Suat Tuzlak
Suat Tuzlac was born in Turkey. He followed a friend to the Yukon in 1984 and used money earned from working in the oil patch to open an organic bakery on Fourth Avenue in Whitehorse.1) Space was limited so Tuzlak hired a stone mason from Vancouver to build a brick oven, a kachelöfen with ceramic-tiles, in his yard at 510 Hawkins Street. The oven had eight-inch walls and a Yukon chimney, and Tuzlac used it for a time to bake bread for his store.2)
Tuzlak’s Alpine Bakery operation was very successful, a pioneer business in the north and Canada.3) He was twenty-five years in the large wooden lodge on 5th Avenue before he decided to sell the business. He milled his own grain brought up from Saskatchewan, and all of his breads were a variety of sourdough. He also started a produce club where customers could get locally grown vegetables in the summer.4)
Tuzlac was well-known for his donations to schools, food banks and other organizations.5)