7 minute read
Last Call
Jennifer Lee, local baking phenomenon
Veer Mudambi
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Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
When Jennifer Lee started offering delivery services from her bakery’s Worcester location at the start of the pandemic, she thought it would be only for a couple of weeks, maybe months, on the outside. Instead, what started as a way to stay afloat and keep staff employed morphed into an entirely new business model. Now, Jennifer Lee’s Gourmet Bakery is not only surviving but thriving, having gathered something of a cult following in the heart of the Commonwealth. Lee sat down with Last Call to talk about the past year as well as growing pains and the upcoming move to their new Cambridge Street location.
What steps did you take when lockdown first started?
The Boston store which we’ve had for 10 years shut down so I realized we needed to pivot. So a week after everything started to shut down and people were staying home, I decided to start doing deliveries. At first, I hired my friends who got laid off to do deliveries all over Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut. But when they went back to their jobs, I didn’t have any delivery drivers and started doing them myself. Within the first year I put 40,0000 miles on my car.
So are you delivering from the Boston location or just Worcester?
We bake everything at our Worcester store for both Boston and Worcester. Everything is sourced from this location.
At what point did you decide that deliveries were going to be permanent?
I originally thought it was just going to be during the pandemic. Just a couple weeks, maybe just a couple months, but it’s still going strong. So I decided that in spring and summer we’d do farmers’ markets, so from May through October and then November through March we’ll be doing deliveries. People really like them — it just makes more sense for them. It’s just easier to have their favorite treats delivered to their house especially since we’re the only allergen friendly bakery anywhere near here. It’s just more convenient.
The Worcester location only opened last year — so did you move the baking set-up there since then?
We used to bake out of our Boston stall, but that’s literally 100 to 250 square feet and we were using that for everything — it wasn’t an ideal set-up. So when we heard about the Worcester Public Market, we thought "this makes more sense — we have a lot of customers in Worcester, let’s expand to a second location and bake out of it so we have our own storefront." Here, the kitchen is about 300 square feet and the storefront is about 250 — we outgrew it in the first month. I thought it was going to be enough and it really wasn’t. The other problem is that it’s very difficult for anyone to find us - our front door is on Harding Street and there’s no backdoor so you can’t find me in the market even though we’re attached to it. They assume we’re in the market itself even though we’re not.
When will the Public Market location close?
We are planning on closing there either mid-October or December 1, we haven’t decided
SeeCALL,Page31
5 THINGS TO DO
GAZEBO-PALOOZA, CANNA ARTS FEST AND MORE ...
Richard Duckett and Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK
Jessie Garcia & Belit will perform Oct. 2 at Gazebo-Palooza in Grafton. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Small Stones Benefit
Gazebo-Palooza promises music, food and fun from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 2. behind the Old Town House, One Grafton Common, Grafton. Local musical acts include Josh Briggs, Old Tom & the Lookouts, Dave Rivers, Jessie Garcia & Belit, Pallet House, and The Half Wits. You can sample food donated by area restaurants, and there will be games, prizes, a silent auction and beer and wine. The event will benefit the Small Stones Festival of the Arts running Oct. 15 to 24. (RD)
What: Gazebo-Palooza When: Noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 2 Where: Behind the Old Town House, One Grafton Common, Grafton How much: $15; children 10 and under admitted free with adult. For more information about the Small Stones Festival, visit www.smallstonesfestival.org
Re-interpreting the past
ArtsWorcester has four exhibitions opening Oct. 7. Among them, Jennifer Davis Carey: Redemption (Oct. 7 to Nov. 7) at ArtWorcester’s East Gallery, 44 Portland St., sees Carey re-interpret 19th-century American daguerreotypes depicting unclad, enslaved people. Carey uses a combination of photographic transfer and vitreous enamel to give the figures clothes in vibrant colors, drawn from different fashions and eras. This intervention removes the figures from the distortion of “race science,” shifting the images toward portraiture and transforming them into figures of agency, presence and grace. Also opening Oct. 7: Urban Green and Blue (Oct. 7 to Nov. 21), a collaboration with Preservation Worcester shown in the Park View Room, 230 Park Ave; Virtually Identical: Works by Worcester Public Schools Visual Arts Faculty (Oct. 7 to Nov. 7), ArtsWorcester West Gallery, 44 Portland St., Worcester; and Material Needs 2021 (Oct. 7 to Nov. 7), Davis Art Gallery, 44 Portland St., Worcester. (RD)
What: Jennifer Davis Carey: Redemption When: Oct. 7 to Nov. 7 Where: ArtsWorcester, 44 Portland St., Worcester. Opening reception, 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 8, for Jennifer Davis Carey: Redemption, Virtually Identical, and Material Needs. Opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 7 for Urban Green and Blue in the Park View Room. How much: Free. For more information including gallery hours, visit www.artsworcester.org
Minuteman reenactors will be on hand for the Fall Open House Oct. 2 at Reed Homestead in
Townsend. PROVIDED PHOTO
You Say You Want a Revolutionary War Reenactment?
The Reed Homestead, 72 Main St., Townsend, will take a trip to the past on Oct. 2 during a Fall Open House and Minuteman Encampment put on the Townsend Historical Society. Tours will be provided on the hour as reenactors will be demonstrating crafts, cooking and the military arts at the time of the Revolution. (RD) What: Fall Open House When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 2 Where: Reed Homestead, 72 Main St., Townsend How much: Free. Tickets via Eventbrite to reserve your time, www.eventbrite.com/e/168882081853
Into the ‘Green Valley’
Booklovers’ Gourmet in Webster will present a reading with Barbara Thomas from her newest poetry collection, “The Last Green Valley,” at 2:30 p.m. Oc. 2. Thomas will be joined by fellow poet Joan Bernard, who will also read a selection of her work. Thomas grew up in the Last Green Valley, a 35-town National Heritage Corridor in eastern Connecticut and south-central Massachusetts. Her poem “Hickory Nuts” will be published in “Treelines,” an anthology of 21st-century American Poems by Grayson Books in 2022. (RD)
What: Barbara Thomas’ “The Last Green Valley” When: 2:30 p.m. Oct. 2 Where: Booklovers’ Gourmet, 72 East Main St., Webster. Please RSVP your attendance to deb@bookloversgourmet.com or (508) 949-6232. Masks are required for anyone not fully vaccinated. Signed copies will be available for purchase. The cover to “The Last Green Valley,” by Barbara Thomas Buddhi de Mal will perform Oct. 2 as part of the Canna Arts Fest in Shrewsbury. PROMOTIONAL PHOTO
Cannabis Culture
Sure, we can all think of incidents of famous marijuanacentric artists — Cheech & Chong, Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen, to name a cliched few — but the breadth of artists working in the cannabis culture is far wider than that, and the Botanist in Shrewsbury is putting a few on display with the Canna Arts Fest. The musical lineup includes Buddhi de Mal, Vicki Beaulieu and Greg & Cindy Flatt, along with visual artist Luca and a glass-blowing demo by Matt Benoit, all of whom are employees of the store. The event will also feature vendors including Funky Stuff, Taproot Treasures and Spoiled Lungs Clothing, as well as the Mama Roux food truck. It’s an offbeat little event, but de Mal, particularly, is of interest, as his 2017 EP, “And God,” is a richly textured and deeply heartfelt piece of work, which definitely warrants hearing more. (VDI) What: Canna Arts Fest When: noon to 4 p.m. Oct. 2 Where: The Botanist, 235 Hartford Turnpike, Shrewsbury How much: Free
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