Made from Scratch
In the Sierra, our aspen have turned bright gold, the first snow has dusted the mountains, and smoke (the cozy kind) is curling from chimneys. In the Bay Area, honey-colored October light makes the afternoons glow.
Are you craving something caramelized, spiced, and warm? You’re right on track: autumn is the season that brings us back to the hearth, and back to our senses--literally. It turns out that those beloved baking spices are good for our health—cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg are full of highly potent polyphenol antioxidants,
At the heart of our hearth here at Coffeebar is the ethos, everything should be made from scratch and with love. At our Bakery in Truckee, the poster child for seasonal treats may well be our Maple Walnut Scone, made with maple syrup, (featured here in an unabashedly autumn-erotic Insta video.)
If such creations don’t scratch your autumn treats itch, there are Jack O’ Lantern sugar cookies and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. For the cardamom-obsessed (you know who you are) the maddeningly crispy Oatmeal Cardamom cookie is perfect for dunking into your favorite hot beverage, or our seasonal Cardamom Latte!
And yes, even those beverages are made from scratch, with love. Our syrups and flavorings are created in-house, with premium ingredients like organic brown sugar and Reno artisan confectioner Dorinda’s chocolate and caramel. Sure, there are easier and less costly ways to do these things, but that just wouldn’t be Coffeebar.
“We don’t use pre-processed ingredients to save time; we start with pure, very high quality ingredients, and source them locally wherever we can,” explains our head baker Cass. “Like using milk from Sand Hill Dairy in Fallon.” (Yes, that’s why your microfoam is just a little bit more luxurious.)
This uncompromising approach goes for our holiday pies, too. Cass is proud that you’ll literally see the imprint of our bakers in those hand-formed crusts: “It immediately tells you they’re made from scratch, by human beings.”
A savory character
As Coffeebar has grown, so has our culinary vision. The Bakery was one of the first steps, and now we’ve set our sights on an expanded menu of savory offerings. That’s why we recently created a new role: Culinary Operations. The vision is not just to expand our menus, but to expand the career opportunities in our company, offering yet another path for growth.
So we’re very excited to welcome Sara to the team.
Like many of us here, Sara heard the mountains calling. Drawn to the sparkling waters of Lake Tahoe, Sara headed up the Food and Beverage program at the Resort at Squaw Creek, overseeing four F & B outlets.
Originally from Illinois, her first career was in the salon industry, where she rose to the top as an expert colorist. A platform artist for a major hair care brand, she traveled the country as an educator. But after years on the road and raising three kids, she found another calling yet to be answered: culinary school beckoned. “There are similar skillsets required for mastering color and cooking,” she notes. “I love the blend of chemistry and art.”
Despite her success, Covid found her furloughed.
“When I read the job description for the new Culinary Operations role at Coffeebar, I literally thought, ‘was this written for me?’” she recalls. She resonated with our values and Coffeebar’s vision of radical inclusivity, as well as the commitment of the leadership team.
“What’s so interesting is that the job isn’t just about food, creating new menus or dishes. It’s about people, and helping train, cultivate and inspire a new group of culinary professionals.”
And excitingly, she notes, “This is truly an opportunity to create something from scratch.”
