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West Seattle food: Heavenly Pastry closes Admiral retail storefront

October 21, 2010 8:11 am
|      32 COMMENTS
 |   West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Just 5 months after adding a retail storefront to their wholesale/catering operations, West Seattle’s Heavenly Pastry and Cake has decided to go back to wholesale/catering only. Co-owner Michael Stein e-mailed this morning to say this note is now up on the door of their location on California just south of Admiral:

Dear friend;

Heavenly Pastry and Cake is making a few changes. Our retail shop will be closed as of today.

We will continue baking here, however, for your special orders and our catering and wholesale customers.

Ordering our delicious Pretzels, Cakes, Scones, and other treats is easy, at (206) 420-2780; or online, at www.heavenlypastry.com

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Team Heavenly

One new enterprise that’s under way – Stein points out they’re making pretzels for Dante’s Inferno Dogs, the popular hot-dog purveyor that’s best known in more-northern Seattle neighborhoods.

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32 Replies to "West Seattle food: Heavenly Pastry closes Admiral retail storefront"

  • voodoo October 21, 2010 (8:28 am)

    How funny. We just noticed this place for the first time the other night when coming out of Circa. Too late to try it now, I guess.

  • smile October 21, 2010 (9:01 am)

    Well this is a bummer. I tried it once and LOVED it. I had 3 different pastries and they were all to die for ! Especially the ‘bretzel’!

  • capo October 21, 2010 (9:19 am)

    No big surprise here. They ran the retail bakery like they didn’t want to be in the retail bakery business. They didn’t open until later in the morning (naw… we don’t want to sell our breakfast pastries to people who’d like them for breakfast). They offered very few items in their cases at any given time. Service was iffy at times.
    .
    It doesn’t matter how tasty your pretzel is, the retail front won’t stay open if you don’t sell items that people want at a time that’s convenient for them.

  • Jeff October 21, 2010 (9:25 am)

    Yeah. I got a strange vibe from the layout of the store. It didn’t have the kind of inviting appeal that a good bakery should have.

  • JanS October 21, 2010 (9:52 am)

    I agree with Jeff and Capo…there simply weren’t enough baked goods for sale to the general public. I expected bread, for goodness sake. They didn’t do that. No wonder it didn’t make it. Maybe that was the point all along. I’m sorry this has happened…we need a bakery in the Admiral District.

  • DMC October 21, 2010 (9:54 am)

    I loved that darned scone! My husband may cry…

  • Baba October 21, 2010 (10:00 am)

    I agree with capo, Jeff and JanS. It’s obvious that this latest WS business failure had nothing to do with current economy.

  • J.See October 21, 2010 (11:02 am)

    Yeah, didn’t open early enough for me to try it for breakfast ever, and I had a cupcake from there once that wasn’t any good. I’m sure their other stuff was good, but I wouldn’t have ever been able to try it when I wanted to.

  • Baba October 21, 2010 (11:09 am)

    I agree with capo, Jeff, JanS and J.See.

  • gina October 21, 2010 (11:11 am)

    A wholesale operation will be a better fit for the bakery operation. I wish them the best.

  • Danielle October 21, 2010 (11:11 am)

    No shock there. My husband and I went that first week and were very underwhelmed. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by another amazing bakery down the street! :). Oh well…good luck in future endevors to the crew at Heavenly.

  • alkisnake October 21, 2010 (11:21 am)

    The bread was the best in the world. You missed the most incredible kalamata baguette on the planet. My fave is still “the big cheesy” with jalepenos. I look forward to finding out who their customers are so i can still enjoy their incredible baked goods. I believe Cask is selling their big cheesy. I wish them success in their endeavors and would highly recommend that you use them for your next catering needs. If you have a business that could distribute those bretzels filled with chocolate salty gorgeousness and home recipe pretzels, big cheesy and other goodies, please carry them so west seattle can still enjoy the fruits of Heavenly Bakery! They truly rock and deserve your support!

  • Tracy S. October 21, 2010 (11:22 am)

    I’m sad, since the items they offered were delicious, but I agree that there was too little variety at any given time and the shop was open during odd hours. I feel like more often than not, when I’d walk by, it would be closed. I know it’s hard for small businesses to be open a great deal, but people can’t buy your products if your store is closed! I hope that the wholesale/catering business works out better for them. The cupcakes are divine!

  • Baba October 21, 2010 (11:27 am)

    WSB, can I report my own comment at 11:09? I thought, since it took so long for my 10:00 comment to appear, that you found it inappropriate. Sorry and thanks. It makes me look like an idiot :-)

  • dawsonct October 21, 2010 (11:35 am)

    Yeah, their retail operation sucked. Sorry for being so harsh, but it ALWAYS seemed like an afterthought, and not one to which much though was EVER given.
    We need another bakery here to provide for those Northern European/Midwestern baked goods that B. Nouveau doesn’t specialize in. The early press releases for Heavenly made it SOUND like that was their plan. They sure missed a HUGE target; hope for their sake they run their wholesale side with a little more prescience.
    —-
    And we need a REAL CHEESE SHOP!! A place where your cheese hasn’t been pre-cut and suffocated in plastic.

  • PastyPete October 21, 2010 (11:45 am)

    Another empty storefront in West Seattle. We’ve got to wake up friends! In order to create jobs we need to support business growth; and in order to do that we need responsible people in Government. We have to say NO to the status quo and vote for candidates like Diana Toledo.

    There is a great article on her at TheSUNBREAK.com, please read it and share with friends.

    http://thesunbreak.com/2010/10/20/im-asking-santa-for-an-early-christmas-gift-a-truly-non-partisan-king-county-council#comment-1

    • WSB October 21, 2010 (12:09 pm)

      Pasty, it’s not going to be an empty storefront. As their note says, they will continue baking there – they had interesting window displays for months before they opened and perhaps they will continue that.

