Lauren Drewes Daniels
Audio By Carbonatix
In early 2020 it was cookie bliss at Kessler Baking Studio. The from-scratch bakery in a charming restored house on Beckley Avenue in North Oak Cliff was buzzing along, baking 38 flavors of cookies each day. Things hit a high mark in March 2020 when the esteemed James Beard Awards were announced and Kessler was a named semifinalist for Outstanding Baker.
What could go wrong from there?
“For approximately three weeks, foot traffic into the bakery increased 200%,” baker and owner Clyde Greenhouse said. But soon, that momentum crashed head-on into the pandemic; shelter-in-place orders were issued and all of the food service industry was in for a long and difficult time.
“That said, the nomination did help our new shipping partner, Goldbelly, find us,” Greenhouse says.
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Kessler Baking Studio is in an adorable old house on Beckley Avenue.
Lauren Drewes Daniels
If you were a fan of the bakery – more specifically – if Greenhouse’s cookies were like a siren call to you anytime you were in the neighborhood, then you might have treated yourself to the curbside service. Greenhouse set up a series of flags along the north side of his property where customers could order cookies online. Speaking from experience it worked smoothly and helped bring a bit of sweet, crunchy normality to a complicated time.
Greenhouse expanded the delivery radius and added items to the menu like Saturday morning cinnamon rolls (pre-order only), buttermilk biscuits and a dozen take-and-bake frozen cookie flavors.
Clyde Greenhouse has had to make a lot of adjustments since being nominated as a semifinalist for a James Beard award.
Courtesy of Kessler Baking Studio
Greenhouse says things are not back to normal yet, but he’s continuing to navigate his way through this normal, which still has its complications. “As a 100% scratch bakery, the rise in raw ingredients cost has presented us with our greatest challenge. We’ve experienced an average increase of 40% across raw goods,” he says.
To balance that he’s had to apply marginal increases to prices to help cover some of the costs. He also slimmed down some of his operations. Instead of 38 cookies on the daily menu, the bakery now produces the top dozen flavors.
If you walk into the bakery now, you’ll notice a lot of new products: Rice Krispies treats, mixed nuts, coconut macaroons and a freezer with cookie dough. There are now cookie cakes, gluten-free options, brownies and blondies made with a four-to-one chocolate-to-flour ratio. Don’t miss the flaky from-scratch K-Tarts, their version of Pop-Tarts. And the biscotti, twice baked for extra crispiness, are unforgettable.
Once all of the nearby apartments open and are occupied (many are in the works), Greenhouse says he’ll expand breakfast beyond cinnamon rolls and biscuits. Until then, get your preorders for those Saturday morning cinnamon rolls in.
