Morning Glory Muffin @ the new WW Bread Co.
Halleluia! Yippee! and Oh My Goodness!
I FINALLY found a viable workflow to upload photos to my Walla Walla Daily Photo blog on my new-to-me Mac. It was not, however, without much frustration, angst, and tears. Yes real, wet tears on my part. But VOILA! Here I am to continue posting photos of my beautiful home town in southeast Washington state.
The Walla Walla Bread Co. opened its doors seven years ago in the middle of the 200 block of East Main Street in a cubby-hole of a space just big enough for the bakery itself and a counter for customer take-out. As its popularity grew, it added espresso drinks along with its growing menu of muffins, croissants and other breakfast noshes along with its original artisan breads, all still for take-out only.
Popularity persisted so the owners, Michael and Rachel Kline, eventually carved out space in the front of the house for four tables and chairs to seat 16, along with seasonal outdoor seating for a handful more. Along with this came the addition of house-made soups, sandwiches, quiches, and other lunch items to eat in situ or to go. On a typically busy day, it was a bustling place with little room to navigate. Hence their recent relocation.
Only a few doors down from their original location, the Klines went to work opening up another former hole-in-the-wall, albeit a much larger space, to accommodate their expanded vision of a full-service restaurant in addition to the original take-out bakery. Weeks and months later, the business is now open, literally and figuratively, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto Main Street and also looking in to a spacious, contemporary space of polished slate, masonry and concrete.
Judging from my seat at the counter, the house is filled with a large staff busily preparing or serving the expanded menu of made-to-order breakfast, lunch and soon-to-be added dinner items. And from everything I've heard, they all work together as a well-oiled machine, even as the roll-out of dinner service is still in the works.
The reason may be the Kline's commitment to provide living wages for all of their employees by instituting a 15% hospitality fee for all menu items. This is a bold move and is the first restaurant in Walla Walla to pro-actively address the impending rise in the statewide minimum wage along with the traditional disparity in wages between the front and back of the house.
From what I observed, their teamwork approach is working and as a consumer, my tab for a muffin and a mocha was less than comparable places down the street. Suffice it to say, I'll be back!
