Breakfast, revealed!

Okay, the breakfast menu is finally pretty much, mostly, I still might make a few small changes, done. I’m sending it off to my friendly designer to make it look nice, but since lots of you are asking, here is the design-free, text-only copy. We will be serving a few of the items today and tomorrow as we finalize recipes. Saturday is the official start of the full menu, but if you swing by Friday there is a good chance we will have it all then too.

Please remember, I really may still change a few things. We’re still costing a few items so prices might change slightly, and I might add a “build your own” biscuit sandwich option if there is enough room.

The most exciting thing about this menu for me is all but ONE of the items (well, not including our old gluteny friends, the bagels) can be made gluten free. Gluten free vegan breakfast? YES! Gluten Free biscuits? YES! For our GF customers who are not celiacs I know this will be exciting! And remember, if you are severely allergic, we are not a Gluten Free facility, and our breakfast area will be serving gluten items too.  The final copy menu will proclaim this loudly as well. That said, we will be taking steps to avoid cross-contamination as much as possible.

Oh, and one last thing. Please bear with us these first few days, this is a big change for us and we may run out of items if we are busier than we prepared for. We’re not sure what to expect yet, but we’re excited, and we hope you are too.

Valentine’s Day Offerings

Oh how we love Valentine’s Day! It’s kind of like a signal to start Spring, all the hearts and love and flowers and stuff.

We making a couple of pre-order items this year, and we’re making our customizable sugar cookies, as usual, on which we will write WHATEVER you want, as long as it fits on the cookie.

this sends a confusing message

Your options are (order deadline Feb 12):

Two customized heart cookies in an classy striped box. Hearts can fit up to 6 small words, or a couple large words. (you get the idea from the picture, right?) Only $5!

Couples Gift Box For the high roller, looking to make an impression! This adorable box will contain 2 whoopie pies, 2 heart sugar cookies, 4 chocolate truffles, 2 mini cheesecakes, and 2 vanilla cupcakes, all valentine’s day themed,and with a blank card for you to emote on. No substitutions or customizations on this one, sorry! $32

We’ll also have plenty of sugar cookies, truffles, cupcakes, mini cheesecakes and other lovely items for you to drop in and pick up, but they will all be first come first serve. We’ll also have a few extra gift boxes around for you forgetful, last -minute types.

<3 <3 <3 (did i do that right?)

-Lisa

Breakfast Menu

Ok you guys, I really thought we’d be starting breakfast this Sunday, but we just haven’t been able to make the scheduling happen yet. I’m aiming for later this coming week. We’ll probably have a quiet dry run day, so I might quietly let you know about that through Twitter on the morning it happens.

As a teaser, I will tell you that the menu includes our biscuits and gravy, messy biscuit sandwiches, Gluten Free Biscuits and Gravy (!!), a daily gluten free quiche, southern style grits, and a potato and veggie hash.

Breakfast will be served from 8am to 11am, and sandwiches from 11am-close.

Thanks for your patience! And thanks for coming to that last brunch, it was crazy!

-Lisa

Hiring: Morning pastry

WE ARE NO LONGER TAKING RESUMES FOR THIS POSITION! THANKS!

Baker (Morning Pastry)

Schedule: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat 4am-10am (or until finish, up to 40 hours per week)

Start date: the week of January 29th

The job we have open is for an early shift baker. This will include all morning pastries, yeasted doughs, danishes, cakes, cupcakes, doughnuts, etc. The perfect candidate will be able to work well and quickly alone, budget their time properly, follow a list, keep a clean work area, arrive at work on time, consistently turn out quality products, follow a recipe, convert a recipe, and create new vegan recipes. A full job description will be given during interviews, but basically we are looking for someone to train directly with me (Lisa) and Katie to bake our current recipes plus develop new ones. We are trying to push the bakery in a new direction and need a motivated, talented person to do this with us. This position will encompass all types of baking and decorating at times, from muffins to wedding cakes.

The position is not currently full time, but most likely will be by March, as wedding season kicks in.

The base pay rate for the position is $10.00/hr, but will be decided based on the candidate’s history, experience and training.

No previous commercial baking experience is required for this position. (I didn’t have any when I started.) BUT! Resumes with experience may be considered over resumes without. If you don’t have experience, please include a cover letter explaining WHY we should hire you with no experience. It is also strongly preferred that the right candidate is vegan, as you will be baking all vegan pastries and creating new vegan recipes.

The 4am start time for this position is non-negotiable. If you can’t get to work on time at 4am, don’t apply. The week days are subject to change, the schedule listed is our current need.

New Year, Big Changes

Ah, a new year and a fresh start! Since the world is going to end this year, I figure I should squeeze in everything I’ve ever wanted to do at the bakery before I run out of time. Some big changes are in our very near future, and while the details aren’t all ironed out yet, I want to let everyone know three big things that are happening. (And I’m kidding about the world ending thing, that’s all made up, right?)

