COCHRANE— A new café and bakery is poised to open in Cochrane, with a grand opening set to take place on Saturday (Oct. 24) in the Sunset neighbourhood.
The Sunset Bakery and Café is on the cusp of its grand opening after only two months of renovations and preparations.
The founders of the business, Wes Coxe and his partner Holly Keenan, took possession of the property in early September and have been hard at work getting the business ready for its public debut.
The pair, originally from Calgary, left the hustle and bustle of the city in search of a quieter life in Cochrane in 2017.
“My heart’s always been in small towns like this,” Coxe said.
The move to Cochrane was prompted by the endorsements of some of his friends who live in town, among other things.
“It was because of their stories of good people, and fresh air and beautiful starry nights we have out here,” he said. “For us, it was about having a sense of community that we found had been lost in Calgary.”
The couple used to call the Marda Loop neighbourhood in Calgary home, but the changes in the neighbourhood left the budding family looking for an escape.
“Marda Loop used to be small single-family homes, young families, one, two kids,” he said. “Then it was gentrified and became $10 coffees and $15 avocado toast.”
Keenan said her priorities for moving were mostly about giving her children space to play and grow.
“We basically wanted to be close to the outdoors, and we wanted to let our children be able to run outside and play with the other kids and not have to worry,” she said. “In the neighbourhood where we live they’re right next to a park and they can just go and we can sit on our back deck and watch them, whereas in Calgary I would have never let that happen. It’s a feeling of safety.”
Not only is the local community of people friendlier and more inviting in Cochrane, Coxe said, but the business community is more cooperative as well.
Coxe mentioned that he has developed mutually beneficial business relationships with other entrepreneurs in town instead of competing with one another.
“We simply help each other out, there’s no negative competition. I’ve really been a big promoter of that line of doing business,” he said. “We are far better off as a community if we support each other than if we try to take from each other. That’s the biggest thing that I’ve found.”
It’s a stark comparison to the big city business community in Calgary, that can be hyper-competitive.
“That’s the business mentality, and that needs to change,” he said.
After living in Cochrane for nearly three years, the two of them decided to take advantage of the Cochrane community spirit and open their own shop.
“We saw an opportunity now to try to help, not only support ourselves but other local producers,” he said.
The coffee served in the café comes from Wildcat Coffee Company, based in Cremona, the meats served come from the Butcher Block in downtown Cochrane, the eggs and dairy used in cooking will all come from local producers as well.
Coxe has a long resume of baking high-end specialty cakes as well as restaurant management, and his years in the kitchen have made him strict with regards to the ingredients he uses.
“It makes such a difference,” he said. “Our basic mission statement is real, simple and good, not necessarily in that order. We want simple ingredients, we want real product, not artificially generated, preserved and packed ingredients.”
The kitchen of the bakery is an open concept, meaning all the cooking and prep will be done in full view of the patrons of the shop.
The idea, Coxe said, hearkens back to the way bakeries used to function when he was younger.
“Our model is to bring back the glory days of baking, when the Calgary Bakery and some of the old-school bakeries in downtown Calgary, back in the 80s and 90s that were pumping out flour dust at three in the morning because they were going that hard,” he said. “Nowadays baking has become so commercialized— We’ve really flipped it on its end.”
Most bakery kitchens are closed off, mostly due to the noise generated by the equipment.
Coxe said they have invested in low noise generating equipment to be able to pull off his vision of an open concept bakery.
“This day and age with everything going on with health and food and safety, I want people to be very comfortable when they come in here knowing that the product that they’re having on their plates is being made in the best possible manner and that it’s being made with full transparency and disclosure,” he said.
Coxe and Keenan have been busy putting the final touches on the Sunset Bakery and Café and will be hosting a grand opening this Saturday (Oct. 24).
The bakery and café is located at 101 Sunset Drive in suite 4101, right next to Arashi-Do Martial Arts.
