Combination bakery and bar envisioned for Newbold or Point Breeze areas
You may have heard of the home-run bakery called Miss Kitty’s before at various pop-up bake sales and homebrew events in South Philly, but this business has even bigger plans beyond just baked goods. Not only will Miss Kitty’s one day have a physical storefront, but the bakery’s owner is envisioning a combination bakery and bar to open in the Newbold or Point Breeze areas.
Miss Kitty’s is currently working to secure funding for this project, before diving into the hunt for a location in the neighborhoods the business calls home.
If this project comes to fruition, plans for Miss Kitty’s would include a cafe and bar areas, with both open from noon until midnight, seven days a week. The business would aim to start out offering the baked goods currently sold through Miss Kitty’s, along with a bar space for a different feel. After about six months of operation, owner Misty Vaught would then like to add a soul food menu, and eventually a brunch option on weekends.
Vaught, who has lived in the area since 2008, came up with this plan because she believes that the options on the west-side of Broad Street are “limited and too similar.”
Since Vaught is deeply rooted in the community where she lives, she hopes that this business can contribute back to the community by composting food scraps and hosting various fundraising events for local non-profit organizations.
Although it will be some time before you see this combination bakery and bar, you can keep up with Miss Kitty’s on Facebook as they continue through the process of developing the business.
I admire her tenacity, but this kitty is biting off a bit more than she can chew. The bar/bakery concept will likely never to come to fruition, and if it does, it will probably fail. I wish her the best of luck, but I think she should stick to one thing, her bread and butter, and roll with that. There’s currently a bit too much ambition, from a business standpoint. Just my 2 cents…
I think it’s an awesome idea! You expect a bar to be open late, but how many times do you crave a delicious treat and actually have a place to go and get it? I think cross pollinating any idea with open-lateness is worth a look.
There is a reason why she is starting off small and expanding over time. Currently the bakery is all that exists. Once a location is secured, the bakery and bar in Newbold/ Point Breeze will be fine. The bar alone will be able to sustain the business until the bakery is out there. I sure hope that Passyunk Easter is a VERY successful business owner, if not their “2 cents” should be left where they belong.
I find it tough to fathom that people who frequent bars regularly (I’m one of them), would want to drink in a bakery. The atmosphere just doesn’t make sense for a bar. Sure, some people may like it; but I don’t think there’s enough social drinkers who will care to repeat visit after the novelty wears off.
Have you been to the remodeled Plenty on Passyunk yet? Kind of a similar design in that it is a coffee shop during the day and turns into more of a bar setting at night. I can see this idea being something similar.
I have been, multiple times. Plenty does much better as a coffee shop. I live very close, and I’ve hardly ever seen people in there late at night for drinks. POPE and Cantina have both done way better in the winter than them. We’ll see how the warmer weather treats Plenty to see if their plan will succeed to be a classier late night spot.
However, I don’t think Plenty is a good comparison. It’s not a bakery. It’s a good (expensive) coffee shop with above-par food throughout the day, and then a “bar” at night. The coffee drives their business. From what I understand, this new bakery will be a bakery first and foremost; then serve some coffee and drinks, and then eventually meals. Maybe Plenty has a shot (they’re already well established with multiple locations), but I don’t think a risky “bakery-bar” is going to survive.
I see bakery startups all the time, and most of them fail. This woman is not only trying to get a bakery storefront, but also get into unrelated and unproven business ventures. She can seriously lose her shirt if she’s not careful. I just hope she’s putting a lot of analysis into her business plans instead of hoping for success because she has some ideas (which it appears is what the majority of new bakery owners do).
And unless you are an expert business advisor, your opinion is just as valuable. I’d love to be as optimistic as you are, but you have to be skeptical of every concept, no matter how good or bad it may seem, because the market is unpredictable. I, for one, agree with PE. There are tons of bars, focus on what you do well. Look at a place like MagPie on south. They make really good pie, and they are open later (10 I believe on some nights). It’s a perfect after dinner date spot. They don’t have to add the complication of adding alcoholic drinks to their menu, the added cost of a liquor license, and the stress of dealing with drunks. In design, the cheapest gimmick you can do is take something and add a lightbulb to it and call it a lamp. In the culinary world, bars are getting to be the equivalent of the lightbulb.