a little unglazed honesty.
I'm just going to say it.
Despite spending my life baking, I don't sugar coat things. No superfluous sugar dusting in our pastry, and absolutely none in our standards. If you ask me, sugar is not a flavor goal- in baking or life. And, frankly, there's too much of it glazing the real goodness in both.
Over the past year our internet world has become more glazed than ever before. Every day, less and less of what we see is real, honest or genuine. From small business to large, it's becoming our norm to see pictures generated rather than composed. To see products reshaped rather than hand crafted. To see settings imposed rather than personally arranged. More and more, we're seeing less and less of what truly matters. Authenticity, honesty, and true craft. And being asked to spend ever more of our hard-earned money in a sugar glazed view.
This morning someone asked if our pastry pictures are AI generated. For some time now, I've been answering this common question with a simple no. The unsugar coated truth is, I'm thrilled they're asking. It means people still value what's genuine. Maybe even seek it out. As someone who, in their thirties, decided to turn their world upside down, walk away from a business education and reliable career, and spend four years in a fine art degree, the answer is a raw, unfiltered, unglazed hell no.
Never.
When we opened the Bakery at 1871 four years ago, we did it with a handful of (what feels like now) awkwardly set pictures in terrible light, and asked you into our very real, 151 year old hand built home. Everything we've done since- from honest slow growth, to building skill in handcrafted dough, to taking pictures of our pastry on my great grandmother's china- has been built in the frame of unglazed honesty. More importantly, built as an invitation to a genuine relationship with us and this historic property.
From the day we opened until the day we can no longer lift a packet of dough, whatever glazing the world brings and sells, we will always build, craft, and share our genuine passion.
Honestly.
Thank you for being the best part of our bakery dream.
