North Bay Bakery's Pain Doughlorian Exhibit Goes Viral

BENICIA, CA — A long time ago (Saturday morning) in a galaxy far, far away (Downtown Benicia), the “Pain Doughlorian” was unveiled.

The life-size creations are replicas of the characters from Disney+’s hit TV show “Star Wars: The Mandalorian” — but with a culinary twist.

Entered as part of Benicia Main Street’s annual Scarecrow Contest, the incredible, edible scarecrows created at One House Bakery include “the Pain-dough-lorian” (The Mandalorian), “Baby Dough-da” (Baby Yoda) and “The Pandroid” (Bounty Android, IG-11).

The Pain Doughlorian armor is made completely out of bread, or “pain” which is the French word for bread. The Baby Dough-da is floating in mixing bowls and all his clothing is also made from bread. The Pandroid is made out of a surplus of pots, pans and kitchen utensils.

Head baker and co-owner of One House Bakery, Hannalee Pervan, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu and was on the breadmaking team at The French Laundry in Napa Valley's Yountville, worked on the project for two weeks with her mother and co-owner, Catherine Pervan.

Within hours of its unveiling, the Pain Doughlorian received over 60,000 upvotes on Reddit. A viral photo of the Pain Doughlorian also got a nod on social media from "The Mandalorian" actress Gina Carano.

Behind The Scenes: Making Of The Pain Doughlorian

One House Bakery is approaching its two-year anniversary, Hannalee said, so this was the second time the business participated in the scarecrow contest. The bakery’s theme last year was “Game of Scones.” They used baguettes to make a chair, and dough to create an army of dead skeletons, Hannalee recalled.

This time around, Hannalee’s initial inspiration came from Baby Yoda, her favorite character from "Star Wars: The Mandalorian" show, which she and her husband watched together on Disney+.

“He’s the cutest little guy; I printed a little picture of him and put him on the freezer so when I got stressed out at work I could go look at him and be happy,” Hannalee said in a phone interview with Patch.

Soon, as part of an ongoing series of puns in the bakery, Baby Yoda became “Baby Dough-da.”

“It snowballed from there and we thought, ‘For the scarecrow contest, why don’t we do that?’”

Catherine found and downloaded a Cosplay template, and the mother-daughter team went on to spend a combined 150 hours working on the project — every chance they got.

The result was a 6-foot-tall tin foil mannequin covered in dough and shellacked to keep the birds and raccoons away.

The display at One House Bakery, 918 1st St., will remain up through Halloween as part of Benicia Main Street’s annual Scarecrow Display.

“We are thinking of maybe auctioning off Baby Dough-da for wildfire relief in Napa Valley,” Hannalee said. “As for Pandroid — he is 8 or 9 feet tall — everybody wants to keep him.”

For now, visitors are encouraged to take a picture with the Pain Doughlorian exhibit as they experience Benicia’s unique, quirky downtown. Lined with small, independent businesses, 1st Street leads down to the waterfront where there's a fresh bay breeze and plenty of space to properly social distance.

“Lots of kids are super excited; it makes people smile which is nice to see,” Hannalee said about the crowds turning out for a look at the Pain Doughlorians, as well as the creations of neighboring businesses. “This is something fun to do. Benicia is a beautiful place, and to walk up down and First Street, a lot of the businesses have their scarecrow out so it is nice to see what each business has done.”