Schwartz Making Lots of Dough at Red Truck

Peter Schwartz and Brian Noyes at The Red Truck.

Photo © fauquiernow.com.

Schwartz Making Lots of Dough at Red Truck

By Anita L. Sherman

Sporting a head of white hair and dapper casual wear, Peter Schwartz sits outside his favorite Marshall haunt – The Red Truck Bakery.

A former Marshall District county supervisor, Schwartz and a group of investors, including Red Truck owner and baker Brian Noyes, opened the popular shop on Marshall’s Main Street in 2015.

Currently customers can order and pick up the bakery’s menu of cakes, pies, muffins, granola, breads, cookies, coffee and more from a window located at the side of the store. As the weather gets cooler, they plan to re-open inside so patrons can be sheltered from the cold.

“We have a great customer base,” said Schwartz. “People come from close in and far away…They are very loyal.”

As the Marshall bakery celebrates its fifth year, the original location in Warrenton has been in place for ten years. Schwartz attributes their burgeoning online business and growing national reputation as reasons for its growing success.

“We ship nationwide,” said Schwartz, “and have a great Internet presence.” Now in its third printing, Noyes’ collection of 85 beloved recipes published in his “Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-Standard Recipes from America’s Favorite Rural Bakery” has been well-received, with Noyes recently signing a contract to do another bakerybased book.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, the Schwartz family has called Fauquier County home since 1994 when they moved to a farm in Delaplane. He’s an advocate for vibrant small rural towns and has been a supporter of the Marshall Main Street Project, which after decades of discussion, was approved by the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors in October of this year.

Pointing to overhead wires on Main Street, Schwartz said he’s thrilled that the project will remove “all the spaghetti.” Electrical, phone and cable TV lines will move underground eliminating utility poles in the project area.

One of the local leaders who also pushed the project was Mary Leigh McDaniel, the current county supervisor for Marshall District.

“He was very instrumental in moving the Main Street project forward,” she said. “This was a community effort that started many years ago, and Peter helped with the grant process…He worked diligently to get construction easements signed by property owners, and worked closely with VDOT during the engineering phase. When we found out two years ago that we needed additional funds for under ground utilities, he was part of the group that successfully raised an additional $1.2 million in a four-month period.”

McDaniel also recalled the Red Truck’s amusing ribbon-cutting in 2015.

“He and Brian asked Robert Duvall (a good friend of Noyes) to cut the ribbon,” she said. “Mr. Duvall informed them that cowboys don’t cut ribbons” so they had him cut a rope with a pocket knife…it was great!”

A former lawyer (with degrees from Princeton and Harvard) and commercial real estate developer and investor, Schwartz, at 66, is happy with his life at the bakery, which also occasionally involves donning an apron and helping make dough. He has no regrets leaving the political arena behind.

“I have to say that I didn’t mind walking away from that aspect,” said Schwartz, “nothing political anymore.”

Reading and traveling are other passions he enjoys. And in addition to celebrating Red Truck’s five-year anniversary, he and his wife, Anna Moser, are also marking a 30-year wedding anniversary this year.

They met in 1989. “When we went on our first date, she had a black and white television, a rotary phone and a library,” Schwartz recalled. “I told myself at the time…this is the girl for me.”

Now, living on their farm in Delaplane, Schwartz enjoys family life. They have three sons, twins Simon and Nathaniel and Oliver. Schwartz’s mother, Anne, at 94, has lived with them for 22 years, since his father passed. She’s in excellent health and still travels when she’s able.

Peter Schwartz is a happy camper these days and also not hard to find. “I’m here baking in the kitchen,” he said, with a smile.