Tiny Love Bakery Will Celebrate One Year in Cully

The other day I had a chance to speak to the folks behind Tiny Love Bakery, a little walk-up bakery on NE 42nd Avenue near Alberta Street in Cully. Julie and Dillon are getting close to their one-year anniversary of the bakery, and since I didn’t have a chance to chat with them when they opened last year, this was a great opportunity to connect. I really enjoyed learning about them and their work and how it’s been going over the past year.

Plus, their baked goods are excellent. If you haven’t had a chance to stop by, I encourage you to head there and give their delicious products a try. Here’s part of our conversation from the other day.

The Baked Goods I Tried

The week before we spoke on the phone, I stopped by and picked up a variety of things: a Morning Glory muffin, cream cheese bun, chocolate chip cookie, almond cherry financier, and they threw in a couple of petite pistachio biscotti. I also got a latte.

Everything was very good. I hadn’t had a Morning Glory muffin in ages, and it was very satisfying and nostaligic. The chocolate chip cookie had the texture version I love: chewy on the inside with a crispy exterior, plus it had dark and milk chocolate chips (they may have been feves) in it; it also had a bit of flaky salt on top.

The financier was attached to memories of first eating them during my Donseumor days; I still have a copy of the recipe from Donsuemor co-founder Susie Morris, and until I decide to make them at home from that recipe, this is a beautiful version to enjoy.

I look forward to trying their savory options, too—breakfast sandwiches, Potato Pavé Hash Browns, and potato scallion bun, to start. You can see their full menu on their website.

Tiny Love Bakery: What’s in a Name?

I had an idea in my head about why they named the bakery “Tiny Love Bakery,” but I asked them anyway, for the sake of accuracy.

“We thought we would do little, individual style pastries—-which we are doing—but then also, our cat is named Tiny,” explained Julie. Their cat Tiny is a fluffy orange boy. I think that story is adorable.

“Yeah, we’re pretty obsessed,” she said. “No, I understand that. It’s easy to get obsessed,” I replied. 

“You know, when we opened, it was our first business, and it felt very overwhelming,” remarked Julie. “And after a year, I feel more comfortable and confident in what we’re doing and it just doesn’t feel like we’re scrambling quite as much.”

Julie is technically the owner of Tiny Love Bakery, but she and Dillon are life partners and run the business together. “I definitely wouldn’t be doing this without his help,” she said.

The bakery will turn one on Wednesday, April 27.

What Kind of Baking Will You Find at Tiny Love Bakery?

It is natural for people to want to categorize things, and with Tiny Love Bakery, their baking work spans mutliple traditions.

“I went to the CIA [Culinary Institute of America] for culinary school down in California,” explained Julie. “And they’re very explicitly French-culinary inspired. But I don’t strictly have a certain style of baking. I like to draw inspiration from traveling, and trying new things, and seeing cool stuff on the internet that looks exciting.”

She continued, “We do English muffins [inspired by the the British crumpet], I include some French pastries in the mix, and there’s a lot of American stuff, too—chocolate chip cookies and coffee cake.”

Talking About Style

Dillon added, “I think a lot of Julie’s work is French-inspired, but when the word ‘French’ starts getting thrown around, people are like, ‘Where are the croissants?’ And well, we don’t we don’t have croissants!”

“Most of my background is actually doing plated desserts for restaurants, so I have thought of myself more as pastry chef,” remarked Julie. “But now I’m a baker, I guess—the chef owner.

“I’m also half French Canadian—my dad is French Canadian and all his family is still up there. And in French, there are several different words for different types of bakeries, that are pretty useful. It’s pretty descriptive. And in English, we just have ‘bakery.’ So when you say you’re a bakery and people conjure up in their head what they think that means, whether it’s croissants or cookies or muffins or bread. 

“We get a lot of requests for loaves of bread and that’s just not quite the style that we are. It would be so nice if we had better words and better descriptors for it”

Coffee

I mentioned earlier the great latte they made from me and I asked who provides their coffee beans. “Thank you! We use Upper Left, we’re a big fan,” said Julie. And it was funny to me because I had just been over at their cafe on SE Clay, having their decadent raspberry danish latte.

