On Saturday, former City Bun’s owner Vicky Lambert is bringing her cinnamon buns back to the Borough but that’s not all. She’s also bringing cookies and brownies, and these little baby olive oil cakes that sound amazing. It’s part of her new Happy Bakery concept – and her attempt to get right with baking again.
“There are always going to be the cookies and buns, but I have this opportunity to serve all my favorite things – so that’s basically what I am doing,” she said as we met to discuss the new concept in her still-a-work-in-progress retail space.
Vicky originally opened City Buns in September 2022 with no prior commercial baking experience. “I am all self-taught,” she said. And it turned out it was – exhausting. “The first month into City Buns I had to expand,” she said. So they knocked down walls and expanded the kitchen. Still, she was limited in how much she could make especially within the constrictive shelf-life of a bread dough – plus, she missed baking.
“I missed making cookies,” Vicky said. So she took a break and was ready to walk until the emails started coming in. Was she open? Was she ok? When were the buns coming back?
So she went back to baking and this time she focused on everything she loved. She took a self-guided bakery tour of New York City and tasted all the cinnamon buns the Big Apple had to offer. She tested new recipes and perfected the old (for those it may concern – the thick cinnamon icing is coming back – no more glazes). “I have been spending 12-hour days recipe testing,” she said.
And now the DYI-bakery makeover is nearly complete (ok, full disclosure, when I was there earlier this week it was nowhere near complete but no worries, there are still several 12-hour days left to perfect.)
“I can only do as much as I can do,” she said keeping zen about the workload ahead, and honestly, she seemed it. “I know what I am getting into this time,” she said. The only thing giving her pause? What you’ll think of the new place.
“That’s my anxious part. I really want people to like it,” she said.
Happy Bakery, 34 S. High St., opens at 9 a.m. on Saturday. For now, hours will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends only. And note bun lovers, she’s only making 200 rolls. This is compared to 600 she was making previously. So, prepare to come early if that’s what you’re looking for.
Originally published, Dec. 1, 2023
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