Patricia, thanks for squeezing me in on short notice. Before we get into the bakery itself, how would you describe the neighborhood? What's the first thing a first-time visitor picks up on?

Sure. We're on a narrow, tree-lined block just past the downtown transit hub, where old brick storefronts sit shoulder to shoulder with newly renovated apartments. Rarely does a street manage to feel this lively and this unhurried at once.

And has that balance held, or has the area been quietly reinventing itself around you since you opened?

It has shifted gradually, so gradually that I barely registered it at first. When I opened twelve years ago, the street was sleepy and almost entirely residential. Not until the light-rail stop went in did the change become impossible to ignore, and now cafés and small offices keep moving in.

And inside? What's the space like once someone steps through the door?