Dough's Bakery

Dec 13, 2023
3 min read

Makeworth Coffee is so excited to partner with local Bellingham institution Dough's Bakery to bring you the finest bread around! Our delicious breakfast sandwiches just got even yummier with the help of Dough's English muffins, and our beloved avocado toast is now served on Dough's Country Loaf. Come down to the shop to check out our tasty food offerings, and read on for an interview with Dough's Bakery founders Joey and Britton Slaugh!

When did Dough's come to fruition?

Joey: Idea-wise, it's been around for a couple of years, but we always had the idea of coming up to Bellingham. Britton has a family connection here, so we always knew this was the spot we wanted to be. We got Dough's started this last May of 2023. It's been in talks for a while, and we finally pulled the trigger — we wanted to bring the bakery space here, so that people could eat good bread that's good for you.

Tell me about the name!

Joey: When I was a child, I could barely talk, I couldn't pronounce anything. When my family would ask me my name, I couldn't pronounce the "J", so I would say "Doey", and my family thought it was cute.

"Doey" turned into "Doughball", turned into "The Dough", and to just "Dough", and that was my nickname growing up from my family. We wanted a name that represented family. Dough's Bakery was a good play on words, and it means a lot to us — a good way for us to have a family name, but still keep it centered on baking bread.

What does baking mean to you?

Joey: Baking means a lot to me. I feel like I was able to take my inspiration and creativity and put it into baking — it's something that really spoke to me, and that I really enjoy doing. I was never really a good draw-er, but I was able to receive baking and bread pretty well, and I've learned a lot about it.

The lifestyle also works with mine. It doesn't work for most people — most people really enjoy bread and baking, until they realize they have to wake up at 2 am most days, you're working in front of a hot oven in the summers, and you're sad and your back hurts... but even with all of that, it's just something that makes me happy to do. It's been a hell of a roller coaster, but it's been fun .

Britton: I think baking bread is an art form, and I appreciate the connection it gives people. It brings people together and it has been around for so long. Bread represents family.

Joey: Vin Diesel over here... that should be our logo. Vin Diesel as a loaf of bread.

What are some of your goals for the bakery this year?

Joey: Our biggest thing is we constantly want to keep growing our subscription service. It works really well with our scheduling and creativity, and being able to do what we want to do, which is to do a rotational monthly loaf. Check out the subscription service here!

We're also focusing on trying to be able to produce for the Saturday farmer's market. Those are really busy, so being able to get to a point where we can consistently produce for those is our biggest goal. We're working really hard to try and get a solidified space — we've been using a commissary kitchen. We're also hoping to grow our customer base, and continue to make more bread and more flavors.

Tell me about the subscription service!

Britton: For this next year, we're going to start doing a quarterly bread subscription, where you can get a rotational loaf every Wednesday with pickup from several locations in the Bellingham area.

Where do your ingredients come from?

Joey: All of our grain is actually coming from Washington. We try to use only local and regional grains. We are about making good bread that's good for you. I see a lot of bakeries that could be considered local and "artisanal", and supposedly to be good for you, but with the ingredients they use and the way they process and produce them, it tends to not be as good for you as it should be.

Thinking back to ancient times, thinking about how good bread and grain was for you, that's kind of what we're trying to go back to. We want to give it interesting flavors and try to be creative in what we do. Just to be fair, whole grain is absolutely good for you, but often, people don't want just a dense rye bread, so we want to try to make things that are still good for you, and absolutely taste good.