Pastry chef Anna Nguyen’s happy place is making baked goods, with a cup of coffee, in an empty kitchen at 5 a.m.
“The feeling of rotating things in and out of the oven and everything is going perfectly puts me in autopilot mode,” she said. “It’s so fun and satisfying.”
Nguyen, who opened the Vietnamese restaurant Sap Sua with her husband Anthony last summer, has missed those baking days, covered in flour, while she has been working dinner services.
So, just in time for the holiday season (and after the installation of a new water heater, an essential bakery tool), the Nguyens will open The Bakehouse at Sap Sua — inspired by Anna’s childhood memories of baking with her mom in her hometown of Longmont.
“My mom was the ultimate mom as a little kid,” Anna said. “We’d come home from school to two loaves of sandwich bread, fresh jam sometimes, depending on the season, a couple batches of cookies, and some homemade granola. And she would do it all in one day.”
Starting Nov. 18, the Bakehouse, at 2550 E. Colfax Ave., will serve an array of fresh-baked cookies, coffee cake, apple crisps, fruit tarts, homemade “Pop-Tarts,” tea cakes and more classic bakery items every Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to noon. Guests will be able to pop into the restaurant and order at the front bar.
Prior to the opening, the bakery will be offering some Thanksgiving desserts, including pumpkin bars, turnovers, banana bread and pies for online pre-orders up until Nov. 15.
“I’m going to be using my great grandma’s recipe for her frosted sugar cookies with sour cream and nutmeg … and not-too-sweet of frosting on top,” Anna said. “It’s very Midwestern.”
Anna’s culinary career is rooted in baking. While attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins, she worked part-time at Little Bird Bakeshop. She eventually dropped out of college to work at the bakery full-time before moving to California to attend the International Culinary Center, where she met Anthony. She later became a sous chef at Michelin-starred Osteria Mozza, where she mentored under chef Nancy Silverton, who Anna also said has helped inspire some of the Bakehouse’s recipes.
“When I was at the Little Bird, I’d be the only baker there on Sundays,” Anna said. “My parents would come in for an hour in the mornings before we opened, sit at a table in the dark, make a pot of coffee, eat their pastries, and read their newspapers before driving back to Longmont. It is one of my favorite memories, and hopefully, they can do that here, too.”