She added, “They’ve been doing just a phenomenal job. We had a lot of fun picking out, which coffee beans we wanted to use. And we get compliments often on it.”

Other Food Work

And while this is their first food business, both Julie and Dillon have been involved with for over the years. Dillon mentioned his time working in food trucks, including Matt’s BBQ Tacos.

“I’ve mostly been down in California— I did some internships during that time I went to culinary school,” explained Julie. “And I was working at a restaurant afterwards and proceeded to go to business school and worked at a couple spots around San Francisco–nothing too notable, mostly just to get some different types of experience. And then ended up moving up here.”

Connection to the Neighborhood

I was curious to know how they connected to this little 520 square foot space in Northeast Portland—did they choose this little building or was it a kind of real estate meet-cute by chance? Do they have a connection to the Cully or Concordia neighborhoods?

“It was kind of just a happy coincidence,” said Julie. “We had been looking for a bakery location for about a year prior to finding this spot. And a big crux of it is there aren’t many built-out restaurant spaces in Portland—or not many that were available or that fit our needs. 

“There are many that are quite large that we looked at, and just felt it was way too overwhelming for the type of business that we want to have. We don’t need a 2,500 square foot restaurant. And so this spot came available—it was a little smaller than we had envisioned, but it felt right. And I think we’ve been able to make it work pretty well.”

Dillon said, “Someone else actually moved in first, and then a year later we were contacted by with their estate agent to see if we were still interested. So that was fortunate.”

“It’s been really wonderful,” said Julie. “The Cully neighborhood, everybody that we encounter is just incredibly gracious and incredibly supportive, as well. I’m sure you heard, like Misss Zumstein was across the street for a long time and they closed down about six months before we got into this space. So it was kind of serendipitous, you know—-the neighborhood needed a little bakery spot.”

The Walk-Up Window at Tiny Love Bakery

I asked what made them think about having a walk-up window setup. Of course, space was the major factor—there really isn’t much left inside the building after the baking operation fit into the space, plus the display and register area. Another element they could not accommodate was ADA compliance.

“Ir just made the most sense to do the window,” said Dillon. “I don’t know that we really would have been able to do it otherwise. We couldn’t do a ramp, and access to the restroom is kind of limited without going to the kitchen. “I’ve worked in food carts and stuff—I joke that it’s a glorified food cart.”

He added, “But we’re so fortunate to have our own plumbed restroom and a dish pit. It’s huge!”

I was curious to know if they see a difference in business in relation to the seasons—are there less people in the winter than the summer or does it even out itself, pretty much. And yes, they confirmed that, like a lot of places, the colder season has an effect on business. “There’s a pretty notable drop-off when the rain starts back up again,” said Julie. “And when we have sunny days, people are out and about.”

Julie added, “And we’re already starting to notice a pretty big uptick in people coming by, especially on the weekends. But the weekdays have picked up a bit as well, too.”

“We weren’t sure what to expect this spring because last year around this time we were so busy—we were just so new and people were checking us out,” said Dillon. “But now after a year, it definitely feels good having like an established customer base. This is a very good time of year to have that window, I think.”

Pros and Cons About the Walk-Up Window

We talked a bit about some of positives about having a walk-up window. Dillon said right away, “All dogs.” Julie added, “We have a strong dog scene.” They also make dog treats in-house. “A lot of people come by when they’re walking their dog and are able to stop by and grab a treat for their dog and a coffee for themselves.”

Some of the less-great things about the walk-up window is how hot it can get in the summertime and chilly in the winter. “It is kind of just a big cement bunker,” remarked Julie. “There’s not much insulation either way,” said Dillon. “The previous occupant put in a pretty sizable mini-split system, which helps a lot. But because the windows are opening and closing a lot and because there really is no insulation in there, in the extreme temperatures we definitely feel it.”

He added, “At least in the colder weather we have ovens and a flat top and everything.”