  • CandrewB October 21, 2010 (12:45 pm)

    How would Toledo have kept this from happening?

    As an aside, we had relatives in two weeks ago and went to the following places: Steelhead Diner, Salish Lodge (brunch), Ste Michelle and Januik wineries and Metropolitan Grill. None of these were remotely cheap and each and every one was absolutely packed.

  • funkietoo October 21, 2010 (1:02 pm)

    PatsyPete…having met with Diana Toledo for one and 1/2 hours, I was initially interested in what she may bring to the table. However, after a couple of months of reading/watching her facebook and campaign page, and chatting with her at public appearances, I will not be voting for her….for a number of reasons.

    She is fine as a person to chat with, however, she is not the person I want as my King County Councilmember.

  • Bummer October 21, 2010 (1:36 pm)

    I loved the Bretzels. I hope that maybe Metropolitan Market will pick them up.

  • FJ October 21, 2010 (2:01 pm)

    I’m actually surprised they stayed open as long as they did to the general public. I did not like their limited baked-goods, everything was super-dry. That pretzel was WAY to dry to represent any German pretzel. blech!

  • bsmomma October 21, 2010 (3:09 pm)

    Dang it! I was hoping to give them a whirl. I’m always down for a good pretzel. Did I miss the announcement or did anyone else notice that The Body Bar is gone? There was something else that just went away recently too but I can’t think of it………

  • jsmWSB October 21, 2010 (4:00 pm)

    Dang it all to heck. Anywhere else walkable from Admiral Junction that has Stumptown drip?

    and PatsyPete: Inappropriate pulpit.

  • Keith October 21, 2010 (4:29 pm)

    Perhaps they’ll still sell certain items out of the space if you call ahead or show up at a certain time? I’ve been to some bakeries that do that sort of thing, like this weird one on Molokai that sells giant loaves of buttered bread *only* in the middle of the night.

  • Baba October 21, 2010 (4:42 pm)

    Keith, were you the designated driver or a passenger? LoL.
    .
    I take cabs…

  • chas redmond October 21, 2010 (9:33 pm)

    It’s a shame in a couple other ways, too. There is scant store space on that side of California which is inviting. The Safeway entrance was pretty surly – the new store will have a much more welcoming entrance. Alki Bike and Board has a welcoming entrance, Chase (or whoever it is) not so, the gift shop is okay for a low-key inviting storefront. The previous tenant, the West Seattle Herald had a reasonably welcoming entrance for a newspaper. The bakery really did not and having a closed door is – actually – an insult at that location that close to Admiral Junction itself. I wish the bakery success but I’m not happy that valuable people-space on California Avenue is being taken by a closed-door operation. It would seem a catering outfit could probably find more efficient and more-reasonably-priced real estate NOT in a prime storefront location. Just saying….

  • JBL October 21, 2010 (9:47 pm)

    Chas….I agree 100%
    A pedestrian friendly neighborhood with lots of great shopping & a bakery that doesn’t cater to the walkers by is just a waste. Why can’t they at least open their doors on the weekend?

  • Kristen October 21, 2010 (10:29 pm)

    Great feedback, too bad we all waited to long to stop in, or to give them the input on what the neighborhood was looking for.

  • chas redmond October 21, 2010 (11:13 pm)

    Kristen –
    I did stop in as often as I was in Admiral and they were open – which was about a 30% hit ratio – and did give my suggestions and did buy their products. And, their pretzels, good as they were, were bettered by their jalapeño cheddar biscuit, which was – to my taste – the equal of Macrina’s parmesan ham biscuit which Bird On A Wire sells toasted as a “hamdinger,” and Thriftway sells in their bakery case. I’m only sorry that Little Rae’s quit selling their jalapeño cheddar scone which City Grind used to sell and was the perfect breakfast item for an early City Hall hearing or meeting.

  • gina October 22, 2010 (8:18 am)

    During the first month they were open, I would hear people coming in and asking if they had pie. Three different times of day, three separate visits.

    Seems there is a pie by the slice market waiting to be exploited in Admiral.

    And the HUGE foot traffic passing to the bus, to the local schools, missed opportunity, high school kids are hungry. Missing out on the pre 9 AM folks while selling breakfasty/morning products?

    Believe me. People were constantly giving feedback. I sure heard it when I visited.

    “I didn’t know you were open” was the number 1 thing, even more than “Do you have pie?”. And after people entered and saw the display case of minimal goods, huge exit rate without saying anything.
    My personal opinion is that the bakery counter should have faced the west, so that walkers could see the goods, and not be puzzled by the big blank counter that you saw if walking by. But there may have been a good reason for them why they arranged it that way.

    It was interesting to observe as someone living in the neighborhood. The other one time Admiral district bakery is also catering only.

  • dawsonct October 23, 2010 (3:32 am)

    Kristen, I think it’s more a case of their disinterest in running a retail operation. They obviously had a few things they did well, weren’t interested in branching out, and didn’t care to run a shop that was in any way inviting.
    That’s fine, I’m just bummed by the unrealized promise and the wasted opportunity.
    —
    I have certainly dwelt on this subject WAY more than I should, considering I only visited it three times (during business hours. A BAKERY that opens at 9A.M.!?!?!), and the selection was so moribund and unappealing, I was almost embarrassed by how quickly I left the shop.
    What a shame; hope someone who is serious about running a bakery (N. European/Midwestern, as I previously stated) sets up shop in the next few years.

Sorry, comment time is over.