Croissant: bi-sected.
"Everyone has their own croissant, the ones you like best. Some people like them airy and light, I like mine buttery. Like butter, butter, butter and it's a mess all over you when you're done eating it." As soon as Shawn McKenzie said this, I knew we could be friends. Because if you're going to eat a croissant, there should be evidence. On your shirt.
McKenzie is about to launch a whole new world of baking and food for Penny's Coffee, at which she is Executive Chef. Penny's is the coffee/cafe collection that was launched by Dean Phillips and Ben Hertz first in downtown Minneapolis, and then in Linden Hills. With a pending opening in Wayzata, Hertz says, "We're just getting started." The group plans to open around 8 or more locations locally, and then expand nationally. One of the keys to this major expansion is McKenzie, who seems to be a perfect mix of laid-back vibes and driven perfection.
Shawn McKenzie in her newly minted Penny's bakery.
Out of the back of the Linden Hills location, McKenzie has carved a bakery space. From here, she and her sous chef Sadie Sayre, will bake for all the local locations. McKenzie grew up in Olympia, WA and didn't originally want to be a chef, "I really wanted to be a back up dancer. I was very into dancing, I kind of thought that was going to be my thing. But then my dad went back to school for cooking, and to be close to him, I started cooking. Then when I got into it, I realized I really loved food and cooking, I loved spaghetti and I had to figure out how to make it for myself." She was 15 when this all happened. She decided to go to culinary school and took her first pastry job, that's when she fell in love with laminating.
"They used to call me The Laminator. I didn't think that I was going to get to the point of being a chef, I just thought I would do croissants all day, all the time." And yet, there was more waiting for her. McKenzie did become a chef and bounced around the Northwest until she met a guy named Danny del Prado in Portland, who said: hey, if you want to come be the pastry chef at this restaurant with me in Minneapolis that would be great, it's really cold, but come. So she did, and ran the pastry program at Burch Steak for six years until leaving for Penny's.
Breaking in new ovens.
But it's not just all about croissants. When she came on board, McKenzie and Hertz took a food trip to Israel and she was bowled over by the food and ingredients. As part of the evolution of the menu, McKenzie wants to incorporate flavors and ingredients from that trip. "We can't get the same eggplant here that they have over there, or the exact same sumac, so we're not trying to duplicate dishes. It's more about bringing those flavors forth in new ways, adding their influence and seeing how we can play with them."
Babka, croissants, and cookies you need to try.
Well. I got to try a few things, and I have to say, why haven't we been putting tahini in chocolate chip cookies this whole time? What a perfectly subtle boost! "Once I found tahini in my life, I started seeing it could go in everything," McKenzie laughed. I'm here for the tahini take over, and that includes the tahini grapefruit babka. Also, garam masala in a gingersnap seems more than right.
Tumeric twists and challah.
Don't forget the honey tumeric twists or the seedy challah braids either. McKenzie plans on playing with more than just bakery items, she's looking at creating more vibrant crepes (maybe a beet crepe for summer) and is excited to play with the salads. They purposely added a stove in the bakery, "in case we want to make stocks or play with ingredients in different ways." So it seems like the sky's the limit for this shop.
In truth they have a very ambitious growth plan, but CEO Foley Schmidt is confident that they can maintain their quality and consistency. "You know, having Shawn and Sadie's fine dining background has affected not only the kitchen and our food, but our front of house hospitality. It's really important for us to create the best guest experience while sticking to our values of community, coffee, and conversation." Schmidt's background with Famous Dave's has given him some perspective on growth and maintaining core values, and he's focused on smart and thoughtful expansion over chasing volume.
Wayzata will be a good test for this kitchen, to see how they really handle multi-unit needs. The coming shop is being opened right next door to the legendary Wayzata Starbucks, where deals are made, people. They're carving out Penny's in what I'll call the old Ampersand building (or The Children's Shop for you oldsters), though it's held many luxury boutiques since then. Hoping for a June 1 opening, Schmidt isn't worried about the neighbor, "Starbucks is a great and successful model, we just think we can bring something a little more personal with a little more flavor."
