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photo by Brie Cohen
K&K Restaurant & Bakery’s new restaurant manager and head chef, Jonathan Walters, sprinkles fresh blueberries onto pancakes cooking on the grill Saturday morning at the restaurant. After taking a break during the farmers market season, K&K is open for business.
K&K Bakery now a restaurant
Business closed for summer to handle its growing pains
Published Monday, October 12, 2009
After growing pains as the business grew, K&K Bakery is open again with new restaurant options and new employees.
And it is now K&K Bakery & Restaurant.
K&K closed before the summer to focus on attending area farmers markets. Each week, owner Karl Milliron attended markets in Mason City twice, Austin once and Albert Lea twice.
When the restaurant opened more than two years ago, Milliron said the intention was to keep the business as a bakery only.
But as demand increased, K&K added sandwiches and soups, both which are made from scratch. They later added breakfast foods such as pancakes.
In the spring, K&K added some grilled items. Milliron said he was working long hours and couldn’t find a restaurant manager.
During the summer, Milliron said they’d need more kitchen space for the baked goods sold at the farmers markets. He described having a restaurant and a bakery open in the summer as being a “bit of a clash.”
Rather than not having the capacity to pursue the restaurant and bakery open during the farmers markets, Milliron said they decided to close down the restaurant for the summer.
This worked well, as Milliron said the sales at the markets were good.
Another reason the business was able to close and focus on the farmers markets was because Milliron has little debt.
“I think it’s allowed us to kind of focus a little bit more on quality and food and having fun,” Milliron said.
While Milliron described K&K as more of a retail bakery, he said farmers markets offer a chance to reach a different kind of customer.
Photo by Brie Cohen
Waitress Christal Hamaright brings out a plate of scrambled eggs to a table eating breakfast at K&K Bakery & Restaurant on Saturday. Servers are one of the new features of K&K.
“There’s a difference between the kind of customers and traffic you see at the farmers market versus what we are able to do right here in this facility. In the farmers market, it’s like you’re going shopping,” Milliron said.
The experience at the farmers market has attracted customers to K&K. Milliron said that he has some customers come from Mason City, Iowa. He talked about two elderly sisters from the Des Moines, Iowa, area who first bought K&K bread at the Mason City farmers market and now travel to K&K occasionally to buy the breads.
Closing the business at that time gave Milliron the chance to make some changes.
Jonathan Walters was hired as head chef and manager. Milliron said he’s trying to phase his work out of the day-to-day business and work more in the finance side.
With Walters’ cooking skills, K&K is now a full restaurant. In the past, customers would order at the counter and then pick up their meal when their name was called. That’s no longer the case; there is now a wait staff.
A key part of the new restaurant is a new menu. It has been revised to include many dinner entrées such as herb grilled chicken breast, spinach and artichoke stuffed chicken, grilled pork loin, grilled sirloin steak and chicken parmesan.
Milliron said they’re still working to maneuver through all the small details.
“We’re still getting ready even though we’re open,” Milliron said.
One current task for the business is getting the word out about the reopening.
“I think for us, having been shut down over the summer, it’s getting the message back out in Albert Lea,” he said.
Recently, Milliron said they’ve been telling that to customers at the farmers market.
“We still have people who think we’re just a bakery and don’t know about the restaurant portion of it,” Milliron said.
The bakery started out of his basement, and he still has a full kitchen in the basement.
The restaurant will remain open during the summer in future years, he said. In the past, much of the baking has been shifted back to the house, and that could happen when the farmers markets open next spring.
K&K Bakery & Restaurant, 1105 S. Broadway Ave. in Albert Lea, will be open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 6 a.m. until 1 p.m. There are about eight employees, but Milliron said they may need more.
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Comments
Posted by Truthbetold (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 10:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Love K&K's baked goods and visiting the bakery in the past, but ate their Saturday... liked it better in previous format where you could custom mix your own coffee/cappucino, etc. Now with the wait staff... you have to "wait".
Posted by mar (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 1:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cool!!!!
Posted by Wildbill (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 2:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I stopped there twice in the past before 8 a.m., but they weren't open yet. They had great pastries when they were open.
Posted by justmealmn (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 2:04 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by wingo (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 2:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think the cooks should be wearing rubber gloves when touching the food though. I hope it does better this time around.
Posted by MackTheKnife (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 6:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Karl,
Thank you so much for reopening the store. I know myself and other family members will be visiting quite often.
