Bread Poets is a bakery in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Its growth is a fattening symbol of the post-Atkins-diet economy.

In 10 years, the bakery has baked and sold more than 100 different kinds of breads, though today only 42 kinds of bread are actively made at various times of year. For example, the bakery occasionally makes “challah” bread, which is part of the Jewish tradition.

Bread Poets bread is comfort bread, food for hearty folks, the kind of carbs that make you feel warm about life, especially during the long, bitter winters of North Dakota. You need lots of sweaters. Not just for the cold but for the layers of lard that you’ll need to cover up once summer comes – around July.

The bakery, by the way, also makes cookies and scones.

I’m originally from Bismarck. In early March, I yanked my youngest son out of second grade for a week-long visit to my parents. It was 15 degrees below zero the night Cory and I drove into my parents driveway. Without the wind chill. It was March 11.

The next morning, my dad cut me a slice of cinnamon bread from the Bread Poets bakery. I had another two slices. I’d not heard of the bakery before, even though I travel to the Dakotas once or twice a year. I thought the bread was a new phenomenon.

I recently talked with Jon Lee, the owner, who said it took an additional four years prior to starting the business in 1998 for him to perfect his first set of recipes. Jon said, “It was about a four-year process to not only to learn how to make bread, but how to brand the business, and build the business model from scratch.”

Essentially, it took a total of 14 years to become an overnight success, at least in the Bismarck area.

Now Jon plans to sell Bread Poet franchises. He hasn’t sold one yet, but my guess is that just like it took 14 years to perfect the original bakery, it will take some time to learn the art of franchising. A bakery and a franchising company are two completely different types of businesses.

But he’ll succeed. If you look at the logo of Bread Poets, it’s in the same design family as that of Panera Bread, a popular franchise where I live in the Chicago area. However, Jon is after a much different kind of franchise owner than is the person who might ante up for a Panera Bread.

In establishing the franchise, Jon has done the hard work of capturing the essence of the brand. Bread Poets is not so much about the bread, but about what baking bread means to an owner-operator of a franchise.

The promise of a Bread Poet franchise is the promise of a deeply satisfying lifestyle. It’s about creating a tangible product in an intangible world, something you can see and touch and smell and taste. It’s about the satisfaction that comes from making people smile (and much more thick, I might add). It’s about an integrated life that is one part craft and one part home. It’s as much “being” a franchise owner as it is owning a franchse. It’s really about becoming the Bread Poet in your community. Trust me, North Dakotans are not a deeply reflective lot, but there’s something profoundly contemplative in the Bread Poets brand.

See for yourself at www.breadpoets.com.