In the ten years Honey and Rye Bakehouse has sat on Excelsior Boulevard in St. Louis Park, right on the Minneapolis border, it has quickly grown into an institution.
It’s part of a bakery renaissance in the Twins Cities. Minnesotans are rediscovering the art of baked goods and patisserie.
On DeRusha Eats, Jason DeRusha talked to Anne Andrus, owner and baking mastermind behind Honey and Rye, about how she got into the business, and about their new expansion with Bakehouse coming soon right down the street (“Opening soon”).
Jason DeRusha: You're about to open another facility. So Honey and Rye is going to open Bakehouse?
Anne Andrus: Yep. It's funny because the location is within the same block, so we're chopping off the bakehouse, moving it down the street. So we'll now have Honey and Rye, the original brick and mortar right there on Excelsior in St. Louis Park, been there 10 years, and Bakehouse.
DeRusha: So cool. Your sign is unreal.
Andrus: I would say that's what sold me on the entire building. As soon as I pulled up, I was like, if our name can be on that sign, we might just make it. It's big. It's vintage. It has a huge arrow that just points at the building.
DeRusha: I sort of set things up by talking about you pivoting at a fairly young age and then following your dream. Tell us that story.
Andrus: Yeah, so I had went to St. Catherine's University and I was working for a nonprofit out in the San Francisco Bay area that was a fair trade certifying organization. Loved the job, hated the day-to-day, like at a computer, at a desk. And I just said, I need a little more action in my life. So
DeRusha: It's funny, you checked the boxes of like being mission oriented and being what you thought you wanted to do?
Andrus: Exactly. It was all those things. And then I said, something's still not right. Something's not aligning. So I got a job at a bakery. They hired me as a home baker, which was really exciting. I had no experience besides, you know, making cakes for friends at home, and learned a lot. Learned a ton on the job. And within the first year of being there, I said, this is definitely what I want to do.
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DeRusha: You when you were a kid, did you bake? Did your family bake? You grew up here in Minnesota, right?
Andrus: I did, yep. About two hours north in Randall, Minnesota. Randall, 500 people. My family's like 10% of the population.
DeRusha: So you coming to St. Louis Park, you're in the big city.
Andrus: Oh yeah. This is the big city for sure. I did bake a little bit growing up. Nothing super fancy. A lot of Tollhouse recipes that I had memorized. Come home from school, whip up a batch.
DeRusha: It's a good recipe. It's solid.
Andrus: It's withstood this test of time, for sure.
DeRusha: But you enjoyed it, there was something? Was it the precision? Was it the routine? Was it just creating?
Andrus: Eating. Come on. We all know that's all about the enjoyment.
DeRusha: Bakers are often sort of very exacting and bakers can be weird.
Andrus: They totally can be weird. I feel like I've hired a lot of perfectionists over the years. Isn't that funny? I think they're drawn to it with, like you said, the exacting science. But I will be the first to say it's as much of an art as it is a science. There's still a lot of creativity, a lot of playfulness with like ingredients and flavors and all that. I'm probably more on that side than the exacting side. My team would tell you.
DeRusha: When you opened your own place, this was 10 years ago, were you afraid?
Andrus: Oh my gosh. I have to say, I think I was too ignorant to be afraid at the time. There was definitely a new world, I didn't know exactly what I was getting into and I think that helped me just keep pushing forward. I'm probably more afraid now.
DeRusha: Oh, really? The expansion?
Andrus: Yeah. And the debt is a lot bigger now than last time around. But it's super exciting and it's really nice to have more experience under my belt and lots of, tons of support. I mean, 10 years, it says it's working, so we're excited to be just doing it a on a little bit bigger scale.
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DeRusha: When you look at what you're doing at Honey and Rye, what do you think put you on the map? Was there one item or product?
Andrus: I feel like I've been asked like, what's your signature thing? And I don't feel like I have a super great answer for that. Our banana bread gets a lot of comments of like, don't tell my mom, but yours is better. It’ such a Midwestern classic. But yeah, scones? We've had a lot of people say, ‘I thought I hated scones until I tried yours.’
DeRusha: Your scones are terrific. They're good. And I don't like scones.
Andrus: Exactly.
DeRusha: I thought I didn't. They're usually dry.
Andrus: But I think our bread too, our baguette is one that I'm really proud of. And that was something I always tell new bakers, when I was in pastry school, we spent 40 hours a week for like the first month shaping baguettes. Over and over and over and over. So that's one that I really do think people know, it's hard. It's hard to do a nice baguette.
DeRusha: It is hard. You're right on the border of Minneapolis and St. Louis Park. You're not far from Rustica, which was an established, award-winning bakery. Were you worried about that?
Andrus: I probably should have been more worried. It definitely crossed my mind.
DeRusha: It's not really competition though?
Andrus: You know, I mean, it is and it isn't. Because, you go in the other direction and there's like Cafe Ceres and like Turtle Bread’s over there. And the other direction, it's Breadsmith and Yum is just down the road. For me, it holds true that there's so much room for so many bakeries that we're all just a little bit different. What people look for at different shops and kind of different flavor profiles? Like I said, we’re not precision, exacting. So not super French technique, not super patisserie, things like that. I lean much more comfort, Midwestern, hardy, wholesome.
DeRusha: Do Midwesterners, Minnesotans, lean more to the rustic, to the comfort to, give me something big for my money?
Andrus: Yeah, that is true. I think there is that. I feel like maybe why we've had success is we do walk a little bit in between there. We do have baguettes, we do have croissants. We don't have jumbo, ginormous or anything on a stick. It's so much about, I think just flavor first for us. Like we really do. And freshness. I mean, that's another thing.
DeRusha: You do have Monkey Bread.
Andrus: We have Monkey Bread. I originally wanted to name the store of Monkey Bread. Because I loved it. That was one of the things we really baked a ton growing up and my oldest brother, there's eight of us, he was like, ‘you can't name the store Monkey Bread’. I was like, okay. But maybe the next store.
DeRusha: Minnesotans love bakeries. I feel like we have undergone, over the last decade especially, a bakery renaissance in this town. Why do you think that is?
Andrus: Food Network. They help a lot. I think just having all the competitions and interests, I think is a big piece of it. For me there was definitely a pull to really honoring the craft of it and keeping the baker in the process, part of the baked good. Because so many things were lean, so automated. For me, that just takes out all the heart and soul, flavor and quality and care about it. So yeah. I don't know what really drove it. I'm sure it was happening on the coasts but we got there.
DeRusha: You are very slender. People might have this image where you think a baker is like eating cakes and eating cookies. But you have to taste? Is this just a gift of genetics or what's happening here?
Andrus: For sure. That I have to say for sure. They say never trust the skinny baker. I'm like, that's not true. That is hurtful. That's an attack. When I went from a desk job to a bakery, I lost about 10 pounds. Because it's active. You're lifting like 50 pound bags of flour. You're running around literally on our feet all day. I do eat cakes and cookies and sweets all day, but usually like a bite. I'm tasting. I'm trying. It's rare I sit down with a whole cake.
DeRusha: That's true I suppose. Is there a flavor you get sick of where you've tried it so much? Is there something you're not as interested in anymore?
Andrus: Um, nope. I'm wracking my brain. I don't think so. I love sweets. I love salty though too, which is at the bakery. We do have a lot of nice savory options as well.