LITTLE FALLS, NY — A year ago, Alex Ritz opened the doors of Fox Tale Artisan Bakery at 407 Canal Place with a display case she remembers as nearly bare. Today, she says, she’s run out of room to put things in it.
“I was looking back at my opening pictures on Instagram, and my display case was almost empty. I couldn’t believe it,” Ritz said. “And now I don’t have space to put more things. That’s really exciting to look back on.”
That milestone alone is notable in an industry where, as Ritz put it, most businesses don’t make it past their first year. But she’s using the anniversary to take stock of what worked, what she underestimated, and where the bakery is headed next.
A warmer welcome than expected
Ritz said she went into opening day uncertain whether the sourdough-and-scratch-baking concept she’d built the bakery around would resonate in Little Falls the way it had in her head.
“I could be, like, people say they want sourdough — do they actually?” she recalled thinking. “It has been really well received. People have been excited about the sourdough, really excited about the different flavors of the sweets that I have.”
She’s heard it directly from the people walking through her door each week.
“The number of locals that come in, and they leave every week and say, ‘Thank you for being open, thank you for being here, we need this,'” Ritz said. “It really is a friendly community, and people want options, and places to support, and they want to support small businesses.”
She’s also watched that appetite for something different show up beyond her own storefront. “I’m seeing so many places starting to open on Main Street,” she said. “People are excited to see this come to town.”
The part nobody warns you about enough
Before opening, Ritz visited bakeries in surrounding towns to get a sense of what she was walking into. The warnings were consistent.
“They all gave, like, warnings — it’s a lot of work. You’re doing this alone? What?” she said. “And I was like, well, I just gotta do it.”
A year in, she says the warnings undersold it. Running the bakery solo means she is, in her words, wearing every hat the business needs — and she didn’t fully appreciate what that would cost.
“I really underestimated how much time and energy each of those hats takes,” Ritz said. “There’s definitely sacrifice. You don’t have a social life, or you find your social life with your customers — and for me, that’s been helping me ground into a new community. This is my community now.”
The tension she’s still working through is between two goals that don’t always pull in the same direction: protecting the quality and pace she wants, and generating enough variety and volume to keep the business afloat.
“You gotta go slow to go faster — you have to do quality-focused work,” she said. “But you also have to make enough money. What do people want? People want variety, they want consistency. So it’s how to focus, but knowing you have to keep pushing to keep the momentum up.”
Some of that pressure, she’s realized, she put on herself. Leadership and small-business podcasts kept telling her the same thing.
“They do say it’s like, focus, focus, focus on one thing, and be the best at it,” Ritz said. “I think a lot of it is putting it on myself, because the vision I have is breads, sweets, retail items.”
By around the six-month mark, the math on that vision became impossible to ignore. “I’ve tested or sold about 23 flavors of bread,” she said. “I was like, whoa, okay, I can’t keep doing all of it.” The current approach: narrowing in on best sellers, building out a seasonal and holiday rotation, and being more deliberate about margins. “It’s figuring out where it makes sense to focus, and what niche is currently being filled,” she said.
Take-and-bake dough, a farmers market stall, and other next steps
Ritz’s plans for year two build directly on what she’s already started rolling out — more bread and sweet flavors, new retail and merchandise items, and, most recently, a take-and-bake option: frozen cookie dough and frozen scone dough customers can finish at home.
“I have limited hours of availability, so it’s figuring out how people can take this product and do it themselves,” she said. “You can have that fresh-baked smell at home — I don’t want to drive into town, I just want to open my fridge and bake something. Scones for breakfast.”
She’s also working on savory items and new sales channels, including a coming stall at the Utica Farmers Market. “Trying to branch out into different sales channels, but also how to get out to the region and spread the word,” she said.
Underlying all of it is a commitment to keeping the bakery feeling like what it is. “It’s still made in-house, it’s still small — it’s not big scale, but it’s okay, I can do it at this level,” Ritz said. “It’s still personable.”
For year two, she’s also aiming to make the bakery’s rhythms more predictable for customers — flavor schedules, seasonal releases, and advance notice around holidays. “Especially the holiday season, thinking Thanksgiving to Christmas — what are the special cookie tins, what are the things I can offer to help customers make the holiday special,” she said.
Community partnerships are on her list too. Fox Tale recently supplied scones and mustard seed jam for an ARC event. “That was really fun, to get to support that,” Ritz said. “I’m trying to work on, can I get involved with a fundraiser, or something for a nonprofit — finding ways to partner or do more work with local organizations.”
She’s also been quietly showing up at smaller community gatherings, including pop-ups at the Cruise Inn at the marina. “That’s a fun, very small thing to go do,” she said. “Finding other little pop-up events is something I’d really like to keep doing.”
Hours holding steady, for now
Given that baking and running a storefront can’t happen at the same time, Ritz said her current hours — set around a sourdough process that runs multiple days from start to finish — aren’t changing in the immediate future.
“It’s really hard to do both,” she said. “So for right now, they will stay the same. But I feel optimistic going into the second year that maybe I can do a little bit more” — potentially by finding help with vending or transportation that would let her keep production going while adding an outlet elsewhere.
“This is what keeps me going”
Asked what’s made the year’s workload worth it, Ritz circled back to something simpler than a business strategy.
“I did it. I’m doing it. I’m persevering,” she said. “Through the tears, through the little sleep — I did it.”
She closed with a message for the community that got her there.
“I just want to say a huge thank you to customers, to the community, to all the people who have volunteered and helped get me started,” Ritz said. “Other business owners have been very supportive and encouraging. This is what keeps me going. This is what has made it possible. So, thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The one-year celebration will happen on Saturday, August 29th, with live music and refreshments. Stay tuned to social media for more details as they emerge.
Fox Tale Artisan Bakery is located at 407 Canal Place in Little Falls. Follow the bakery on Instagram @fox_tale_artisan_bakery.
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