How Dough Belly Started
I’m a husband, father of four, Air Force veteran, and lifelong foodie living in Central Indiana. After serving in the military, I spent the last 25 years continuing to serve our nation’s veterans.
My love of great food really started when I married my wife. She introduced me to a whole new world of making—and enjoying—really good food, and somewhere along the way, I became the guy who wanted to know why something tasted great and how I could make it even better.
So naturally, the next logical step was to start a bakery.
Obviously.
Dough Belly wasn’t born from a lifelong plan to own a bakery. It grew out of something much simpler: I love good food, I love figuring out what makes something great, and I’m rarely satisfied with “good enough.” Baking became another outlet for that curiosity—tinkering with recipes, changing techniques, and making batch after batch until I created something I was genuinely excited to share with other people.
Eventually, family and friends became taste testers, the baking got a little more serious, and the idea of actually selling what I was making didn’t seem quite so crazy.
And that’s how The Dough Belly Baking Company began: an unexpected next chapter built around big flavors, really good baked goods, and the belief that if you’re going to eat the calories, they should be Worth Every Bite.
So, what’s a dough Belly?
Long before it was the name of our bakery, “dough belly” was an old nickname for the cook on a cattle drive.
Working from the chuck wagon, the cook had one of the most important jobs on the trail: keeping a crew of hungry cowboys fed. He might also answer to Cookie, Biscuit Shooter, or Dough Puncher—but whatever they called him, everyone knew where to go when it was time to eat.
There’s something about that idea that stuck with me. Good food doesn’t have to be complicated or pretentious. It should be generous, memorable, and worth gathering around.
Of course, Dough Belly has another meaning around here. It's also what happens when you fully commit to the ultimate fitness goal: achieving the perfect dad bod. And as a dad of four who owns a bakery, I feel uniquely qualified to support that journey.
So the name just fit—a little history, a little humor, and a pretty good description of what might happen if you spend enough time around our cinnamon rolls.
And now you know why there’s a covered wagon hiding in our logo.
what we’re about
We’re not trying to reinvent baking. We’re trying to make the things you already love ridiculously good.
That means big flavors, generous portions, and recipes we’re willing to make over and over again until they’re right. We obsess over the little things—the texture of the dough, the balance of sweetness, the right amount of filling, and that first bite that makes you immediately want another.
We’re always experimenting, tweaking, and finding new things to bake, but the standard never changes. Whether it’s a cinnamon roll, a pecan roll, a cookie, or whatever comes out of the kitchen next, it has to be something we’re genuinely excited to put in your hands.
Our rule is pretty simple: