Dayton, a warehouse-like building on the city\u2019s northeast side.<\/p>\n
He then bought a five-shelf, 17,000-pound German hearth oven that had to be assembled on-site and cost $50,000, more than that of his first house.<\/p>\n
Keucher\u2019s European-style bread has a much heavier crust than typical breads. And most of his breads have no sugar or shortening or any oil of any kind.<\/p>\n
He makes two-pound pretzels that he dips in a lye bath to enhance flavor and color and ties them into that shape some believe represents children crossing their arms in prayer. On Super Bowl weekend, he sells 45 to 50 pretzels twice that size.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2019\/02\/Rahn-Keucher-20668_043-508x339.jpg\")
<\/a>After working in several restaurants, Rahn Keucher decided to open his own baking business, which he operates in a warehouse-like building on Dayton’s northeast side.<\/p><\/div>\n
Keucher said his decision to get into pastries was a gamble that has paid off. (He spent a week in San Francisco learning how to make croissants.)<\/p>\n
Gina Keucher and the couple\u2019s four sons help out at the market on Saturdays. Gina says her husband\u2019s bread is arguably one of the best breads you can find anywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would never say he\u2019s as good as he is, but we\u2019ve had long loyal customers and that tells the story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Keuchers also give back to the community.<\/p>\n
Many of the baked goods left over from Saturday\u2019s market sales are donated to firehouses and police stations. The Enon Relief Food Pantry also benefits from leftovers, pretzels are donated to the Greenon Band Boosters for sale twice annually, and baskets of bread are donated to silent auctions throughout the year.<\/p>\n
Keucher says his career enables him to swing for the fences every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I mess up, if the ciabatta isn\u2019t very pretty today, I get to make more of it tomorrow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rahn Keucher, a Wright State University alumnus, sells his bread and other pastries to area restaurants and at a stand in Dayton’s 2nd Street Market. Continue reading