In Portland, summer means berries. I wish all year meant berries, but it doesn’t, which is why I am considering moving to Mexico.
round things taste better
We even worked out a way to have fresh berries AND doughnuts. Blackberry glaze! Then it got crazy and all of the glazes jumped onto some doughnuts! Zebra doughnuts.
wow, what a mess
And Katie has been making ridiculously awesome key lime pie, and it’s like a little slice of heaven.
I had a really hard time deciding on brunch this week for some reason. I just figured it out right now, and now I’m excited!
I’m calling it christmas in June – and it will be the same breakfast I served for christmas last year, if you were around. Savory Quiche, sweet potato hash, greens and pumpkin cranberry trifle for dessert. Yes!
For those of you with sensitivities- next week will be Gluten Free Brunch!
We’re serving Stumptown’s Ethiopia Misty Valley as one of our drip coffees, come give it a go! Its a little more expensive than our usual coffee offerings, but we think its good and want you to try it so we’re sucking up the cost. You can buy a little bag o’ beans here on the cheap as well. Because we’re nice we’ll even grind it for you!
Just a reminder that all of the business here at your local vegan mini-mall will be donating a percentage of their sales tomorrow to the Let Live Conference.
Spend a little extra money here and help out! Herbivore has a bunch of new items in – i’ve seen some purple v-neck t’s and a green tank top – and scapegoat is doing some $30 tattoos. I also just saw on the Food Fight site that Blossoming Lotus (who are opening a new location on NE Broadway and 15th, did you know?!) might have soft serve over here.
Thanks for all of you generous help!
-Lisa
You’ve met other Sweetpea staff here, but today we’re going old school! Ben has worked with me at the bakery for 2 years and 2 months (outdone only by Ryan), starting back when we didn’t have a lovely retail space and worked in rented commercial kitchen space in the middle of the night. This is Ben, my mom and I at Vegfest a couple of years ago.
we were low-tech then
Thanksgiving of 2006 was the first holiday that I really got overwhelmed with baking. I only had 2 employees at the time and we had dozens of pies to make, and our wholesale business was booming. I put the word out that I needed some extra short-term help and Ben was one of the people that came in to assist. I’ll be honest here – I didn’t expect much of anyone in that situation – it’s hard to just jump into a kitchen and bake recipes you have never seen and be efficient and really helpful. Ben made quite an impression – he was a quick learner, needed little instruction and was meticulous. I still remember how beautiful all of his pumpkin pies came out. Turns out, he’s always like that! As a bonus, he is fun to talk to, and really posi (that’s “positive” for you un-hip people). As soon as I had an open position, I hired him.
And so our bakery journey began, with Ben always willing to work extra hours and put in extra effort. His loyalty to the bakery is unparalleled. Once I suggested he wear the Sweetpea chef’s coat, pretend he owned the bakery, and field all of the customer questions at an event and he was more than willing.
now that's enthusiasm!
Everything he tries he excels at, from making muffins (we used to call him Mr. Muffins) to making espresso (he doesn’t even drink coffee!), to making cookies. When cookies aren’t coming out right, or I need a new person trained on the technique, I ask Ben. I swear he can communicate with the dough.
I could probably go on and on about the fun we’ve had, and all of the delirious 3am’s we’ve spent baking feverishly, but I’ll just leave you with this picture, which explains everything. You’re awesome Ben.
recycling bin + cake decorating turntable = car.
It may not look like summer outside in Portland (what’s with the meteorologists even TRYING to pretend they can predict the weather here?) summer fruit has arrived! We just started getting local strawberries delivered this week., and everything in the pastry case is covered in fresh fruit! Pies, danishes, cakes, tarts, cupcakes…everything tastes better with nature’s candy.
its like a strawberry big mac
I’m excited about this summer at the bakery – we’re trying to just hold down the fort and chill out, and spend our time and energy on new recipes. Katie has been testing pie recipes, and hello new coconut lime bar that is now my favorite thing ever and Rose is working away on croissants. We have also started carrying bread from Portland French Bakery – they make the bread we use for our sandwiches, and we are testing the waters on selling their loaves of bread as well – fresh baguettes, an olive loaf, and a garlic loaf to start. We also have iced tea, if it ever gets hot you might want to try it, and for my friend Kurt, biscuits and gravy for breakfast most days.
Stop by and see what’s new – we’re doing our best to never let you get bored of sweets.
-Lisa
Some amazing people around here at the mini-mall, as well as amazing people from other places have been working very hard on Portland’s Animal Rights Conference, called Let Live. There is a lot going on in the next few weeks to help raise money to pay for the conference, and you can find out about that on the Let Live website. I’ve been wondering what I can do to help, and it seems like money is what they can use the most right now, which unfortunately I don’t have a lot of.
But! I do have a lot of wonderful loyal amazing customers, who might also be wondering how they can help. So here’s what we’re doing – We’re donating HALF of our brunch sales to the conference this Sunday. This means that if 100 of you come to our $10 brunch, like you usually do anyway, we will give $500 to the conference. I’m going to hope that more of you will come than usual, and we can make it more like $600, or $800! I’ll buy extra food, and bring in extra tables and chairs and maybe we can accomodate a larger crowd than usual.
You don’t have to do anything more than a usual Sunday morning- just come eat, and see your friends, and you’ll be helping a really great event.
This week’s brunch menu is:
Biscuits, Gravy, Seitan, Pancakes, Kale, Potatoes, Scramble, and Peach Raspberry Crisp
Includes drip coffee as always, and add 16oz of OJ for only $1!
Brunch is from 9am to noon, but I will let it run longer this week, so feel free to show up late!
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June 16, 2009 12:20 am | 
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