IT’S YOUR BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT ON JEWISH-OWNED BUSINESSES
YONAT BAKERY By Amber Fitzgerald
Yonat Bakery features Yemeni inspired Jewish foods that have been passed down through generations. Specializing in sweets and small bites, Yonat provides the flavors that would be experienced when growing up and enjoying summers in Israel: chocolate babka, rugelach, date shtrudel cookies, and sufganiyot, burekas, mallawah, and kubaneh. As the season changes, so does the menu, reflecting the fresh flavors that are available. After graduating from Boston University's School of Hospitality Administration, the restaurant life of New York City was calling to me. I spent a year as a floor manager at a well-known
Italian Restaurant in SoHo but found myself wanting to be making the food in the back instead of describing it to guests in the front. I soon began my first full time pastry job at a boutique hotel in Brooklyn, the Wythe Hotel, and my had an incredible pastry chef. Over the next three years, we would do breakfast pastries and viennoisserie, lunch and dinner desserts for the in-house restaurant, a la carte or passed desserts for private functions, and specialty cakes for anniversaries, birthdays and weddings. After my time in NYC, I decided to go to San Francisco to test my new self and skills. After some time in working pastry sous and chef jobs at restaurants and a bakery, I was given the opportunity to feature myself and my baked goods. The showcase went wonderfully well but in March and the following week, everything was shut down due to
COVID-19. With all this excitement and adrenaline of wanting to continue featuring Yonat Bakery goods, I attempted to fulfill personal orders within San Francisco, but working my full-time regular job along with running a bakery was too demanding. I decided to fully commit to bringing Yonat Bakery to life and return home to Jacksonville and be with my parents as I got it all sorted. I moved back in the beginning of July and through social media and word-of-mouth, I've been able to start the business up during these trying times.
The reception has been very warm and welcoming and it has made the transition better than I anticipated. As all this happened during a pandemic, it really highlighted the priorities I wanted to focus on and allowed me to pursue those desires fully. You can order through my website, yonatbakery.com, or visit me every other Sunday at the Orange Park Farmer's Market where I show my some of my staple items but also am able to have fun and experiment with new ideas. It's been a real treat so far, and I'm excited to see how it will progress!
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