Check Out Sarah Darby’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Darby. 

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Bloom Baking Company has been providing Kansas City with scratch-made bread, croissants, cakes, and pastries since 2010. We also offer a full lunch menu every day, offering breakfast and lunch catering, and daily delivery of our pastries and sandwiches. Many of the recipes used daily have been handed down over many decades of baking. We are proud to be one of Kansas City’s premier bakeries and strive to provide products with the highest quality ingredients, always made fresh here in our bakery. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The restaurant world is never a smooth road! We have been fortunate over the past decade to have a loyal customer following. The City Market has continued to be a staple for many residents of the Kansas City area, leading to business growth. We have seen additional growth with the introduction of the streetcar, offering 2 stops in the River Market area. 

During the pandemic, Bloom was greatly affected as was the rest of the hospitality world. Our business was resilient and weathered through the difficulties by shifting our business model to a home delivery business as well as a catering kitchen focused on supporting our front-line workers with boxed meals delivered to hospitals, nursing homes, fire stations, and police departments. As a former registered nurse, I was able to utilize my contacts throughout the healthcare community to provide much-needed support to our struggling healthcare systems. I was also able to return part-time to nursing, working at Truman Medical Center with their COVID team to provide extra staffing support. The Bloom team supported me in this role and kept the bakery moving along as I played a small part in supporting the staffing needs at Truman. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Everything Bloom offers is made from scratch. We specialize in European-inspired pastries. Our croissants and Danish dough are laminated with locally milled flour and locally sourced butter. Our sourdough bread are fermented for 72 hours, giving them a true “sour” flavor with a much lower gluten content compared to commercially produced bread. Our French macaron cookies (our most popular offering) are hand piped. The proximity to local produce within the farmers’ market gives us the opportunity to work directly with local growers. Produce is often picked within a day of when we receive it, allowing us to create seasonal items that are completely fresh. 

How do you think about happiness?
My favorite part of working in the restaurant world is interacting with people. Bloom’s staff are the heart of the bakery and I enjoy spending my days with them. The employees here are an incredible mix of talent, loyalty, and hard work- plus, they are genuinely good people. We have lived a lot of life together here (we have many long-term employees). Through new babies, family loss, raising kids, and a few grandkids to just the daily ups and downs of life, this bakery would not be special without the people moving it forward. Our team has supported me through some difficult times in the past year and a half and in turn, I have worked hard to keep our business solid for them. 

Of course, our customers make me happy each day. Watching them enjoy our food is really the best feeling. 

I also truly enjoy the relationships we have formed with our local farmers, vendors, and restaurant friends/family. There is a sense of support and camaraderie within the Kansas City food community that is special. 

And, my family makes me happy. My husband and my two girls are my favorite people. My daughters spend a lot of time at the shop with me and they each are learning to respect food and learning the value of working hard. My youngest daughter swears she wants to run the bakery when I retire! 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.bloombakingco.com
• Instagram: bloombakingco
• Facebook: bloombakingco

Image Credits
Trevor Palmer