What Makes a Successful Bakery?
The answer lies in ATB’s behind-the-scenes tours of Houston’s finest world-famous bakeries. Observe their methods, learn their techniques, and glean tips and strategies that you can adapt to your enhance and improve own operation. The tours will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and will leave from the Hilton Americas (see tours for specific times and drop of locations). Participation is limited.
Tour A
Buses load at 7:00 am at the Hilton Americas and return at approximately 10:30 am to the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Ooh La La Dessert Boutique
770 W. Sam Houston Suite 500
Houston, TX 77024
713-465-6338
www.oohlalasweets.com
Vanessa O’Donnell found her real calling in life after working in the pastry kitchen at Brennan’s of Houston. She graduated from the Art Institute of Houston Baking and Pastry School in 2004 and went on to perfect her baking skills at the Houston Country Club. After three years she took a sweet leap of faith and created Ooh La La Dessert Boutique. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, and at the age of 26, launching a bakery was not intimidating to her. She knew by following her passion, she had a good shot of success. Now with three locations, she offers customers a vast choice of her signature cupcakes, cupcake towers and dessert platters, as well as cookies, pies and cheesecakes in a charming atmosphere. One of her customer’s favorites is the Cupcake Bar where young and old love customizing their own treat.
Mabis Patisserie
14522 Memorial Drive
Houston, TX 77079
281-741-9161
www.mabispatisserie.com
Cake decorator Mabis Ratel has been in the business of baking and decorating for almost 15 years. She started when she was young with her mom setting the example and her dad providing the inspiration. Mabis is the bakery cake designer and artist and she is self-taught. At the bakery, Mabis adapts and customizes all kinds of specialty cakes for all occasions and for all clients. The featured style of Mabis Patisserie is modern. You can sit with your coffee and relax listening to the music. In addition to enjoying the view of the cakes, you can enjoy viewing the art that is inside the bakery. Mabis says, “cake decorating, cake designing and art is something I have a passion for and I love doing it” and it shows with all the great reviews she gets from all their clients.
Cakes By Gina
14165 Bissonett St. Ste O
Houston, TX 77083
281-495-9400
www.cakesbyginahouston.com
Born in Santo Domingo, Gina Yobbagy had a knack for baking for friends and family even as a 14 year old girl. She came to the U.S. as she began high school and completed her schooling with a degree in Architecture. She has used that knowledge to conquer stacking issues with cakes. Gina has been located in her 9,000 sq. ft. bakery/store for 9 years. With a spotless and totally open concept kitchen, she inspires customers who watch the art of the decorators while they are placing an order for their special cake. Gina has a reputation for unique and spectacular cakes, whether it’s for a wedding, a birthday, or a big corporate event. Gina has collected many awards in the arena of wedding cakes and is considered one of the top wedding cake designers in the Houston area.
Tour B
Buses load at 7:00 am at the Hilton Americas and return at approximately 10:30 am to the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Dessert Gallery—Commissary
8813 Knight Road
Houston, TX 77054
www.dessertgallery.com
Dessert Gallery, owned by Sara Brook, has more awards and accolades than can fit in a small paragraph — not only for her creativity in the world of pastry but also for her business savvy. Dessert Gallery has rocketed to success because of Sara’s unique style of marketing her desserts. The whimsical, colorful and super fun style is carried throughout her store, signage and social media efforts. She makes the customers hungry with large monitors in the stores showing the make-up of the products for the customers to enjoy – you just want a big bite out of each one! She added cookies with custom scans several years ago and makes it easy for the customers to order them online. Decorated cakes are the newest big item for her, and they look fun and fabulous. We will be touring the Commissary where they also make the food menu for her substantial lunch crowd at her stores. At the Commissary they are creating festive and fun packaging for the online orders as well. Sara is always attending gift shows hunting for unique packaging to dazzle her customers. With her tremendous energy and creative mind, Sara keeps her business always on its toes.
El Bolillo Bakery
2421 S. Wayside Dr
Houston, TX 77023
281-728-8762
www.elbolillo.com
El Bolillo Bakery, owned by Kirk Michaelis and his father-in-law, is one of the premier panadarias in the Houston area. They have three stores, but the one we will be touring is the newest one that was built across the street and about a block away from the oldest store. The interesting thing is that both stores are doing a “land office” business with so many customers, there is always a line. This large and lovely store has a policy of never letting the fresh bread get cold. They keep it coming out of the ovens in a pattern that keeps it warm all day, every day from 5:00 am-10:00 pm with three complete shifts of bakers…in each of three stores. While the bread is coming out of the oven they are decorating cakes and providing their beautiful pandulces and other treats native to the Hispanic market. You will truly love seeing this bakery and how they continue to make so many customers happy.
Three Brothers Bakery (main store and production facility)
4036 S. Braeswood Blvd
Houston, TX 77025
713-666-CAKE (2253)
www.3brothersbakery.com
With a 200-year, five generation baking history, one would call this family survivors. On May 8, 1945, Sigmund, Sol and Max Jucker along with older sister Jenny were liberated from the Nazi concentration camps. On May 8, 1949, Three Brothers Bakery opened in Houston, TX. Many of the recipes used in the Bakery today are original to “the old country” and remind many of the tastes of Eastern Europe. Today, fifth generation baker, Bobby and his wife, Janice and Sol’s wife, Estelle Jucker, own the Bakery. In 2008, the 7,500 square foot bakery, devastated by Hurricane Ike, was rendered inoperable. Out of everything bad comes something good. The storm allowed Three Brothers Bakery to reinvent itself. After nine long months they reopened to rave reviews and have collected many awards for baked and decorated cakes, pastries, business acumen and survival. This location is the production location and main store making all products such as poppy seed strudel, hamantaschen, sour dough rye and challah daily (there was a challah shortage in Houston after Ike), cupcakes, pastries, dessert, wedding cakes, extreme cakes and most recently creating the “Pumpecapple Piecake” featured in Food Network’s Outrageous Food. If you are lucky, perhaps you’ll see Sigmund at the Bakery and can hear a story or two as many of their four generations of customers have done over the years. When you have a “nosh” at the Bakery you are sharing a piece of the family’s history. Enjoy!
