Calise Bakery operates like an old-fashioned “baker’s bakery” with a heavy emphasis on food safety, production and distribution. More importantly, the Lincoln, RI-based company’s culture drives every aspect of its day-to-day customer service to all-about-tomorrow. From the first day on the job, employees are taught about “the Calise Way.”

“The Calise Way is all about how important it is for us to make high-quality products and to focus on personal and food safety every day throughout the company,” Michael R. Calise, fourth-generation president of the family bakery told Baking & Snack for its March issue. “It’s about how important customer service is for us — excellent and unprecedented customer service — and how it dictates our reputation in the industry and among our customers. It’s about making products at a price that is affordable and competitive in the marketplace.”

Innovation is also a part of the bakery’s culture. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that one of the largest wholesale bakeries in the smallest state in the nation developed its own version of a breakfast bread that’s as thick as Texas and comes with a French influence, no less.

Calise Bakery recently launched its Brioche-style Cinnamon Chip Texas Toast that’s quickly gaining popularity throughout the Northeast. Mike Pritchard, vice president of sales, added the Calise Way is about taking care of business and being a partner with its customers.

“That’s how we built our reputation here in New England and beyond as we expanded over the years,” he said. “As we say in Rhode Island, ‘We do the right thing.’”