February 2012
2 posts
January 2012
3 posts
King Cake!
Yep, it’s definitely that time of year. We have our slices of King Cake out, and whole cakes (~12 nice servings) are available by pre-order. This year’s cake is still rooted in the colorful New Orleans’ style crown shaped cake, with the colored sugar in green, yellow and purple. The dough is braided croissant dough, with a filling of our Tatin style apple filling (i.e.,...
It's been a little quiet
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,...
Marble counters and a new floor
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...
December 2011
9 posts
Annual shutdown- Jan 1st-6th
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...
Phones work!
And they are back up and correct! The simple fixes are the nicest!
Phone issues
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...
Early Closing Today, 12/19
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!
5 yrs and counting.
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...
Holiday Orders
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...
November 2011
5 posts
Giving thanks a day later
As most people that work in a food related field know, holidays can sometimes feel like they happen to other people- we may be closed on a particular holiday, but at least a few people from production have to work, if only to keep the levain fed and happy. If we’re only closed for one day, then a regular production crew comes in.
This means that sometimes we address a few things holiday...
Thanksgiving reminder pt. 2
We went through our orders this morning, and we’re right at last year. We have a great team that works really smoothly and efficiently together, so Chef says we can do more. As such, we’ve extended holiday pre-ordering through today (Monday)!
Thanksgiving reminder
What are we thankful for? That we have such a great community around us. We work hard to earn your custom, and we’re grateful that we continue to have the opportunity to serve you.
As a reminder, we are taking pre-orders for Thanksgiving until the end of business this Sunday, the 20th. The above link has details about our holiday offerings, including pricing. Any of our current items...
October 2011
6 posts
Chef on the mixing station
Monica, our main mixer/shaper is out of the bakery for a class and a competition. The class is for German rye bread. We’ll have more details when she gets back (and some new loaves on the way too).
The competition is the California Raisin Board’s annual baking competition, which draws in a large group of professionals and amateurs alike to create bread and breakfast items...
September 2011
7 posts
Chocolates and other updates
We have a soft-return of confections starting this week:
Mice! We have little chocolate mice in the case right now! The filling is a blended chocolate ganache (milk and dark) with orange and a hint of nutmeg.
There are also turtles! Pecans tossed in caramel and coated in dark chocolate with a pinch of sea salt (we use Portuguese, currently).
Marshmallows! Wait..marshmallows? Yep. As...
What's up with Chocolate?
Chocolate is starting a little late this year. It’s actually cool enough to get production started, but we’re looking at changing up the line a little and possibly adding some other confections. We haven’t decide what will be retired yet, nor what the new ones might be. There were a couple of ganaches that were a bit cantankerous to work with (broke easily, etc.) so they will...
Monday Considerations
A few random things being comtemplated on this mostly sunny Monday.
Sometimes we are surprised at which of our business costs have gone up the most, and may start to have impact. Due to numerous supply chain cost increases, the costs of paper/take away goods have been steadily climbing the entire year. Taken individually, it doesn’t seem like much, but collectively is another story.
...
Friday notes
So blog posts have been a bit sparse the last month or so. There’s kind of an end of summer lull it seems, just before the transition to fall. That, and the end of summer this year really makes a mind want to be outside! Sunshine is a good thing.
One thing that is going on is the King 5/Evening Magazine Best of Western Washington contest. Now, we don’t often like to toot our own...
Labor Day and the Weekend
We will be open all weekend and Monday, Labor Day as well. It looks to be gorgeous weather (yes, I just knocked on my desk), so to continue with a recurring theme from this summer- get on out there and picnic!
Come by and pick up bread for your outings, a dessert to surprise a party host with, or a mix of pastry for a family brunch.
Have a great weekend everyone!
August 2011
6 posts
Parent Map
So there was a completely unexpected email- it turns out that we were awarded a Parent Map Golden Teddy! We’d like to say thank you to everyone that voted for us!
We are in a great neighborhood, and we do see lots of families with children- as evidenced by the finger and nose prints on the bottom third of our glass case-fronts (who wouldn’t want to be a little less circumspect and...
End of Summer and the Junction "Big Bonanza"
This Saturday (the 20th) is the West Seattle Junction Association’s annual Big Bonanza. Merchants in and around the Alaska Junction will be featuring quite a few sales and specials for the end of the summer and going back to school. Given that it’s a bonanza and the western theme that goes with it, we’ll have our smoked chicken barbecue sandwiches back for another weekend...
Good, Better, Best
So, word came down recently that the readers of Seattle Weekly voted us Readers’ Favorite Bakery! We were thrilled and very happy to read that!
As happens when anyone has news like that, we took a moment to feel really happy for ourselves, and pleased that we continue to earn our customers the right way- by working hard and turning out great product that our customers enjoy. Our staff is...
Thursday notes
Chef’s been delving a bit more into savory again. Part of that means continuing to source herbs and spices. We order a pretty wide variety actually, and currently buy from World Spice Merchants here in Seattle.
If you look closely, you’ll see some red peppercorns just below the cardamom seed.
Being summer (really, it is!) we added a second barbecue sandwich. This one is smoked...
July 2011
7 posts
Further thoughts on organic
This Tuesday post is partially brought to you from a response to a customer. The gentleman asked if we sourced all organic wheat and butter, or if not, what our general policy is. I’ve touched on organic before, but thought to expand our view (or restate it). The following is a somewhat reworded/expanded version of the answer I gave the customer.
Our policy towards all our ingredients is...
Jammin' 2011
So, as noted a couple of times before, we’re working on including more seasonal locally grown fruit and produce. It’s really a matter of flavor- the closer the farm, the longer the produce can stay on the vine/bush/tree, and it’s nice to support local farms when we can. I will say, we’re kind of jealous of Tom Douglass too- having a farm like his in Prosser, to provide...
Published interview
Chef and instructor, Mitch Stamm, recently published a book with interviews and recipes from some of the top pastry chefs in the US and abroad. Chef Leaman was asked to participate late last summer and the first edition is finally out!
The title is ‘The Pastry Chef’s Apprentice’, and while I haven’t had the time to give it a thorough read-through (it just arrived this...
Happy 4th of July!
We hope everyone has a great time with friends and family! It’s a beautiful day so far, so get out there and enjoy it!
June 2011
11 posts
And we're back
Some coffee and cookies by the front door while all the lights were off, and Seattle City Light got the hookup done quickly. So, we’re now on a new power line! Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and again, thanks for your patience!
Power lines pt. 2
So, we had thought it would be an early morning shut-off, but as stated, the best laid plans…
The shutdown will happen right around 2 pm. We’ll be shut for probably a half hour, maybe a little longer. We’ll followup with a post when we’re back up and running!
Powerlines
The city has been doing some electrical work and added a new transformer to better balance the loading (or something like that) and added some new connections. They will be transferring over several of the businesses, including ours, tomorrow (Tuesday the 28th). We will be without power for about an hour sometime tomorrow. Originally it was scheduled for the early morning, but this might have...
