January is an odd month.  There’s the shutdown for cleaning, maintenance and upgrades, decompression after holiday production, the January Slowdown, and then the ‘oh my, St. Valentine’s Day is in 3 weeks!’ panic amongst those of us who work with chocolate (well, not really panic, but some holidays just suddenly loom after lurking quietly on the calendar). Occasionally, there’s a snowstorm (and awesome coverage by the West Seattle Blog). 

It’s also a good month- King Cake has made it’s return, injecting some sweet, colorful goodness into those early Seattle mornings.  This heralds the imminent return of Paçzki, those tasty cream or jam filled fried bread, and the closest to a doughnut you’ll find here (they aren’t back yet- they’ll only be around for the two weeks before Mardi Gras). 

Overall though, it’s pretty quiet.  That means it ends up a little quiet on the blogging front as well.  There are a few bits of news and some thoughts to put out there though.  First of all- *ahem* We need artists for Art Walk!  We have a couple of artists lined up in the year, but that leaves 9 months or so that need to be filled.  Paintings, photos, and mixed media work well in our space- we don’t really have display space for sculpture/3-d work, etc.  Food, landscapes, still life and city life are some of the areas of interest have for display purposes (no political based art please- while we enjoy discussions and encourage everyone to be informed, we also want our space to be a nice relaxing break from the news at large).  Please also note that our display space is a bit higher up on the wall, so smaller pieces might not show well.  We have a gallery-style hanging system (adjustable cables and clips).  So- if you are an artist or you know someone who is, drop us a line (info (at) bakerynouveau (dot) com). 

Regarding snow-days- on the off-chance that we have another round of real winter down in the lowlands here, so long as there is power to the building, we’ll be able to open the doors.  We have several staff that live very locally, and bread and pastry aren’t really concerned with the weather, so it has to be baked off.  The first serious snow in the area after we opened pretty much proved the resiliency of West Seattleites- it’s the first time I’ve seen people on cross-country skis on city streets.  So, if you live in or around the Junction (or can ski to it), we’ll be here.  Someday, I hope to have a photo of a bunch of skis racked against our front window and wall. 

We’re also looking at a few small upates here and there on the website.  Nothing major, but some slimming down of some text and some re-arranging of a few things perhaps (basically a refreshing).

And one last small thing- questions- does anyone have any?  We write about things that we find interesting, but what do you find interesting or wonder about? 

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

As posted previously, if it’s the first week of a new year, we’re going to be closed a few days.  We need a short break, our equipment needs to be tended to (granted, equipment needs tending more than once a year), walls need patching and painting, and everything needs a darn good scrub.  Also, it’s traditionally one of the times when Chef does a major re-arrangement of tables and equipment.

This year, we did a little extra upgrading in addition to our normal maintenance.  The production-area floor got a new, industrial grade top-coat.  Previous years had seen some attempts at using a top coat that we installed, and, well…it worked ok, but we needed to patch and reapply on a regular basis. The industrial epoxy coat that was installed last week should hold much better against what we throw at it.  The floor is now a glossy grey as opposed to the kind of patchy cream color- it also looks like it was painted with sand thrown down, because it essentially was.  The sand-looking texture improves traction and reduces slipping, which is always a good thing.

What should be more immediately noticeable is in the cafe space.  We had marble installed to cover or replace some pretty beat-up wood tops.  We went for a classic look using Carrera marble instead of granite or a composite (our stone surfaces in production are granite).  It has a honed finish instead of polished, as the glossy polished look would eventually show a lot of wear and turn matte anyway. We like the lighter color and somewhat more classic look to the stone, and marble is just such a nice, relatively easy upgrade to make. 

The bulk of time for the shutdown was required for the floor- between cleaning and texturing the underlying concrete, and applying and letting the floor cure (it was a low VOC, quick cure), it took the better part of four and a half days.  We then needed an extra day for ramping production back up.  The marble installation went remarkably quickly, taking well under half a day (for stone, it seems the bulk of time required is for cutting and polishing to the correct finish). 

For those that are interested, the marble was cut, finished and installed by Sam Clark (http://clarkstoneinstallations.com/), who is local to West Seattle and also works on home installations.  The production floor was coated by Coatings Unlimited, Inc. (offices in Kent, WA, and I’m pretty sure they are industrial or commercial only). 

As for the re-arranging of the production space, we have actually returned to a more linear arrangement, with several stations trading places.  We also freed up a little production space by removing an under-utilized two-door cooler, and shifting a chilled table to that spot.  Why all the shuffling?  The basic answer is efficiency.  Which mixers are being used mostly by what station, who needs to be closest to the gas range top, what needs to be closer together, or possibly farther apart, who might need to be able to work from a number of racks at a time- these and others are considerations that are being continually evaluated.  The general production areas (dessert, bread, pastry, and savory) are pretty well marked out at this time, but as our team grows and our product mix adjusts to our sales, different production groups end up with modified needs.  A shut down is a good time to make adjustments based on the previous several months’ production. 

