Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Hoffman.
Hi Jonathan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
The Nest started out as a wholesale bakery. When we outgrew our kitchen we started looking for a retail location and found that in seaside OR. We called that business Dough Dough Bakery. We got through covid unscathed and even managed to buy the building where The Nest is located. We were not really looking to open a second business but it had an apartment above it that turned out to be perfect for our family. Two years later we had some problems with our new landlord at the Seaside shop and eventually had to close the business. This Made us extremely happy that we took the chance on the Nest purchase because we had a fallback. Having only one business helped us minimize our stress and we were able to put more energy into making The Nest even better. This year we feel like we are entering into a place that we will be able to really step up our game. We have managed to acquire our full liquor license and plan on offering and evening service Friday and Saturday from 4 to 8. We are having a lot of fun putting this all together and are really looking forward to serving our local community. The people in our neighborhood are our inspiration. They are the ones that keep us afloat in the off-season. We are located in a secluded community that is unfortunately a 10 or 15 minuet drive north or south on the highway for a nice meal or a cocktail. Our hope is that our friends and neighbors feel like they are in a friends living room/dining room.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Owning a business in this industry is never a smooth road. When you first get started its always more work than you think it will be, and you always find things you were not expecting. We basically opened Dough Dough the opposite way I was taught in culinary school. We were supposed to have enough money in the bank to cover all expenses for the first three years of being open. We had just enough in the bank to pay first last and deposit. Once we had an invoice day from our wholesale business we could then pump that into the retail space. we finished the remodel 5 minutes before the grand opening with paint still drying. All of that made opening The Nest way less stressful and less “bumpy”. Being in a secluded neighborhood was our next hurtle, luckily we have one of 4 beach access roads in the county running by the building. That road has been one of our best modes of discovery with how many people use it throughout the year to drive onto the beach for clamming, fishing, or just playing on the beach.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Our work can sometimes look glorious from the outside, and some days it is glorious to us. The industry we have fallen in love with is not an easy one. We wake at 3am and some days work till 4 or 5 in the evening. We don’t sit much and we are always moving. At the end of every work day we can usually recall an interaction with a customer that makes it all worth it and gives us that spark to rise at 3am once again.
We bake around 12 different pastries and 4 to 6 different breads daily. We make hot and cold sandwiches with our bread and soups from scratch. This year we won the local chowder contest and placed 1st out of 21 other restaurants in our area.
If we had to pick a specialty we would probably have to pick our scones. The scones are what put us on the map and they are the first thing we suggest when folks ask what we think they should try. Honestly we feel really great about all of our recipes. So maybe one of our specialties is being very confident that we are only serving food we are very proud of.
One of the things that sets us apart from other restaurants in our area would probably be the care we take in choosing our ingredients. Our flour is imported from Italy. We pay three times the cost for flour because people that have gluten sensitivities tend to be able to eat our products without reactions. We are also in the process of going seed oil free and trying our best to lessen our usage of plastics. All of these things are a risk financially but the risk is worth it to us if it keeps our customers healthy enough to keep coming back.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Jonathan is the pod cast listener in our kitchen. The pod cast he finds the most useful and inspiring would be Restaurant Strategy hosted by Chip Klose. there have been many a slow weeks that a few words from Chip have relit Jonathan’s fire and kept him on the glass half full side of life.
The book that Jonathan would probably say has helped him most in life and work would be The 4 Agreements by Miguel Ruiz.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nestbakery.net
- Instagram: @thenestbakery20
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063668074155