Posted by HD (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 6:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wingo,
I'll take clean hands over dirty rubber gloves. Proper food safety standards are the key.
Posted by wingo (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 7:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
HD -- I'm really sorry, but they can change gloves when needed. I know of too many cooks who don't even wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Proper food safety includes wearing gloves when touching food. If everyone would wash their hands like they should, it would be wonderful.
Posted by HD (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 8:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't be sorry, but if a cook is not inclined to wash their hands, what makes you think they will change their gloves when needed?
Posted by wingo (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 9:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well at least they wouldn't wear them to the bathroom. Hopefully.
Posted by jeshuaerickson (Jeshua Erickson) on October 12, 2009 at 9:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't wait to get to the K&K...SOON! I'm so glad they are reopening. Local businesses like the K&K are a real treasure.
Posted by jelizabeth04 (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 9:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hi all,
I am familiar with the head chef's background. He graduated number one in his class from Le Cordon Bleu Atlanta with a 4.0 GPA. Also, he holds his ServSafe Food Safety License, as well as a Minnesota Food Manager certificate. He is well-versed in the standards of food safety and cleanliness. I understand your concern for safety, Wingo, but compared to the other places I've been in town, this would be the least of my concern at K & K.
Btw---I had dinner there with my friends on Friday (grilled pork chops, baked mac & cheese, and asparagus), and it was delicious!
Thanks!
jelizabeth04
Posted by ALACTOR (anonymous) on October 12, 2009 at 10:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I know a lot about proper food handling, although gloves do give a nice "perception" about being sanitary, if you use the proper soap your hands could be cleaner than gloves that are manufactured and come out of a cardboard box. Just something to think about.
Posted by wingo (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 8:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You have all missed the point I was trying to make. I am glad some of you know this cook and he is clean, not all cooks are. I would rather they throw on a pair of gloves after they come back from the bathroom then start right in and make some food. Unfortunately not all people wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, which I think is the most disgusting thing. Even if you are not a cook you should be doing this, especially now with the flu's going around. WASH those hands!!!
Posted by natack (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 9:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, about the whole handwashing issue, I agree those hands do need to be washed; however, I'm sure that you have ate at a fast food restraurant in the past and there are NO GLOVES!!! For example, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut are just a few of the thousands. From the time of scooping your fries to putting lettuce on a bun...No Gloves!!! I am very well educated in the restraurant business and I can assure you, a gentleman with such high credentials...handwashing is definately not an issue!! In a comment posted above he graduated with a 4.0 from Le Cordon Bleu which is in the top culinary schools in the Nation. I am so pleased that we have such a high quality chef managing a new restraurant, Welcome to our community! I think this will be a great asset to Albert Lea.
Posted by BJKW (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 9:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
After reading the posting from jelizabeth04. It sounds that K&K is very lucking to have someone like Mr. Walters. I can't wait to eat there.
Posted by CIC (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
My wife and I decided to try the new and improved K&K restraurant on Saturday....Delicious! My wife had the herb grilled chicken breast and I decided to try the chicken parmesan. I highly recommend this new restraurant, It was delicious. The restraurant was EXTREMELY clean, the servers were very friendly...the changes are GREAT! We can't wait to try the new items on the menu. Great Job K&K!
Posted by justmealmn (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 12:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well as long as the new guys keeps the reins tight ... maybe the place can make it this go around.
Posted by demo1960 (anonymous) on October 13, 2009 at 11:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good grief. Try cooking with rubber gloves on. It is one thing for Subway to use gloves when preparing your sandwiches but try grilling an omelet with rubber gloves on. If you are so worried about it I suggest you eat at home. And the next time you grocery shop put gloves on before you put your hands on the cart handle cuz there are probably more germs there than on food you get at a restaurant.
Posted by tc_2009 (anonymous) on October 16, 2009 at 3:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
look at all his hair wheres the hairnet? he's hangin right over the food
Posted by 1PoopedMom (anonymous) on October 19, 2009 at 7:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We took our children there for dinner last week and didn't have a very positive experience. There were only 2 other tables of customers, both of whom had received their orders already so our's was the only order in. It took a very long time and when the food finally arrived they didn't even get the order right, which the waitress tried to blame us for even though we repeated the order several times when ordering because she didn't seem to be able to get it straight, (We ordered off the menu, nothing complicated or special.) The food that we did get was bland. After it was all said and done it still cost over $30 for 2 sandwiches, pancakes and mac and cheese.
We won't be going back. If we're going to spend over $30 I expect good service and good food.
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