Milbree Viking was started in 1991 by Liisa Ottavainen by baking traditional Finnish style crispy rye bread in her home basement until July 1991, when her first store was opened within the Greater Toronto Area. Milbree continued to focus on producing fresh baked goods until 2000, at which point it seized the opportunity to move to its present day location in mid-town Toronto and expand its thriving bakery production, and its business, by adding a delicatessen counter and smokehouse.

The smokehouse itself has become very well known for its smoked salmon and whitefish. Its range of high quality products also include poultry, pork and sausages, all of which are produced by Heikki Ottavainen. All meats, poultry and fish come from top quality suppliers and are always fresh, never frozen; providing the exceptional results Heikki is able to produce.

In recent years, Milbree has expanded its business further with the addition of a wholesale division and is excited to introduce a fine line of imported foods, candies, breads, and household goods by Rainbow/Daily, from Finland.

After 14 years, Milbree remains true to its mission; to provide fresh, preservative-free, traditional products and never compromise the quality of its own made products. All bakery products are made fresh on the day of business. The dough is never frozen. Even with the great growth of the business, from the first baked item in 1991 to over 100 baked/cooked items today, Liisa has never lost sight of this vision. The freshness of products remains Liisa’s personal promise. She will never compromise quality nor originality to save time nor speed up production.