They had thought about the possibility of insulating the building, but it would be highly disruptive to the business from a time and permitting perspective. So, they make do with what they have.

Favorite Memories

So now that they are approaching the year anniversary, I wondered if they have any favorite memories from the last year or useful things they’ve learned.

“It’s not quite a memory, but getting our first regulars felt really special,” said Julie. “Having people in the neighborhood come support us and then keep coming back feels like a real win. It feels really good.”

She continued, “When you’re starting your own business—especially something like this—I feel like I’m really wearing my heart on my sleeve. I’m really putting myself out there. And to consistently be getting feedback” Like, ‘This is the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve had in a while!’ Today some guy came back as he was walking from the park and said, ‘That’s the best muffin I’ve had in a long time. Thanks so much, and see you guys around!’

“That feels really good. It’s really gratifying to be feeding the community and to also be feeding my soul in a way and to keep seeing the same faces coming back again and again, really feels wonderful!”

“Yeah, I agree with that,” added Dillon. “It’s nice to feel like part of the community. And then, of course, we’re making food for a living. It really is just the simple thing of having someone say, ‘I loved that,’ because that’s what we were hoping for—we wanted you to love it. 

Menu Favorites at Tiny Love Bakery

On the topic of favorites, the first thing Julie and Dillon talked about was their sausage breakfast sandwich. “So we make our sausage in-house,” explained Julie. “Dillon spent some time perfecting that recipe, and it’s phenomenal. We consistently sell more sausage sandwiches by a large margin than any other sandwiches. It’s very popular, and for good reason. It’s really phenomenal.”

Dillon added, “I mean, the English muffins I think are a big part of that—English muffins are delicious. It’s fun making the English muffins and the sausage, too, and all that. Having fun with the sandwiches is a blast!”

On the sweeter side of things, they mentioned that the chocolate chip cookies are always popular. “Just two weeks ago, I added cardamom buns to the menu, and they’re pretty consistently the first thing to sell out every day,” said Julie. “This should be a standby for a while. They’re quite nice,” Dillon remarked. “Yeah, they aren’t going away any time soon.”

“I think we like having fun with trying new things,” added Dillon. “Both of us get really excited about different ideas. So the menu is constantly shifting. We try to have a handful of staples on there, but some of those are kind of seasonal, too. Some of the heavier pastries—-Julie makes these really wonderful chocolate mousse cakes, but this time of year, it’s not necessarily the most ideal thing for those.”

I asked, “Would you do like a fruit tart instead?”

She responded, “Yeah, those will be coming in soon with the berries.” They seemed particularly excited about working with strawberries.

If it wasn’t clear, they make everything in-house—no commissary kitchen access for their operation. Everything is small batch and when something is gone for the day, it’s gone.

Heading to Year Two

So, what are their plans for year two? “I feel like we learned a lot here,” said Julie. “We had to upgrade some equipment, and we switched our open days around a little bit, and things are really starting to feel good—a good rhythm to everything. So if we can keep going this next year, I’m sure there’s going to be stuff that comes up that we’re going to have to figure out.”

She continued, “I think the goal right now is to just try to keep having fun and keep making good food. We’re still fine-tuning, but a lot of that we worked out in the first year.”

“Portland is a great city for food,” added Julie. “It’s been really fun meeting other businesses and business owners in the neighborhood, too,” said Dillon. “The Dirty Lettuce folks come in, the lady from Red Sauce came and introduced herself, and the owner from Basilisk came in and got sandwiches for his employees. The Sure Shot guys, obviously know us. So it’s been just kind of neat. It’s been fun to be like a new kid on the scene and get to know some of these other people.”

We ended our conversation talking about how great it would be to take one of their chocolate chip cookies and eat it with nearby Pronto Gelato’s vanilla gelato. I think I’m going to have to give that a try.

Many thanks to Julie and Dillon for talking about Tiny Love Bakery with us, and big congrats to them on their year in business! I hope you will enjoy their delicious baked goods and great coffee very soon.

Tiny Love Bakery
5124 NE 42nd Avenue, Portland
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