Since everything was taken out of production for the floor coating, it was a good time for a radical adjustment.  The space flows much better now, with less congestion in some areas.  We’ll have to sit on it for a few months to catch a couple of really busy cycles, but so far, it seems to be working well. 

So, that’s a brief recap on what happened during our close.  We’d like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding!

So, our little shop gets a bit frazzled by the end of the year, and we tend to like to close the first week of January in order to clean, make repairs or updates, and generally take stock of things heading into the new year.  This year we’re closing for the 1st through the 6th. 

We extended it a couple of days this year over last, as we are finally putting down an industrial strength floor-coat.  Hard wearing epoxy paint just hasn’t quite been working as a solution, at least long term, and we’re starting to see some wear and tear in the concrete, so we’re are having the floor professionally prepared and resurfaced.  It will be easier to clean, safer for the staff, and much more resistant to the dropped sheet pans that life in the bakery occasionally provides. 

Also, we’re getting some marble accents installed.  There are a few areas that have been looking a little worn, and we thought a nice update would be a bit more fun than sanding and refinishing the current wood surfaces. 

So- we apologize for any inconveniences our annual shutdown will bring, but it will let us start the new year right- our staff gets a little rest, and our bakery gets some much needed TLC. 

Have a great start to the New Year everyone! 

And they are back up and correct!  The simple fixes are the nicest!

Our phone line is acting very strangely, with static and dial-tone overlay.  We do have a technician scheduled for late this morning or early afternoon.  We apologize for any inconvenience. 

We’ll do our best to field questions either over twitter (@bakerynouveau) or via email, and let you know when they are back up and working properly.

As a quick FAQ-

1) We do not take orders over email, but we can answer questions about product and ordering. 

2) Orders for tomorrow and Saturday are closed and our production schedule being set, so we cannot take any further orders for this week.

Thank you, and again, we apologize for any inconvenience.

We’re closing early today, at 5 pm (originally was to be 6 pm), for a private anniversary event for staff, vendors and extended bakery family.  We normally hold staff events off-site, but wanted to be in the shop for it this one.  Thank you for your understanding.

We will be open regular hours on Tuesday. 

Have a great Monday afternoon and evening everyone! 

Writing a post to encapsulate what is considered one of the early marks to hit is a bit daunting. 

As of today, December 17th, Bakery Nouveau is 5 yrs old.  There are a couple of scary statistics out there about food establishments and years of existence, and while we’re aware of them, the 5 year mark snuck up on us.  We’ve been busy doing what we do, working hard to make and serve products that we can be proud of.   So what does one write? 

Thinking about it all, the first thing we want to do is say Thank you, West Seattle.  This is really a great community to be in.  You continually give us the chance to show what we can do, to actually make and sell bread, pastry and dessert for a living.  Everything else aside, we make food for a living.  How cool is that? 

We get to develop our craft and share it with our customers.  While it’s not always easy, and quite often is a lot of hard work, it’s also one of the best jobs out there, and we are grateful for having this opportunity.

Secondly, but no less important, we want to thank all of our employees, past and present.  We’ve been exceptionally lucky to have so many great, talented and hard working people come through our doors. 

As a small thank you to everyone that comes in today, the 17th, we’re discounting in-store purchases by 10% (current production items only, with chocolates, macarons and phone orders excluded).

Again, thank you, to all our customers- we truly do appreciate that you choose to buy our products, and we look forward to many more years of being able to create and sell great food. 

Thank you!

For those who haven’t seen it yet, our full holiday listing is up on our website now.  There are two items not listed that are in-store only- the chocolate filled glass bowls of the previous blog post, and the chocolate Christmas Trees.  There are a few trees left that are made from our rocher, and then the others are made using feuilltine, crispy wafer flakes.  Let me tell you, it’s hard to photograph a chocolate tree and have it look right (hence, it not being pictured).  However, they do look good in person, and would make a nice small centerpiece. 

We’ve also recently brought out a large chocolate and hazelnut panettone.  They don’t quite have the traditional tall, cylindrical look of a classic panettone, but they are created from a classic panettone dough.  This means they are soft and buttery like you would expect, but have chocolate and hazelnut in lieu of dried or soaked fruit.  Then again, if you want rum soaked fruit, we do have Stollen!

For those of you who know what you want, we are taking pre-orders for Christmas Eve through the Wednesday, the 21st.  We’ll be closing early on the 24th, and closed both Christmas Day and the day after.  We’ll be open for regular business hours on the 27th. 

We’re also closing a little early this coming Monday, the 19th, for a private event. The bakery will close at 6 pm, instead of 7 pm. 

So, just a short informational post for this Friday eve.  Have a great evening and enjoyable weekend everyone!