IN A BLUE MOON.

• Author: Burritt, Chris
• Position: Blue Moon bakery in Asheville, NC, is run democratically

It's a rare recipe for profitability, but the owners of an Asheville bakery stir in a heaping helping of democracy.

It's Saturday morning, and Blue Moon Bakery and Cafe is hopping. Parents with kids, bicyclists, joggers and well-to-do retirees inhale the aroma of coffee and freshly baked bread. Twelve people have lined up at the bakery counter, which is brimming with almond and chocolate croissants, blackberry danish and apple oat muffins. On racks behind the cash register are plump loaves with raisins and pecans and long, slender baguettes.

Although it opened in 1992 and seats just 50, Blue Moon is an Asheville institution. Its popularity on Biltmore Avenue has helped revive a once-forlorn stretch of downtown between Pack Square and the French Broad Cooperative grocery. Out-of-towners veer off Interstates 40 and 240 to grab a cup of Joe and pastry, maybe a bowl of soup or a sandwich. "The Blue Moon's best drawing card and greatest contribution to Asheville's quality of life," Southern Living magazine once gushed "are the mingled aromas it lets loose on the town."

The 22 aromatherapists on the payroll are what you'd expect in a hip coffee shop in the middle of what Rolling Stone magazine called America's new freak capital. Many are 20-somethings steeped in Asheville's counterculture. "They're trying to find themselves," Dick Gilbert, 70, says. "They want to be a musician, and they supplement their income working in a restaurant." Seven employees, including Gilbert, are also owners. Most are in their 30s or 40s, but one, like Gilbert, is in her 70s. Though the elder statesman, he makes just $6 an hour. One of his jobs is washing dishes. "Sharing the scud work," he says, "is an important part of the scheme."

It isn't all they share. Each has one vote when setting policy at twice-a-month management meetings. The employee-owners are joined by an eighth partner, an equipment repairman who is paying off his ownership stake in kind. They haven't voted on anything in the 18 months they've owned Blue Moon. All decisions have been by consensus, a touchy-feely meeting of minds practiced more often by Quakers than business owners. They also share blame for Blue Moon's losses. Sales in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 fell short of the $775,000 goal. The bakery has never had a profitable year. Gilbert and his gang are the fourth group of owners to try.

They're also the first to bring restaurant experience to the table. But they're doing it in a way that, well, goes against the grain of traditional business structure. Imagine having to win the consensus of seven others about such matters as whether to keep the $20-a-month Internet service or vacating basement office space to save $400 a month in rent or switching from packets to bulk containers of turbinado sugar to prevent theft. "The baseline rule is," Gilbert says, "every owner who is substantially affected by a decision has a vote and a voice in making it. It sounds really picky, but it is such a bedrock principle that we are willing to make the extra effort to see that it is observed."

When the bakery couldn't meet payroll in mid-February, the owners didn't pay themselves until the 15 other employees got theirs. They cut in half the amount the bakery pays toward...