You might have noticed the pink paper and coming soon signs for the Sugar Bakery which is coming to 1014 Madison Street (between Boren & Terry). Here is a little question and answer session I had with Stephanie Crocker (owner of the new bakery.
When are you scheduled to open?We are scheduled to open October 2007. Hopefully sooner, depending on how quick the permitting process goes.
What made you decide on First Hill?I think our decision on First Hill happened by chance. We had been looking at Capitol Hill almost exclusively, but then the prices just started to go up like crazy. I've written a little bit about our process on my blog,
http://sugarshop.blogspot.com. We did, however, spend a lot of time on First Hill during my husband's cancer treatment at Swedish, so we became used to that area, and we sort of like how it's between Downtown and Capitol Hill. We want to make it a Seattle destination.
Are you local to First Hill or Capitol Hill?We're actually West Seattle-ites which was sort of the only place we could afford 5 years back. We recently seriously entertained selling the house and moving into a condo as near as possible in Cap Hill, but the market is really booming there and prices are jacked up right now for very low quality buildings. We aren't quite ready to give up our awesome backyard and barbeque, and plus, my husband has an audio mastering studio at our house so we'd potentially have to rebuild that in a new location which would be hard to do in the midst of trying to open a bakery.
What kind of baked goods can we expect to come from Sugar?What kind of coffee will you be serving?Sugar's been around for nearly 4 years, selling mostly wholesale to catering companies, grocery stores, and coffee shops. We've done a decent retail business without a shop through our web site, but delivering so many desserts can be very tiring, especially with traffic these days. We specialize in mini desserts like petit fours and little tarts, although people have been known to shed a tear with our cinnamon brioche. We also do cakes and tarts and weddings on a limited basis, and have plans to offer pre-made sandwiches and salads, as well as homemade sodas without that pesky high fructose corn syrup. We haven't decided on a coffee yet, but my personal favorite in Seattle is Pegasus; however there's also an organic coffee from Hawaii I'd be interested in pursuing, can't remember the name. I also really like Raven's Brew from Alaska, but it's quite bold and manly.
Expected hours to be open during the week?Will there be WiFi?We'll likely be open 7am-7pm, and potentially be closed Sunday, just to make sure I get a day off in the beginning. We are unsure about unleashing WIFI, since how many seats we offer will impact how many regulations the health department will make us follow. Our intention is for the shop to be mostly grab & go, since the space is really quite small and bakery production will occupy a substantial portion of the space. We're trying to get as many seats in there as possible, but erring on a smaller seating area.
The bakery is still a few months a way but in the mean time check out their blog
http://sugarshop.blogspot.com/. They will be documenting the progress of the bakery/cafe.
