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!!

Bruuuunch!

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!

Help the Let Live Conference by eating Brunch!

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!

Gluten Free Brunch

Sunday mornings at the bakery are my favorite times to be in the kitchen. We have an all-you-can-eat brunch from 9am to noon, and it can get really hectic and crowded. The brunch is different every week, and ranges from southern style to crepes, or the most popular menu, chick’n and waffles.

The demand for gluten free items has been overwhelming, so I decided to make an all gluten-free (GF) brunch. It was surprisingly difficult to  deal with such a huge change in our usual brunch routine, and I ended up feeling like I could use another 2 weeks to work on the recipes. I haven’t had much luck making gluten free items in really large batches – it seems to change the chemistry of the whole batch, in a different way than wheat recipes function. I wasn’t completely disappointed though, and we will definitely try it again!

real men wear pink

This is Israel, my brunch assistant. His talents for making biscuits, waffles, and pancakes are unparalleled. These GF pancakes were a bit of a challenge, they just wouldn’t fluff up like the pancakes we are used to, but they cooked really fast and in perfect little circles. We also made biscuits and gravy, which I was pretty happy with. The biscuits came out nice and flaky, and really buttery!

looks like a biscuit, tastes like a biscuit!

The gravy was easy, our usual gravy with a roux made from margarine and tapioca starch rather than wheat flour. For dessert, peach cobbler.

i see a peach peeking out

All in all, it was not so bad! Katie stopped by to eat on her day off and took a photo of her plate, outside in the sun.

gluten, where are you?

Now if only the sun would come back. Spring can be such a tease!

-lisa