Folsom’s bakery in Rock Falls now serving pizza

ROCK FALLS – Customers at Folsom’s Bakery in Rock Falls have no doubt noticed a different scent coming from the business the last several Saturdays.

That’s because Folsom’s is now selling pizza, along with Italian beef sandwiches, meatball subs and garlic bread on Saturdays, starting at noon, when the bakery part of the operation is winding down. That expanded menu is available until about 7:30 p.m. or until the food runs out, which has occurred.

“My main reason for doing this was because of COVID,” said Jim Helle, who has owned the bakery for 10 years. “I had to figure out a way to still pay the employees, because things have slowed down in spots. I do a lot of wholesale. Some are busy and some are not. Doughnuts are slow, so I kind of had to look at something else.”

Helle provides buns for a number of pizza places in and around the Quad Cities, and he talked to them about how his over-the-counter business with doughnuts, cookies and cakes had been hurt since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March. They suggested giving pizza a try.

“I wanted something different from what everybody else was doing, so I talked to a couple of my wholesale customers. They gave me some ideas. I’ve got all the equipment. They said, ‘You’ve got everything to make pizzas.’ So I started thinking about it.”

About 6 months ago, Helle began tinkering with different recipes for pizza. He wanted to get the dough just the way he wanted it, and once that was accomplished, he began testing different topping ingredients. Several different kinds of sausage were experimented with, for instance, and he adds his own blend of spices to the sauce to get it just the way he wants it.

“It’s got a different taste,” Helle said. “All these other ones, they kind of do different things with the pizzas now, and they cut back here and there. There’s certain things I do that I think some of the older pizza places used to do because I researched some of that. I went ahead and came up with some different ideas and asked some questions.

“I know dough. I know buns. I know doughnuts. I’m a baker. This recipe, it’s one that nobody in the area has. It’s one that I put together, and I’ve got really good feedback.”

Saturday, customers were already in line shortly after noon to pick up take-and-bake pizzas – Helle offers them that way or already baked and ready to eat.

For now, the expanded menu is available only on Saturday, although expanding to Friday may be a possibility if all goes well. For Helle, it’s about keeping his customers happy and keeping his business afloat after some dark times.

“It’s hard for small businesses to survive at all. I keep promoting on my Facebook page to shop small. I don’t care who you shop with. I don’t care if it’s me or the guy down the road. Shop at the small business, because that’s so important,” he said.

“I deliver doughnuts early in the morning, so I have plenty of time to look at the buildings. I remember all the small businesses that were downtown in Rock Falls, Sterling and Dixon. I cover different areas and the small businesses are fading away. When I do wholesale, I tell them as small businesses, let’s work together to help each other out.”