Ron Jackimowicz, Cuisine editor

Edna Ryzebol opened her first bakery/restaurant in 1985.

Esther Cheers graduated from the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute in 2006.

But, while decades apart in experience, the two now make a powerhouse team in the bakery at Empire Café.

People have been raving about the bread and the food at Empire Café, located at 525 Newmark Ave. in Coos Bay, since the restaurant opened more than a year ago.

Ryzebol stocked her latest venture with culinary-school trained local talent. Head chef Jessica Littrell graduated from North Bend High School and went to the culinary arts and hospitality management program at Lane Community College. Sous chef Bryan Blam is from Powers, and graduated from Western Culinary Institute in Portland. Both Littrell and Blam were plying their trade in Portland.

Cheers graduated from OCCI, but instead of leaving town, stayed in the area and did her three-month externship at Empire Café and has been there ever since.

“They’re truly Portland talent, but they’re here,” Ryzebol said. “They’re awesome. We’re really lucky to have them here again.”

Ryzebol has been commercially baking since 1985, but said she got started a little earlier than that.

“I’ve been baking since I was 2 years old,” she said. “My mother made sure of that.”

Before opening Empire Café, Ryzebol has owned bakeries and restaurants, including a wholesale bakery whose customer list includes Amtrak and Alaska Airlines, among many others.

“I don’t want to do that here,” she said. “I want a nice ‘little’ restaurant and a nice ‘little’ bakery. And that’s what this is.”

Her nice “little” bakery includes a steam-injected, programmable oven that will bake up to 100 loaves of bread at one time. Swing open the door, and an entire 6-foot-tall rack of baking trays filled with dough can roll into the oven and attach to an arm rotating from the ceiling.

It also includes a mixer with a bowl the size of a small hot tub.

“It’s cutting edge,” Cheers said. She has to stand on a step ladder to remove the dough from the massive mixing bowl.

Sourdough is the house specialty.

“We’ve been baking everything from scratch and without yeast since the day we opened,” Ryzebol said.

And there’s no rushing perfection at Empire Café.

“Forty-eight hours is what it takes from starter to bread,” Ryzebol said. On this day, the sourdough had been rising since 6 a.m. and wouldn’t see the oven until almost 1 p.m.

Ryzebol thinks she has found the perfect temperate climate to make her bread.

“That’s why I love Empire,” she said. “The weather stays pretty constant here. If I was in downtown Coos Bay, it would get too hot. I think the climate right here is absolutely perfect sourdough climate.”

Empire Café also bakes up a host of sourdough specialty breads. On the day of our visit, 35 loaves of chocolate-cherry bread were in the oven. They also make a regionally inspired cranberry-hazelnut bread.

“Esther is a very big part of the development of the breads here,” Ryzebol said. “She brings a lot of spark to the bakery. She’s a delight to work with and she’s come up with some beautiful desserts for us.”

And Cheers likes the freedom that working at Empire Café allows her.

“Edna’s a fabulous boss,” Cheers said. “She’s let me be creative. You hope for a boss that let you do that.”

The cafe sells individual loaves of bread (most cost around $3) that you can take home and heat up in your oven.