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Started from the bottle now they’re here: best bros and wife team up with pastry business


By Brenlee Coates B


rett Zahari has a little advice for anyone who wants to start a business: “Start small; don’t try to dive into it – and don’t have a baby at the same time,” he jokes. In the best way possible, his new baby, Emelyn Zahari,


affects everyone in his business. Bronuts, the new doughnut shop that has taken the Ex-


change District and all of Winnipeg by storm, is already steeped in family tradition. Obviously, the name gives two of the members away –


yes, the owners Brett and Dylan Zahari are brothers – but Brett’s wife, Meghan Zahari, is also a part-owner. “All the way along, our (whole) family helped us,” says


Brett. “Between my dad and ourselves, we did all the con- struction.”


Te hole idea What started as a joke – “It was actually my girlfriend


who proposed the name ‘Bronuts,’ and we just thought it was hilarious,” says Dylan – turned into a really viable business once all the pieces came together. Brett and Meghan took a vacation to Portland, and with-


out intending on it, studied a bunch of doughnut shops. Tey came back convinced they had to bring the concept to Winnipeg. “We knew that Winnipeg would do well with them and


really wanted them,” says Dylan. So, Dylan, with only a computer science background,


went to work learning to bake some really tasty doughnuts. “Need-based learning,” laughs Brett. When they shared their idea with friends and family in


Winnipeg, they discovered people were not only jazzed to frequent the place, but were willing to pitch in however they could to help make it happen. “Te amount of people that helped us build the dream…


People like Joelle (Foster, of Futurpreneur), or people like our banker, or our real estate agent felt like our mom,” says Brett.


Love thy neighbour Te Zaharis already feel right at home in the Exchange


District, especially thanks to their neighbouring tenant, King + Bannatyne. “Mike (Del Buono) has been the best neighbour ever,” says Brett, of the sandwich shop owner next door. He recounts the story of his daughter’s birth, and al-


though not many outside his family knew where he was, he was notified someone had sent an Edible Arrangement. It was Mike. Tere is still a space next to King + Bannatyne and Bro-


nuts up for grabs, and the Zaharis say their landlord is very protective of who joins them. “She wants to make sure it complements us,” says Brett. Worth the wait


Tough most people’s experience of Bronuts in the first


couple weeks of it opening was either braving a lineup to get their hands on some of the illustrious pastries, or hear- ing doughnuts were sold out, the shop is finally starting to see things taper off. “I think some of the hype has subsided-ish,” says Brett.


“And I think hype is different than a customer base.” One of Brett’s least favourite parts about the start of the


business was telling a lineup of people who had been wait- ing that the doughnuts were all sold out. Te only thing that consoled him was that many who


got a taste of their goods took to social media to say the wait was worth it. “We’ve talked to doughnut shops we really respect, and


we’re feeling really good about the number (we make). Tat’s the number that they’re usually hitting,” says Brett. While they are taking measures to make more doughnuts and fine-tune their process, the idea is these aren’t just


BE YOUR BOSS


OWN


Futurpreneur.ca 204-480-8481


12 Smart Biz www.smartbizwpg.com


Ibrahim Khan Green Carrot


Juice Company June 2015


Mega-fresh pastry and buttery smooth glazes.


any doughnuts – they are special, and take time to make with care. Tat said, Bronuts isn’t reinventing the wheel. Familiar


tastes like peanut butter and chocolate, Nutella, sugar doughnuts and glazed inhabit the menu – but you can taste the efforts put in to making the glazes buttery smooth, and


Simple, approachable, amazing . . . Bronuts.


the pastries mega-fresh. Tey offer accessible doughnuts done well to be sure they’re appeasing Joe Blow as well as the pastry connoisseurs. “Our doughnuts need to be simple and approachable,


and then we can build on that,” says Brett. Visit Bronuts at 3-100 King St. in the Exchange.


The hole "Bronuts" idea started as a joke but morphed into a viable family business.


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