Sweet Pea Bakeshop has keep much of the culinary palate of it’s founders.
Just across the street from the Sonoma County Library on West Napa Street not too far away from the heart of the town of Sonoma is Sweet Pea Bake Shop.
Quaint and unassuming, it has maintained a local following of patrons for almost 15 years. Yet, for those with little to no institutional memory, the bake shop, then known as Crisp Bakeshop, was originally the vision of an executive chef, Moaya Scheiman and his wife Andrea Koweek.
At the time back in 2014, when this reporter first met the culinary-entrepreneurial couple, I was privileged to enjoy an impromptu tour of the kitchen and pantry.
In a very clean and small space the two collaborated with a shared culinary muse-inspiration of taste.
Both were dedicated to freshness of ingredients and the incentive of “all-natural” to create some very original baked goods.
One example of their originality-triumphs that I recall, is their espresso, hazelnut and candied orange cookie. Cookie lovers would have been in cookie heaven; yes! It was at the highest level, outstanding.
As the visionary, Scheiman admitted "its the dynamic between the two of us," he said. "I usually start from something savory more so than sweet, and build from there." "I like the mouth to have a three-dimensional taste and texture experience, not just make something sweet."
As someone who cultivated a distinctive culinary presence in the restaurant scene both in San Francisco and then in the Wine Country of Northern California, Scheiman was definitely onto something.
He knew instinctively that excessively sweet isn’t always good. Scheiman understood that it’s important for an exceptional pastry to have flavor notes and subtleties not just sweetness.
And, the commitment to that vision paid off. Because within only two years after opening the little bakery facility in 2012, that type of dedication was obvious. Especially as Bite-Club Eats of Sonoma Magazine noted in its online review, "cookies are taken as seriously by Crisp Bakeshop as wedding cakes."
That’s why in 2018 when Scheiman sold his business after six years, many locals were worried that a very unique and original place to enjoy some the best baked goods would be gone.
Fortunately, the new owners, Zaclyn Rivera, formerly of the Carneros Inn and chef Albert Rivera, formerly of Boonfly Cafe, are like Scheiman & Koweek, a husband & wife team.
They understood without hesitation or question that they needed to keep the basics of Scheiman’s vision.
And since taking over and re-branding from Crisp to Sweet Pea Bakeshop, the local following continues. The Rivera team and their staff maintain the high standards and same dedication and commitment to exceptional quality and unique, one-of-a-kind pastry-creations.
Early this week, I stopped in to have a cafe latte and cinnamon roll. The selection variety is still maintained as is the anticipated ‘flavor-notes’ as Scheiman emphasized.
The cinnamon roll was delicious but not overly sweet.
And even the icing on top was more of a delicate cream, than the sugary drizzle that often covers a typical cinnamon roll, elsewhere.
Sweet Pea offers croissants, seasonal scones, sticky buns, English muffins, blondies, cakes, French macarons, caneles, pies and bread. There’s also a frequent patron rewards program. The bake shop’s hours are 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Sweet Pea Bakeshop is located at 720 W. Napa Street. For more info visit the website.