Ghossain’s expands through the years, hopes to continue

By Kalea Hall

khall@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

From the looks of the operation at Ghossain’s Bakery on South Avenue, it is hard to believe it all started in a garage on East Philadelphia Avenue in Youngstown.

It was 45 years ago when Fred Ghossain brought the bakery idea to his father, Joe, and brother, Nick.

“A lot of people made flatbread, but not the real stuff,” Fred said.

He was studying engineering at Youngstown State University when he realized he had to fill the need. His professor said if you want to make money, that is what you have to do.

Fred, a native of Zahle, Lebanon, knew he had a great recipe to start with: his grandmother’s.

“We knew what is was supposed to be like,” he said. “We just didn’t have the experience in making the bread.”

Grandma would make it the old-fashioned way. She put a lot of love, a lot of time and a lot of effort into it, he said.

“She would mix by hand, cut dough balls by hand, and she would stretch it by hand,” said Joe Ghossain, Fred’s son.

Fred, his father and brother purchased some equipment — a mixer, sheeter and oven — for $1,000 from a woman who used to make and sell her flatbread, and they got to mixing.

They started with a store in New Castle, Pa., and word of the tasty bread started to spread.

By 1972, things started to really heat up. When Fred started to use 100 pounds of flour per day, he felt busy.

“That’s a drop in the bucket when you [use up to] 2,000 pounds of flour” per day as they do now, Joe said.

It was time to move on from the garage, so they opened a bakery and a beverage center on Market Street.

They purchased some tunnel ovens for the operation and continued to do a lot of the production by hand.

“[The flatbread] wasn’t a perfect circle, but you knew it was homemade,” Fred said.

The business continued to flourish with restaurants using the Ghossain flatbread and grocery stores stocking their shelves with it. It also was shipped throughout the country.

“We couldn’t produce enough,” Fred said.

And there were limitations to the Market Street location. The Ghossains needed a dock and freezers. In 2004, they moved to the South Avenue location with new equipment to automate the process and allow them to produce more.

Since they have been in the South Avenue location, they have expanded their offerings. It started with the spinach-and-feta-filled pockets. Now there are 10 kinds of pockets. They also opened a deli in the store. In addition to the 18 wraps the deli offers, Ghossain’s also offers 11 flavors of hummus, 21 salads, rice bowls and other dishes.

In the past three years, the Ghossain’s catering business also has expanded. Ghossain’s offers a corporate catering program where the caterers can go in and explain the lunch they brought and the healthy benefits of a Mediterranean diet.

“Everyone thinks a wrap is something new,” Fred said. “I have had a wrap on me since I was in grade school. You can put anything you want in there.”

The popularity of the wrap helped to expand the customer base.

Product is still shipped all over the country and throughout the world.

“We even ship to a battleship in Guam,” Fred said.

Ghossain’s also opened a second location in Niles to reach more customers.

Fred never imagined his little operation in a garage would lead to what it is today. Conversely, his son did. Sleeping on 100-pound bags of flour when he was little while his father and Uncle Nick worked gave him more than a rest. It gave him a chance to see potential in the bakery.

Joe went on to study finance at YSU and graduated in 1999, but he always wanted to come back to the bakery.

He starts baking at 3 a.m. every day.

“We make several thousand pounds a day,” Joe said.