The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Counting on success
Former CPA opens The Cooking Company’s third gourmet food shop at Capitol Theater
MIDDLETOWN — From a young age, epicurean Sue Bauer wanted to work in the food business, but her more practical side led her to a career in accounting.
“I just figured I had to find a way to support myself,” said the owner of The Cooking Company, who will be launching her third location on the ground floor of the old Capitol Theater building at 350 Main St. later this week.
There, the original high ceilings — painted black — play off the marble floors, restored from the dilapidated state the whole structure was in before Mike Stone, who also owns Main Street Market next door, revitalized it.
Finance “was never for me. I never cared for it,” said the former certified public accountant and East Haddam resident. But she knew the restaurant world almost surely meant long hours, nights and weekends. “I was always really into cooking. Then the idea of a shop with regular hours came to mind,” said Bauer, who plans a soft opening of her new downtown location this week.
Eventually, she quit her accounting job and went to work for a couple of food businesses
“It’s a lot of work, there’s no doubt about it.” Sue Bauer, right, owner of the Cooking Company
to learn the ropes, “because I didn’t know a thing about it,” said Bauer, 53, thrilled to sign off on her first delivery to The Cooking Company: Paper goods. These decidedly not edible items are just as essential to the well-being of her operation, she said with a laugh.
She ended up cooking in the kitchen at Vanderbrooke Bakers & Caterers, formerly on Main Street in Old Saybrook, to gain hands-on experience. That’s where she met pastry chef Nancy Burdick, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America.
Burdick now works for Bauer, who opened the first iteration of The Cooking Company in 2001 in the Tylerville section of Haddam at 1610 Saybrook Road. The business of gourmet salads, sandwiches and cookies took off right away, Bauer said.
“I thought that area needed something,” she said. “I heard a comment (back then): ‘What was going to be on our menu?’ and I remember someone saying, ‘Caramelized onions? We are going to have caramelized onions in Haddam?’ I thought that was so funny.”
The location was busy, but she got to try her hand at everything.
“When I first opened, I was making the salad dressings, the cookie dough — every single thing we served. The bread I always brought from Fable Foods in Deep River because that’s a whole art in itself,” Bauer said.
There are also fruit and pasta salads, and new soups and desserts daily.
“She has nine brothers and sisters and she used to cook every Sunday night,” said her husband, Steve Bauer, 52, an engineer at Pratt & Whitney, who has been helping out with construction of the Middletown location.
Looking back at his wife taking the leap from being a CPA to an apprenticeship in the food business, he was always confident of her abilities.
“I always knew she could do it,” he said. “She’s got that high-level concept. She knows what she wants it to be like. It’s a great end vision that really helps,” Steve Bauer said. “She wants good food; everything from what the place looks like, interior decoration, to flowers.”
By 2008, Sue Bauer had gotten “bored” with the routine and thought expansion would calm the growing tedium. She opened a Killingworth eatery at 187 Route 81, across the street from a shopping plaza with a Subway, Dunkin Donuts, pizza and Chinese places with exactly the same setup as the Tylerville location.
Now it’s time for a third location, in the Capitol Theater building that was erected in 1925. The building is part of the Main Street Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The theater closed in 1973 and the lobby was occupied by a liquor store from the mid-1970s through 2012.
Inside, there is a community table made of reclaimed barn wood that seats 12, and tables inside and out in the alley off Main Street.
Although the restaurant business nearly always means long hours and an unending work week, Sue Bauer said she wouldn’t be in the business unless she was able to have two days off a week. “It’s a lot of work, there’s no doubt about it.”
“It’s great to have her Sunday and Monday as her weekend,” said Steve Bauer, who still can’t believe he’s fortunate enough to have gourmet food every day. “Running the business, doing what she needs to do there, also getting time for herself. She really good at that.”
The most popular items are actually variations of each other. The Arizona chicken salad, with chopped romaine lettuce with grilled chicken, black beans, avocado, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, tomatoes, tortilla chips and Southwestern ranch dressing, is the sister of the Yucatan grilled chicken wrap, which boasts slices of marinated and grilled chicken breast in a tortilla wrap with avocado, tomato and creamy lime dressing.
“A lot of the food is designed to be taken home and heated,” Sue Bauer said. “We have some people who come in every day and get their dinners,” said Sue Bauer, who uses rhubarb and tomatoes from Staehly Farm & Winery in East Haddam.
To balance the richness of their diets, Steve Bauer said, the couple is extremely active. “I get, ‘How are you not incredibly heavy with all this good food?’”
Bauer and her husband spend a lot of time outdoors hiking, bicycling, running and kayaking at places like Bashan Lake in East Haddam, and the Salmon and Connecticut rivers. The latter she sometimes turns into the occasional aquatic reconnaissance mission. “I like to see if there are other shops like mine.”
Hours for the new Middletown restaurant are weekdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Sundays. For more information, call 860-343-0008 or see thecookingco.com.