How do you see this place located at 3700 Nicollet?

Butter Bakery has many forms and based on your own personal use and experience it can take the shape of many vastly different "selves" - and for one, as I heard this past week, we've become a fixture. Now, how did that happen?

And what exactly is Butter Bakery Cafe? What do you tell someone about it who has never been here before?

Very early into our move to 3700 Nicollet, I was invited to meet with a business consultant (he offered it pro-bono) who wanted to give me some advice.  His first slide had a picture of the building with the outdoor sign circled.  Since I had run out of construction funds along the way,  the outdoor lighted "butter" sign was still waiting for "bakery cafe" to join it.  He wanted to know, "What's butter?  What are people driving by supposed to think is happening here?"   I didn't think he was impressed when I said that my neighbors knew who we were, what we were about, and what we made, so, they'd know what is happening inside.  It's butter.  Yes, but what is that?  Ok, time for the long answer.

a bakery pick-up spot -- we do indeed have many people for whom we are a local, fresh, baked-on site, place for simple pastries - a scone, a biscuit, sweet bread... a quick stop in and out - with a sometimes-warm, always tasty morsel that starts one's day.  These folks, however, may never venture past the front entry walkway...up to the register, a peek into the kitchen where bakers and cooks bustle, where warmth and sensuous smells linger.  But it isn't hard to make that pick up, not notice the activity behind the counter, and still ask - "so, do you make everything here?"   Uh, yes, from scratch.  For those who know, that's the reason to continue making the trek, day after day.

an independent coffee shop -- not a chain - not a 'find the cheapest option for all parts' -- not a restaurant that serves coffee, but more of a coffee shop with food... In the original design of Butter Bakery Cafe (my first business plan drafts were named Cup of Grace and Brave New Bean) and I envisioned something simple, built out of what I knew and felt I could do...

butter bakery café provides superior organic coffee shop services to individuals in the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhoods of Minneapolis. Ecologically friendly and sustainable environmental practices will be highlighted as butter bakery café seeks to demonstrate a vision of community-based business. Wherever possible, we will seek local growers and artisans to provide supplies and services for the café.

            It helped that my sisters and brother all had experience in coffee shop settings (Dunn Brother's at the time) and that my scone baking for family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues, was the nudge in the back to step out of teaching and into the coffee shop world.  The "add on" of a bakery in the purchase of Butter in 2005 - was indeed an "add on" to what I was intending to focus solely on - coffee.

            For many years the coffee shop on Grand and 36th - was part of the bursting-at-the-seams coffee shop growth.  They popped up everywhere - at one point there were a dozen within a couple miles of Butter.  Coffee's "second wave" was swapping out "bars" for baristas.  As more "refined" coffee shops of the "third wave" appeared, it was my decision to stick to the middle ground and stay community-oriented.  It's been a joy to continue to be a neighborhood gathering, meeting, and working spot - a role that coffee shops fill so well. 

            I certainly have quite a large number of customers for whom, just a cup of coffee, is all they are after.   Many come in not even aware we offer food and bakery items.  Sometimes I wonder how folks can walk past the bakery cases with such willpower...I'm the kind of coffee drinker, who, when out of town and in need of a morning coffee, will hope that there is a pastry to pair it with.

a neighborhood restaurant - which interestingly was never part of the original plan, but after all these years, is an integral part of the Butter Bakery Cafe identity.  As restaurants go, being a breakfast/lunch place doesn't quite have the aura of dinner places.  I appreciate that.   Even during the couple of years after our move to 3700 Nicollet in 2012, when we did keep the kitchen menu running until 7 pm, it was always billed as "breakfast all-day" and "light" lunch.  I never intended to be a dinner spot and didn't actually want to get pulled away from our focus on early morning (fresh bakery and coffee are certainly more "morning-focused") activity. 

            I bought a business that was running a "brunch" menu - Friday, Saturdays and Sundays - so the evolution of dining at the cafe always had that feeling at its heart.  We seem to have the "brunch" mentality built into the way things work - always busiest from 10 am to about noon - late-breakfasts-early lunches-a bit of both.  As we added more lunch items and tried to grow into something that could also pass for dinner, I could sense a tension with the expanding menu. 

an advocate for food-systems change - there has been over these past 18 years quite a bit of changing "tastes" which has fed my understanding of food systems' impact on dining.  Always a vegetable friendly restaurant, as I learned more about factory-farmed-animals and CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), it was important for the restaurant I'd manage to provide ethical options for any meat-based options on the menu.  Connecting with family farms that shared my concerns and showed deep care for the earth helped me reconcile my worries.  The normalizing of vegan diets, the awareness of gluten-free diet needs, as well as ongoing learning about climate warming and impacts of commercial agriculture on the climate have all brought adjustments to the menu, our sourcing, and our processes in the kitchen and bakery.

            Leaning into post-pandemic dining, I've circled back around to the beginning with a desire to simplify a kitchen menu that grew beyond our limited capacity.  I had to ask myself an easy question - 'what's at the heart' of the menu - and landed with a very simple answer - the buttermilk biscuits. However, downsizing is definitely harder than expanding, a lesson I've learned in my latest home sale/purchase and move.  Dropping someone's "favorite" item does pain me, but I try to balance that with my time and energy assuring any favorites can be there consistently.

Much of the challenges of my "capacity" for work in the kitchen have come from another "self" the shop has taken on these past 8 or so years while at 3700 Nicollet.  The first years our composting and recycling efforts made us a bit 'out there' and as I dropped of commercial food service contracts with the restaurant warehouse giants in 2009, my local sourcing efforts took lots of extra time and effort (and cost) to pull off.  "Worth the effort", has been my mantra. I have been blessed to learn from other high-road owners, and then over the years organize with them to advocate for better workplace supports for workers and small business owners alike.  

There are lots of people, here in the city, across Minnesota, and even nationally now, who only know of Butter Bakery Cafe because of this political action and advocacy. I'm that pesky small business owner who continues to testify at the legislature, who shows up at city meetings, and is on the calls with other neighborhood organizations working for change.  Sometimes, when I bring along a box of baked goods or coffee, the connection of my "bakery business" with my "business of advocacy" does happen.  Most of the time, though, those I work with don't know what's on the menu or just how much time I put into daily operation of a restaurant-cafe-bakery business.

a Nicollet Square partner - choosing to settle into the corner of 37th and Nicollet, back in 2012, was, in many ways, a fulfillment of a longing to be a supportive training site.  It certainly feeds my teacher-background and serves another way to be of service in our neighborhood.  The partnership with Nicollet Square has also deepened our understanding of being a place of mission, a place of learning, and a place of growth.

and a bit of many more things -The city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County certainly see me as a resource and support (although, at times yes, I'll admit to having been a thorn-in-the-side).  Small businesses like Butter, are touted as important part of the fabric of the city, and I'm grateful for the support that has come in times of need to assure that I'm still standing after all these years.  The environmental community has taken a deep love to my efforts to be a sustainably run business with a zero-waste goal.  Southwest Minneapolis as a whole continues to consider me the "good neighbor," a "fixture" who will come through with donations for fundraisers and support for events.  The education community appreciates my long years of being a public-school teacher that brings understanding of their needs.  For our unhoused neighbors, a warm, safe place for a respite, that has been connected to a supportive housing community.  And Butter continues to be the well-loved and respected "mission" business that the faith community collaborating with Beacon Interfaith Housing can support for our role in supporting the residents of Nicollet Square Housing.  

So, who is Butter?

At heart, I hope, a place of service and love, where you find you are welcome for whatever brings you to us.