Location: 1470 SW Knoll Ave., Bend

Hours: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday

Price Range: Sandwiches $3.95 to $6.95; salads $4.95 and $6.95; bread loaves $2.95 to $5.95; cookies, muffins, pastries 75 cents to $3.75

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover

Contact: 318-1054

How much do the owners of The Village Baker know about bread?

Enough to fill up a breadbox, and it had better be a large one.

Bill and Lauren Kurzman offer 15 varieties of the stuff of life: sour white boule, peasant black, mockingbird (a 15-grain, Norwegian-style bread), bastoni, striata, pane rosemary and corn rye, to name just a few.

”We do much more of an early European-style product, versus Italian or whole grain,” says Lauren. The Old World-style breads of Village Baker take more time to prepare.

”Our breads take three days to make: They’re mixed one day, shaped the next, baked the third. That develops a lot of flavor.”

But if you’re a loafer who doesn’t speak the language of ”airborne yeast” and ”slow fermentation,” know that the bakery’s clients know a thing or two about bread. They include High Tides Seafood Grill, Cork, Staccato’s, Blacksmith and several others.

Like the neighborhood surrounding it, a lot has changed since Village Baker opened in its Knoll Avenue space on Bend’s west side in January 1997.

”It was the last thing on this road,” says Lauren.

With growth came more business. The menu has grown correspondingly to include lunch fare such as sandwiches, soups and salads.

Bagels were added to the menu to cater to the morning crowd and provide a further breakfast choice.

Among the sandwiches, the chicken salad and turkey bacon sandwiches are popular.

The tomato basil soup is one of the bakery’s signature items, the couple says. During the cold season, people will take it home, buying it by the quart. They also have at least two additional soups of the day. For those in a hurry, orders can be called in ahead of time for pickup.

Says Lauren, ”When we do change, we change so slowly that it’s not that noticeable. You see businesses and they make huge changes, and their quality goes down. We really wanted to avoid that. Our product is the main thing. Maybe that doesn’t make us the best business people, but I know that our product is the highest quality.”