By CLAYTON PARK

When President Clinton comes to town, Big Macs aren't the only things on his menu.

He is also presented with plenty of healthy fare as well, thanks in part to The Essential Baking Company, which has been selected to serve the President and his entourage during his past few visits to town.

"We sent over our Raisin Pecan Bread for his breakfast," says Ptarmigan Teal, one of Essential Baking's co-owners, who recalls that they also delivered loaves of Sweet Perrin Bread, which is chock-full of yummy ingredients such as pears, roasted hazelnuts and figs.

Up until recently, unless you were a guest at one of the area's four-star hotels, or a visiting celebrity, you were out of luck if you wanted to sample some of Essential Baking's fancier offerings. Essential Baking is, for the most part, a wholesale bakery, which primarily sells its products via local grocery stores.

But that has all changed, thanks to the recent opening of Essential Baking Company's new on-site bakery store and cafe, located on the corner of N. 34th and Woodlawn Ave. N.

Now, in addition to being able to order the freshly baked artisan breads that Essential is famous for, customers can sample the latest pastry creations of the company's crack team of bakers.

The cafe also offers an array hearty soups, fresh salads and sandwiches and, of course, espresso.

What's more, visitors are also treated to a little "theater of baking," thanks to a viewing window that allows cafe patrons to glimpse Essential Baking's Llopis (pronounced "yo-pee") oven in operation. The 16-foot round Spanish-style hearth oven is used to produce pizza bianca and focaccia - both of which can be purchased at the bakery store/cafe.

"We're opening our front parlor to the public," says Teal in explaining why Essential Baking decided to open its on-site cafe. "It's something we've wanted to do for years ... It's meant as a place where people can learn something about our break. We want people to come and see who we are so that the next time they see our bread in the grocery storee they'll have some sense of how our bread is baked."

What Essential Baking is really about is bringing a wide variety of top-quality handmade rustic breads to the people of Puget Sound.

Founded nearly six years ago in Fremont, the company was honored as a winner of the Mayor's Small Business Award in 1997. The following year, Essential moved into its current site, a 75-year-old brick building in Wallingford that originally served as home of Buchan Bakery and later Oroweat Bakery.

Essential Baking is also a state-certified organic bakery, meaning that at least 95 percent of its ingredients must come from certified organic farmers who grow their crops without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. The ingredients must also be shipped and stored without pesticides and the bakery itself must be subject to inspection by the state's Department of Agriculture.

"We really want to support sustainable farming," says Teal. "It's a founding principle of our company."

She adds that the company's commitment to using organic ingredients isn't just for altruistic reasons: "The organic ingredients are also more flavorful, hands down ... most good chefs will tell you that, even if they don't have a commitment to organics because they taste better."

Essential Baking is also committed to giving back to the community. The company regularly donates bread to feeding programs throughout the city. The company has also impressed many for its outstanding business acumen. Last year, the company was selected to receive a Hero Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Teal, the company's president and general manager, said she and her fellow co-owners - head baker George DePasquale and operations manager Terry Cady as well as two "silent partners" - believe in sharing the "wealth" with their employees via a company-wide profit-sharing plan.

Adding the bakery store/cafe is another way of keeping the company's approximately 70-person workforce happy, says Teal. "When you're baking wholesale, you can't be putting out new products everyday," she says. "It can be a little frustrating for some of our very talented bakers. We really wanted to have a place where our bakers could have an outlet for their creativity."

The cafe is a creative outlet for employees in more ways than one. "We're also going to use it to hang the artwork of some of our employees," starting with an exhibit of paintings by David Robinson, says Teal. "We also have students, writers and actors who work here. We even have a professional opera singer - David Moore - who works in our cafe. He's going to give a recital here, probably in late February.

"We're not here to be a gallery or recital space," Teal says, "we're here to be a bakery. But if we're going to have fun with this, we might as well promote our employees' work."

"Cafe Queen" Sarah Eskenazi has been hired to run Essential Baking's bakery store/cafe. Eskenazi ran the popular Raven Cafe in Langley for seven years. She was also one of Seattle's first espresso vendors, as owner of the Espresso Express in Roosevelt in the early '80s. "We've gotten a great response from the community," says Eskenazi of Essential's new cafe, who adds the best is yet to come: "We're still tweaking the menu."

Essential Baking's new cafe has also benefitted from some recent media exposure: KING-TV's "Evening Magazine" recently filmed a show there.

Burlington Northern Railroad also sent a camera crew to shoot footage of the bakery's ovens in operation, using some of Essential's own staff as "actors," including Anne-Marie Phillips, the company's sales and marketing director, who posed as a baker.

Why would a commercial for a railroad be shot at Essential Baking? "Burlington is touting how they ship 55 million tons of grain a year," explains Teal.

Essential Baking Co. is located at 454 N. 34th St. For more information, call 545-0444.