“I knew it was good because the person was smiling, but I had no idea what it meant.” She remembers in particular the first time she heard the phrase “you betcha.” Even after she began learning it, she had some puzzling encounters with the language. But when she arrived in 1999, she said, she knew very little English. She also picked Montana because she had a friend here and she had heard good things about Billings. “My dad said, ‘Pick the best place in the world,’ so I picked the United States.” She said her father, who has since died, advised her to move somewhere she and her daughter would have more opportunity. She later worked as an accountant, but life was difficult and she was a single mom with a young daughter. “That’s how I got this little seed in my brain,” Baukema said-“that that’s how people can make some money.” It was, and her mother helped out by selling her baked goods at local markets. in the early 1990s, Uzbekistan was plunged into, if not chaos, a prolonged period of uncertainty when it was hard to make a living.īaukema was in her 20s at the time and her Russian mother, knowing how much her daughter liked to bake, said selling pastries might be a good way to make some extra money. The samsas were familiar to Baukema in her hometown, Tashkent, Uzebekistan, a Central Asian country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union. She will also have savory pastries like ham and cheese croissants, piroshki and Uzbek samsas, made with flaky pastry dough and a meat filling. Baukema plans to offer French almond croissants, Danishes, cannoli, brioches and vatrushki, a kind of Russian sweet bun. It will be a cash-and-carry operation, she said, meaning takeout only. If all goes well, she will open by mid-July. She is moving into a small storefront at 2513 Montana Ave., next door to the Lilac café in a space most recently occupied by H Bar Hat Works. The self-taught baker said she learned a lot from books and YouTube videos, but she thinks her passion for baking is the most important thing she has going for her. The radiant overheard heating system will provide a for a comfortable outdoor space.Veronika Baukema stands outside her Montana Avenue pastry shop, which she hopes to open by mid-July.Ī little more than a year after starting a bakery in her home kitchen, making Russian, French and Eastern European pastries for customers who placed orders by phone or via the internet, Veronika Baukema is almost ready to open a brick-and-mortar pastry shop on Montana Avenue. The addition of the retractable roof takes away the guesswork from the unpredictable Michigan weather and hard winters. Guests can dine outdoors year-round, regardless of rain or snow. NEW! We are ready to welcome guests to our all-season beer garden with the addition of a new retractable roof. The menu includes artisanal and locally-sourced food, our full line of craft beer and spirits, small-batch pub brews, handcrafted cocktails, and more! Located on a bustling stretch of Bridge Street in downtown Grand Rapids, our second brewpub is affectionately known as “The Knickerbocker.” The expansive brewpub features an indoor and outdoor beer garden, three separate bars, a wood-fired oven, and many dining spaces suited for private events.
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