Noticing Neighbors Dolce Bakery

What happens when you put creative workshops, time with loved ones and an expert maker all in the same room? You have what’s coming in February to Dolce Bakery’s brand new Wednesday Workshops! Dolce Bakery is a scratch bakery in Prairie Village that serves everything from cookie sandwiches, to cinnamon rolls, custom cakes, fruit cobblers, and much more. The company was started by head baker Erin Brown, a self proclaimed “nurturer and joy junkie.” With Dolce Bakery being established as a community gathering place, the team has started to open their doors for other makers through hosting workshops in an add-on called The Space. Each Wednesday in February they will be hosting workshops with different makers, and I got the chance to sit down with Kathleen Cussen and learn more about the collaborations.

Hayley: I just saw that at Dolce Bakery, you all are starting your Wednesday Workshops in February. Could you explain to our readers what these workshops will look like? Kathleen:

Yeah! So we are now in a place where we have an opportunity and The Space by Dolce Bakery to be able to offer the community a place to connect, gather, create, celebrate. You can put yourself or other people you know in those buckets.

Part of the reason we wanted to open this was because we love and admire other local makers. Hayley: Right. Kathleen: I mean, baking is an art form. Erin Brown has had the bakery for 15 years, and our last expansion gave us the opportunity to create The Space by Dolce Bakery and really provide a space for other small business owners to do a pop up or workshop. And so Workshop Wednesdays came to be out of that—out of wanting to give other individuals a space to get in front of not only their number one fans, but our Dolce Bakery community as well.

Hayley:

I love that idea of The Space. What are some of the workshops coming up in February?

Kathleen:

So February is, obviously, very Valentine driven. The first one is actually on February 1, and it’s a Valentine's Card Workshop with Charity Marrone. She will host and take you through all the phases of making your own Valentine card, which is super fun. Then on February 4, which is not a Wednesday, Dolce is on deck for our Couples Cake Date classes. It’s a way to bring your significant other, your bestie, your girlfriend, your mom, whatever it is, and we will teach you how to decorate your own four-inch Valentine cake.

Hayley:

Oh, wow. Love that.

Kathleen:

Let's see—the next one is with Lila's Clayground, she's doing a Galentine's Earring Workshop on the 15th. Then on the 22nd, Taco Naco is doing a Tacos and Margs Night. They're going to take you through the steps of creating their special recipes for both of those things.

Hayley:

There's such a wide range, I feel like everyone can pick something to try.

Kathleen:

Yes, and some other things are in the works as well. We are working on a workshop for baking with beer by collaborating with one of our good friends! He’s a KC native who is essentially a sommelier of beer. He's going to do a full class on cooking recipes with beer, and then showing how to pair those recipes with certain beer to drink. So you can picture a broader audience at a class like that, it's not always female focused. We're looking across the board at all these classes to fit different interests that individuals might have, male or female. It's been fun!

Hayley:

I think it's so interesting too, because it's enriching for the people coming in, but also for the makers. That's a great opportunity to collaborate with you all.

Kathleen:

Yeah.

Hayley:

You are artists yourselves, and understand that. Does that add some extra meaning to it?

Kathleen:

I could get emotional, because it's huge. Erin Brown started Dolce 15 years ago, and I came on board four years ago. I'm the CEO, working more on the business side. One of the things that feeds my soul is feeding people with love, which is directly connected with what we're doing, and watching people thrive. It’s so fun watching people find their joy and genius. So when a maker gets to do the thing they love to do and be successful, that is everything.

Hayley:

I'm sure that you recognize it, because you see them light up the same way you all light up in a way that makes you joyful.

Kathleen:

Right? Absolutely.

Hayley:

It's just a good vibe.

Kathleen:

That's the intention.

Hayley:

If a maker is reading this right now and is learning about The Space and would like to collaborate with Dolce Bakery, how would they get in touch with you?

Kathleen:

Yeah, so we have a designated event specialist, and you can reach her anytime at The Space by Dolce Bakery’s full website. Maggie can answer any questions and coordinate with you. The website has all the amenities listed, and a booking calendar that you can use right then and there. We think we make it pretty easy. And to the collaborators benefit, we've been doing this for a while, so we do have some things figured out. There are some advantages: we can do the ticket sales through our website, we have a pretty big social media following for the industry that we're in, and that maker gets the exposure because we will be promoting it as much as we would if it was something that we were doing. So there's a lot of exposure and a lot of ease in working with us in that way.

Hayley:

Wow, that's wonderful. I can tell just by you talking about it, it's coming from a very heartfelt place.

This article series that we run is called Noticing Neighbors, and it's all about building community by showing the positivity coming from our local neighbors. Throughout your time at Dolce Bakery, how have you seen positivity in the community or been impacted by your neighbors?

Kathleen:

Yeah, so I think what we do is a bit of a gift from us to the community. We get to be a part of everyone's celebrations and hard times by providing a little bit of joy or comfort in those times. For us, the most important thing, both internally and in the community, is the people and how we are interacting with each other. The positive culture that we live and breathe by internally also has to be what is being received by the community when we are out and about. Whether we’re serving our customers, working with our collaborators and vendors, or anybody that we come in contact with. Hopefully that's what people are receiving from us.

But also in return, we get to hear how we've impacted those around us within the shops of Prairie Village. It's a really pretty tight knit community of a lot of small business owners. We do meet together to talk things through and see how we can help each other do what we do as a collective community, just within the small shops of Prairie Village. Hayley: That’s amazing, I did not know that.

Kathleen:

Again, Erin especially has been at this for a while, and we really have gotten to a point where we've figured a few things out. Of course things are changing every day and we're having to adapt and be flexible. But we really are moving into a phase where we can share what we know and help that next person get to where they're going, because dare I say, we’re creeping up into the mastery phase of how we do what we're doing. We want to share with the people who have the need, the want, and the drive to do something similar with the same intention. Hayley: Right. Kathleen: To spread, like you said, good and positive vibes. We want to make that path a little easier for others.