Number one: We are raising our prices. I KNOW! This sucks. We have gone through TWO coffee wholesale price increases without raising our prices, and some of our drinks are seriously under-priced at this point and we are losing money. We have also watched flour, sugar, and pretty much everything else we bake with get more and more expensive over the last couple years, some of it doubling in cost. On top of that, many distributors are charging large delivery fees to cover high gas prices. I’ve held out as long as I can, but it is time for us to add those costs into our products so we can stay in business. Yes, our prices may be a bit higher than a non-vegan bakery, but the products we use in baking are not as widely available as traditional ingredients like butter and eggs, and the replacements for these items (Earth Balance, Tofutti, etc.) aren’t cheap.

Number two: At the beginning of February, we will no longer be serving our all-you-can-eat Sunday Brunch. I know that some of you are having a heart attack right now (I’m sorry Paul!) and I hope you will forgive me when you read number three. I have LOVED serving brunch for the last four years, and it was exactly what I wanted it to be – a time and place when many different people crowded together over vegan food and shared tables and made new friends. I always wanted it to be a community meet-up, and I feel like, for many people, that’s exactly what it has been. It has also helped me develop what I think are the best vegan biscuits ever. On the down side, it has been a scheduling nightmare for us, as well as being completely unpredictable. Some weeks are insane, and some are so dead we hear crickets, but we always have to buy the same amount of food because we never know how many people will show. So sometimes we run out after an hour (this sucks!), and sometimes we compost food to feed an army (this sucks more!). So, the next four brunches listed on the right of this page will be our last four ever.

Number three: I have saved the good news for last, which is that starting at the beginning of February, we will be serving breakfast 7 days a week. Our biscuits aren’t going away, they’re just becoming something new! We are no where near finished with the menu, but as soon as it is done I will post it far and wide. It will definitely feature biscuits and gravy, biscuit breakfast sandwiches and other quick breakfast items, that you can grab to-go or eat here. It will also have several Gluten Free options. We’ll be remodeling the sandwich menu at the same time, to add some new favorites and more salads. More info on all of this soon.

I know this is a lot of news at once. I spent a lot of time away from the bakery in the last year since I had a baby, but I’m really happy to be back and I have renewed motivation to help us be the best we can be. You may have already noticed some changes (new pastry case! palmiers!) and there will be a lot more to come. We are going to focus on having new and exciting pastries regularly, and making sure our pastries are baked daily in small quantities so we can ensure freshness and quality for all of our customers. We’ve also spent some extra time on our espresso training this fall, so come try a espresso drink if you haven’t had one in awhile.

Thanks to all of our loyal customers, and all of our new customers this last year too! All of you eating and shopping locally makes a big difference in all of our lives, and we love seeing your faces. We also know that Portland has a lot of amazing vegan food choices and we really appreciate it every time you stop by the bakery, and the mini-mall.

xoxo – Lisa

p.s. A list of vegan baking and cake decorating classes that I’ll be teaching at the bakery this spring is coming soon!!

Holiday Hours and Gift Certificate Sale

As usual around Christmas, we have some shortened hours and a few days that we will be closed to let you know about. Our staff works hard through the holidays and most of them take vacations for Christmas, so we’ll be a bit short staffed, hence the shorter than usual hours.

Dec 24th: 8am-2pm

Dec 25th: CLOSED

Dec 26th CLOSED (for repairs and maintenance)

Dec 27th CLOSED (for repairs and maintenance)

Dec 28th – Dec 31: 8am-6pm

January 1st: 10am-4pm BRUNCH FROM 10am-1pm

We’re also having a Gift Certificate sale, so snag them up for Christmas presents! You can call us from far away and buy one over the phone, and we’ll mail them to your Portland friends for you.

$20 for a $25 certificate

$43 for a $50 certificate

$65 for a $75 certificate

Get them now through Dec 24th!

Thanksgivig Pre-Order

It’s time! The info is below, and our staff is waiting to take your order. 503-477-5916. Oh, and if you call and get some weird “voicemail is not set up” message, it’s because we are on the other line (and we don’t have voicemail) so just call back in a couple minutes. As always, we will have extras of most items, but they will be in limited quantity so it is better to reserve them ahead of time. Thanks! (The combo deal serves 6-8 people.)

It’s Pumpkin Pie Time!

You can officially start calling today to place orders for you holiday pumpkin pies! Tomorrow I will also post our other Thanksgiving offerings after we finalize it all this afternoon.

This year we will have available for pre-order:

Pumpkin Pie (made with spelt flour as always) $12 (serves 8 – 10, or 2 depending on the size of your stomach)

Oregon Berry Crisp  (this is gluten free!) $12 (serves eight )

Shoofly Pie (Amish molasses crumb pie, Lisa’s favorite!) $12

Pumpkin Cheesecake (made with spelt, serves 10-12) $35

Our famous Dinner Rolls (very glutinous, one dozen) $5

We will also have limited supplies of Apple Pie, Pecan Pie, and Gluten Free Pumpkin Pie, on a first come first serve basis.

Oh, Holidays, we are so excited to see you!

Closed Monday Aug 15th

We’re all going out to have some fun, but we’ll be back on Tuesday! And maybe when we’re back I’ll write an actual blog post, and not just a closure notice. That would be nice.

Closed for the 4th!

We are closed today, for cleaning and repairs. And for fireworks! Open regular hours again tomorrow.