Mike and Susanne Tunney didn’t really mean to open a bakery more than 15 years ago.

In 1997, Mike was working for Sue and Nolan Glenn, who own The Green Turtle and other local establishments, when the Glenns asked the Tunneys to run a new space they were developing in the Milville District on Harborview Drive.

As the prospective deli progressed, the Tunneys were asked if they wanted to buy it instead.

“It was an opportunity afforded to us that we didn’t expect, and we made an on-the-spot decision,” Mike Tunney said. “It was serendipitous.”

The couple was in their early 30s at the time, and they had worked throughout the restaurant industry in the Puget Sound area and in New York City since they met in a French cooking class at South Seattle Community College.

Susanne originally wanted to be a baker, but baking classes were completely full at the time.

So, as Susanne’s Bakery & Deli opened and the Tunneys realized Milville’s severe zoning restrictions, including an inability to get a wine and beer license and a prohibition on staying open past 7 p.m., meant their plan to develop a wide-ranging restaurant wouldn’t work, Susanne didn’t mind the space would remain a small bakery.

“That was the direction I wanted to go in anyway,” she said.

It’s paid off well for the Tunneys, who have seen their small space turn into a popular downtown destination.

“We just formed our little niche here,” Mike said.

Their business plan has changed very little since they opened. In addition to freshly baked bread and pastries, coffee and lunchtime sandwiches, the Tunneys offer some catering and special orders for customers, including specialty cakes.

“We’re kind of rolling along just how we want to,” Mike said.

Although customers frequently ask them about expanding into something larger, Susanne said, they have no interest in doing so.

“We don’t even have a website!” Susanne said.

The bakery has never advertised or listed a menu online. Even the Susanne’s Facebook page is a bare-bones operation.

Mike said the decision against growing the business wasn’t made out of a lack of customers. He’s confident a bigger Susanne’s could do well.

“We know we could expand, if we marketed it correctly,” Mike said. “But we want to have a life. And we’re already saturated with as much as we can do.”

Mike and Susanne would like to travel again, like they did before they opened the bakery, and they dream of finding another enterprising young couple to run Susanne’s one day.

But they recognize they’ve been fortunate in their success as a small bakery in a small town in a market that isn’t always kind to such a place. Morningside Bakery in Port Orchard had to shut its doors just two weeks ago.

Branching out from strictly baked goods and into sandwiches, catering and other facets helps keep the business going, Mike said.

“In the old days, you saw bakeries all over the place,” he said. “It’s just so tough now, with big box stores and grocery stores with bakeries.”

Susanne said her namesake bakery has mostly thrived as a community gathering place.

“They just love it here,” she said of her customers. “It becomes a place where you know people.”

That, for now, is enough to make the Tunneys feel thankful.

“We wouldn’t be here if people didn’t want us to be,” Mike said. “And little towns need little stores and little bakeries. Gig Harbor is lucky to have some place like this.”