Page 43 - The Peorian, Vol 3 Issue 2

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thePeorian.com T he Present
such as pharmaceutical sales
representatives. At that point, he
wasn’t seeking huge events and
major weddings. The original
“hard way” meant fresh and
unique foods for smaller groups,
prepared without shortcuts —
smoking and cutting the meats,
baking pastries with real butter.
“I also didn’t want to dive into
those events and not do them
well,” he says.
Operating from a crusty older
building near the McClugage
Bridge, his limited budget
meant buying food supplies
daily. Selling his car and his loft,
he plowed the proceeds into
renovations and equipment. He
did some of the construction
work himself, often sacking out
in a sleeping bag on the floor and
using his GMC Jimmy to make
deliveries.
This sounds daunting, but
barely scratches the surface of life
at that time. Mohlenbrink’s then-
2-year-old son was diagnosed
with a rare form of leukemia.
Cracked Pepper’s small start-up
staff filled in the gaps for a year’s
worth of cancer treatments. The
boy is now 9 and doing fine. But
when the most critical period was
past, staffers threatened to quit
if Mohlenbrink Sr. considered
working anywhere else full-time.
Apparently, he agreed.
“It changes you,” he says of
his son’s illness. Doubling down
on “the hard way,” he found
more older buildings and acted
as his own general contractor to
repurpose them. The Northeast
Adams Street location expanded
to Cracked Pepper Bakery and
Cafe in 2007. A second Cracked
Pepper took shape across from
the Peoria County Courthouse on
Main Street in 2009. The softly-
lit, more elegant Salt opened on
Prospect Road in 2011; a robust
Sugar brought a wood-fired
oven to Southwest Adams Street
downtown last fall. The aim
appears to be corporate efficiency
with personal attention to detail.
Continued on page 44
Travis Mohlenbrink, owner of Cracked Pepper, Salt, and Sugar shows
off some of the spice rack memorabilia he has in his Cracked Pepper
restaurant on Northeast Adams Street.