Michael’s Cookie Jar
5330 Weslayan
Houston, TX 77005
713-921-3500
www.michaelscookiejar.com
Michael’s Cookie Jar is Houston’s premiere bakery of all-butter, hand-made cookies. Chef/Owner Michael Savino is a professionally trained pastry chef and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. His professional career began in 1994 under the tutelage of Executive Pastry Chef Randy Gehman at the Four Seasons Dallas and continued at the Four Seasons Houston as Executive Pastry Chef. After 13 years with the Four Seasons, Michael decided to pursue his dream and open a cookie bakery in Houston in 2006. From the beginning, he has built a loyal following of customers who appreciate his chef-prepared cookies made in small batches. Every recipe is thoroughly taste tested for superior taste and texture. He prides himself on making cookies that look beautiful, but with a taste that exceeds your expectations. Michael’s customer base is very diverse and includes wholesale clients, corporate customers, bridal customers, on-line customers and folks who just wander into the bakery for a snack. Michael’s Cookie Jar also ships gift boxes of cookies. Michael is looking to expand his business to a second location within the next year.
Tour C
Buses load at 3:00 pm at the George R. Brown Convention Center and return at approximately 7:00 pm to the Hilton Americas. For those departing Tuesday evening, approximate travel time to Bush International Airport is 1 hour. Houston Hobby airport travel time is approximately 30 minutes.
Slow Dough Bread Company
8728 Westpark Dr
Houston, TX 77063
713-568-5674
Slow Dough Bread Company is the brainchild of Heath Wendell, a fifth generation baker whose family tradition of baking dates all the way back to Germany in the year 1886. As a boy, Heath lived above his family’s bakery in Chicago, Illinois. He recalls fondly that his grandfather would wake him at 3:00 am so the two could make their way downstairs to start the day’s work—donuts, coffee cakes, breakfast pastries, cookies, custom cakes, holiday specialties, and yes, bread! As an adult, Heath was inspired to further develop his talent at bread baking and soon found himself in Paris on a 14-month stint making baguettes with master baker, Yves Desgranges. In France, Heath learned about the passion and soul involved in baking a loaf of bread—now, they are the secret ingredients in every Slow Dough loaf! Slow Dough fired up its ovens for the first time in April of 2009, commencing business officially on May 1. The bakery has quickly established itself as the premier artisan bread company in Houston, serving many of the finest restaurants in town.
Kegg’s Candy (Chocolate Factory, Retail Store, & Ice Cream Parlor)
8168 A Westpark Drive
Houston, TX 77063
713-684-3000
www.keggscandies.com
Kegg’s Candies began humbly with the young Kegg brothers experimenting with chocolate candy recipes in the kitchen of their mom’s home in the spring of 1946. Mr. Kegg set up his first candy kitchen and shop later that year and a legendary Houston institution was born. Kegg’s quickly gained a reputation for making the finest premium handmade confectionery treats in Houston. In the mid 1980’s Mr. Kegg retired and turned the business over to the next generation who continued the family tradition at the Beechnut location. The business was eventually sold to John Toomey, a local business man in 1994. The business continued to flourish and was purchased by Houston entrepreneur Carl A. Bartuch Jr., its current owner, in 2004. Today, Kegg’s Candies produces its gourmet chocolates and confections in a new 11,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art production facility on Westpark Drive between Hillcroft and Dunvale Streets. The new factory was built to host factory tours with a separate tour entrance and a 90-foot-long glass wall exposing a clear view of the entire candy making process. Adjacent to the factory is a new retro-themed 2,000 sq. ft. retail store, reminiscent of a 1940’s candy stop. Kegg’s remains Houston’s only local “true” full-line chocolate manufacturing business using only premium ingredients, hands on production techniques, and time-tested proprietary traditional recipes the way Mr. Kegg himself started doing so many years ago.
Whole Foods Bakery
Production Facility
Houston, TX
www.wholefoods.com
The Whole Foods Market Bakehouse in Houston, Texas employs 130+ team members to produce breads, pastries, and decorated cakes for 25 Whole Foods Market locations in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The facility was opened in 2007 encompassing 24,000 square feet, and has recently added additional space increasing the footprint to 37,000 square feet. The bakery runs 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, 364 days each year, with the same commitment to natural and organic ingredients that they showcase in each of their retail locations. Thomas Massey serves as the facility team leader at Whole Foods BakeHouse. He graduated CIA in 2001 and worked as a pastry chef for the Four Seasons hotel in Houston for 3 ½ years before going to work for Whole Foods; first as a pastry production team leader; then as a facility team leader in the Austin bakehouse. In 2008 Whole Foods, closed the Austin bakery and consolidated production at the then-new Houston bakehouse. Thomas moved to Houston as the facility team leader.
