One of the great things about Nebula’s location is close proximity to a variety of St. Louis’ most-interesting food-and-beverage purveyors. Among them is Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop, located just east of a Nebula at 2201 Cherokee. Proprietor Kaylen Wissinger’s at the shop ’round the clock, it seems, whether baking, working the counter or otherwise engaging with her customer base.
Not only a nice neighborhood destination for coffee, tea and both sweet and savory snacks, Whisk works with a fine list of St. Louis coffeehouses and restaurants. We exchanged some questions-and-answers with Wissinger about her growing business.
What’s the backstory on Whisk? How’d it come into existence on that idyllic corner of Cherokee?
Whisk came into existence almost four years ago (!!!) – we opened on November 10, 2012 after six months of rehabbing. My parents were walking down Cherokee Street, saw a “for lease” sign in the window at 2201 and called the number to check it out. They actually knew the landlord from the neighborhood and upon walking through, realized that it would be the perfect space for my dream bakery (the one that I wanted to open based on the first business, Farm Fresh Cupcakes, that grew out of the BEGIN New Venture Center downtown). After a few months of negotiation, we signed a lease and got demolishin’!
Tell us about the “sustainable bakeshop” aspect of your name. What goes into sustainability in your profession?
Sustainability-wise, we strive to be as green as possible. We order as much produce, dairy, meats, coffee, teas, business cards, t-shirts, coffee filters – really, everything we can – from as local of sources as possible. STL is such a great city for that – it’s small enough that everyone knows everyone, but there are tons of people that are following their passions and making the world a better and more sustainable place. We also compost all of our own food waste, do all of our laundry on-site and spend lots of time with other like-minded businesses and pull each other up and help each other out.
In relation to the shop, to what degree are your customers workers or residents of the immediate neighbors? Would assume that more than a few are regulars?
I would say that probably between 40-50% of our patrons are regulars. We have a lot of really lovely support from the neighborhood, both in people that work here and live here. But a lot of them both live and work here. Which is awesome!
How about other accounts that you service? Who are some of your customers?
Our biggest wholesale accounts are Rise Coffee in the Grove, Kitchen House Coffee in Tower Grove East, Art St. Louis/soon-to-be-announced as Catalyst Coffee downtown, Magnolia in Grand Center, and all of the Pi Pizzeria locations.
What’s good about the neighborhood? What would you like to see?
I love being in/on Cherokee. It’s such a supportive community of passionate people doing what they love. Honestly, I would love to see something like an arcade bar or bowling alley. I love to drink but I can only do that for a little bit before I gotta do something else, or else I get antsy (or, you know, just drunk).
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