Tulip Baroo Bakery on move
Downtown St. John’s wholesale bakery set to launch storefront on Harvey Road
When Matthew Finateri first launched Tulip Baroo Bakery as a wholesale and custom order business in 2012, the plan was to one day establish a standalone storefront, but even he wasn’t sure if it would ever happen.
Six years, thousands of cookies, and hundreds of cakes later, the 34-year-old from St. John’s by way of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is about to open a bricks-andmortar operation.
“I work alone every day, so it’s a bit solemn,” Finateri told The Telegram while packaging a couple of batches of brownies at his current base of operations, a second-floor apartment on Water Street where he was licensed as a home-based business.
“I want to be around people more. I want to serve customers and that was always the goal from day one.”
Renovations are underway at 59 Harvey Rd. — formerly home to Fixed Coffee — to sort out the plumbing, electrical and ventilation requirements to establish a commercial kitchen in the basement. First floor changes, he says, are mostly cosmetic.
“We’re going to be operating as a retail bakery, sort of a boutique style. It will be small and quaint,” says Finateri, noting it’ll have the same colourful, whimsical feel like the name of the bakery, which is an homage to a song on “Gay Parade,” the 1999 album from indie band Of Montreal.
“I hope to be operating as a destination bakery where people are like, ‘Hey, let’s go there today for some dessert,’ as opposed to just randomly walking by and picking something up. I’m going to try to offer not just good products, but an experience.”
In terms of products, while the wholesale side of the business will live on, non-commercial customers will have the option to drop by and choose from Tulip Baroo’s selection of brownies, donuts, cupcakes, cakes, cheesecakes and freshbaked bread.
“I get a lot of repeat customers for bread,” he says. “It’s hard to find a good homemade loaf of fresh-made gluten-free bread in the city.”
There’ll also be a selection of coffee, tea and espresso, and Finateri also plans to offer a feature dessert that’ll change every couple of weeks.
“Those will be a little bit higher end, a little fancier, and meant to be plated,” he says, “something you’d come in and sit down and enjoy a fancy desert with a cup of tea or a cup of coffee.”
Even though Finateri won’t advertise the menu as such, all of his products are 100 per cent vegan and gluten-free.
“There won’t be signage outside saying anything about it and nothing inside is going to be labelled vegan or gluten-free, with the exception of the bread because gluten-free bread is inherently different than wheatbased bread.
“But with cookies and cakes, people are none the wiser. People look at it and associate it with being tasteless and crumbly, which is true to some extent — gluten-free baking is challenging to a certain extent and it’s hard to nail it if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Finateri, evidenced by steady growth in sales over six years and a lucrative commercial contract that sees his products in four major Jumping Bean locations in the metro region, as well as Poyo and Mochanopoly, clearly has a handle on quality gluten-free products.
With any expansion of this nature, there’s an element of risk and that’s not lost of Finateri, who sought out funding through Metro Business Opportunities and the Business Development Bank of Canada.
“Any business endeavour is a bit of a risk, but I’m confident. I really want to do something that I don’t see being done here anywhere else.” The new Tulip Baroo Bakery is expected to be ready in mid July.