NORTH HAVEN — It’s a rather incongruous pair of facts, but the islander who knows how to make a New York-style bagel grew up in Vienna, a tiny rural town near Farmington.
But Courtney Naliboff, 32, owner and operator of Little Urchin Bakery, comes by her boiled-bagel skills legitimately. Her Jewish family has roots in Eastern Europe, and maintaining that ethnic heritage was important.
“My mother baked wonderful everything,” she said, listing such mouth-watering delights as braided challah and egg-enriched bread. “I cooked a lot at home and in college.”
The bakery, operating in the former fish market behind Cooper’s Landing near the ferry terminal and harbor, reopened for its sixth season earlier this month.
Like many islanders, she cobbles together a few different jobs. But Naliboff’s take on that tradition would make most folks weary just thinking about her schedule.
She works at North Haven Community School, teaching English, music and theater arts. She directs three or four plays on the island each year. She and her husband, Bill Trevaskis, write and record music.
“We’ve written and recorded tons of music since we’ve been here,” she said, which is eight years.
She joined the island emergency responder team. And she writes for The Working Waterfront.
And she is expanding the bakery to include a breakfast menu.
“It would be easy for us to keep getting by as a bakery,” she said on a quick break between classes in mid-May. “But no one’s doing breakfast on the island,” she said. Since the space she is renting includes a three-year-old commercial kitchen, she believes it’s a logical step.
“It’s too good for us to give up,” she said, and so she wants to take the plunge and expand her offerings. In 2010 and 2011, the bakery operated out of the American Legion Hall kitchen, and then in 2012 moved to the kitchen at Roman’s Fish Market, the space Little Urchin now occupies solely, which led to the business’s most profitable year, she said.
Helping Naliboff expand Little Urchin’s menu to include breakfast is a $7,500 award given by the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront) in its business plan contest. The funds are needed, she explained, to help cover the higher rent now that she is occupying the larger space.
The second place winner was Fox Island Printworks, owned and operated by Sam Hallowell and Claire Donnelly and the third place winner was Swan’s Island Tea Room, owner/operators Susanna Roe and Nancy Folk.
In her pitch, Naliboff noted the bakery’s use of local fare: Maine eggs, honey, berries, yogurt and whole-grain flours. The plan is to hire a few new employees, a line cook, counter staff and an accountant. Naliboff’s experience as breakfast cook at the island’s Nebo Lodge and her pursuit of new techniques and recipes “will contribute to a successful summer,” she asserted. “New Yorkers love our bagels and rye bread, and world travelers love the focaccia and ciabatta.”
Little Urchin Bakery will be the only restaurant serving breakfast to the public on the island, Naliboff noted in her business plan.