Reykjavik Bakery brings Icelandic fare to Gimli
Posted By Jim Mosher
Posted 6 months ago
A WORK IN PROGRESS: Steinthor Jonasson and Gudbjorg Gylfadottir Blondal, from left, with baker Birgir Robertsson. (JIM MOSHER)
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Change is good. Sometimes change takes us to a new land, a new culture and new challenges.
Wife and husband Gudbjorg Gylfadottir Blondal and Steinthor Jonasson arrived from Iceland in Gimli in Easter 2009. The couple from Reykjavik, Iceland were warmed by the welcome provided by Gimli's entrenched Icelandic-Canadian community.
They'd visited Gimli the year before they decided to pull up stakes and travel across the Atlantic to their new home in the heart of New Iceland.
They'll be opening Reykjavik Bakery at the Lighthouse Mall in late March.
The financial meltdown in their island homeland had nothing to do with the move. They'd been casting about for a change for a few years, well before Iceland's banks nosedived during the global financial crisis that began in the fall of 2008.
"We just wanted to do something new; that was the main reason," said Gylfadottir Blondal. "We'd been talking for quite some time about doing something on our own."
Gylfadottir Blondal will be running the bakery, while baker Birgir Robertsson will prepare pastries, breads, cakes and other products.
"I'm very optimistic," said Robertsson who began his career in 1988. He has worked in Reykjavik and Norway.
He hopes to use locally-grown ingredients where possible. "Hopefully, we can buy many things from the farmers in this area."
Jonasson is a carpenter by trade. He is working with an area contractor. He also has experience as a graphic designer.
"I feel good about it. It's always nice to try something new," he said of the bakery. "We are doing it together; it's kind of nice that way. Everybody's been very welcoming; that's not been a problem."
Gylfadottir Blondal says she and her husband considered living in Winnipeg. "We're glad we chose Gimli," she said.
"We don't regret moving here," her husband said, adding their daughter is enjoying attending the local high school. "It's more relaxed and friendly here."
They're not even put out by the cold. "Everyone had been warning us about the winter," Gylfadottir Blondal said. "But the sun is shining; it's cold but not a problem."
