Steve Fox, former co-owner of Emily’s Bakery, posed before a picture that hung in the bakery that now adorns his front porch during a pickup time for his Emily’s pop-up bakery.

Photo by Graham P. Johnson

I like to bake. I always enjoy what I do.”

Steve Fox

To reach Emily’s Pop-up Bakery, visit the Emily’s Pop-up Bakery Facebook page.

They form a line that sometimes stretches to the street. They come all the way from Prescott and from Red Wing as they ask, prod and beg for long johns and almond twists. Some come from just blocks away and are regulars, being greeted by name.
And when they leave with little white boxes of tarts, macaroons, and coffee cakes from the steps of Steve Fox’s front porch, they are all smiles.
“I’m probably the most popular person in town,” laughs Fox as a he runs in and out of his front door selling Emily’s Bakery staples from his Emily’s pop-up bakery.
Fox started the Emily’s Pop-up Bakery this May and has been selling baked goods from his home using the same recipes sold at his former bakery, which closed its doors in 2021.
“I like to bake. I always enjoy what I do,” said Fox about starting the pop-up.
In that time, “my house has become a bakery. It’s taken over everything,” said Fox. His spare bedrooms now house cooling racks, sacks of flour and stacks of unbuilt boxes. While he occasionally has help during sales, it is a one-man show that has already taken off beyond his expectations.
“The first time we did it there were 60 people in line,” said Fox, estimating that more than 200 came to the event in May.
The most recent sale of almond tarts and chocolate biscotti’s sold out in 15 minutes.
Sale days are often easily 12-hour days of putting the finishing touches on whatever is being sold. For last week’s sale, building up that mountain of white boxes took two hours alone.
“They are long days,” said Fox continuing, “I put my music on and jam out.”
Last Wednesday during the two-hour pickup window for those almond tarts and chocolate biscottis, a mountain of white boxes slowly dwindled from a table set up in Fox’s house as residents from around the area came to pick up their orders.
Customers regularly asked about that special treat that was a particular favorite of a relative, friend or child, from cakes to doughnuts.
“I’ve received thousands of messages over the last six months to make everything we used to,” said Fox, who limits what he makes to baked goods.
That communal importance and affection of the now-gone bakery, along with the tide of smiles and positive feedback, is a big part of motiving Fox’s pop-up.
“It’s really a joyful thing,” said Fox about the sales. “We’re very missed.”

More than just a recipe
Part of the difficulty in baked goods is that even armed with original recipes, recreating time-tested treats like Emily’s famous almond tarts is difficult. Many of Emily’s original recipes don’t come with much instruction, sometimes barely more than amounts of ingredients which means that baking them takes practice and skill.
Compounding that issue is the continued lack of bakers industry wide. Where once there were numerous schools that taught the science, art, and skill of baking at a professional level in Duluth, Dunwoody, and Rochester, many have since shut their doors.
For those with ambitions of professional baking, if just to recreate their favorite recipes, ingredients matter. Specific ingredients from specialized margarines to pastry flour to types of shortening “make a huge difference,” said Fox.
He regularly makes trips to baking goods stores for the ingredients you can’t find in grocery stores. His butter, however, comes from Costco.

A bakery in Hastings
The perennial question posed to Fox is about reopening a bakery.
Reopening “does cross my mind,” said Fox. Even beyond the difficulties in finding staff, the cost of finding a new space and purchasing the proper equipment would clear $1 million, estimates Fox: “It’s a big undertaking.”
More importantly, however, is the schedule of regular work that would come along with a new location. A huge aspect of the pop-up bakery is that it hinges entirely on Fox’s schedule.
And with the pop-up’s immediate popularity, the current quantity is “pretty much all I can handle,” said Fox.
Fox started working at Emily’s during the 1980s for his uncle at Emily’s Bakery. He came to co-own the bakery alongside his sister Norine Bishop. The bakery closed its doors in 2021, briefly turning into a Wuollet’s bakery before that too, shuttered.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what happened,” when the bakery closed, said Fox.
In 2021, the lease for the site was up for renewal, but both Fox and his sister were hesitant to commit. According to Fox, there was a deal for the bakery that fell through at the last minute, which led to the deal with Wuollet.
“I’m regretful I sold it to him, not regretful that we ended,” said Fox about the sale to Wuollet’s, which would go on to close in 2024 in Hastings; the final Wuollet’s storefront in Uptown in Minneapolis folded earlier this year.

Hackel Haus
When it comes to ambitions of opening a bakery, another Hastings pop-up is testing the waters.
Hackel Haus Pop-up Bakery launched its new website earlier this month, selling breads, sourdoughs, dinner rolls and more.
Hackel Haus is run by Maureen Martin, who previously ran North Shore Coffee Co. in Hudson where she baked for the café for five years before moving to other work.
Returning to baking is “Really what I’ve always wanted to do,” said Martin.
With Hackel Haus, named for her Uncle John Hackel who used to operate a bakery in Roseville, Martin’s goal is to focus on classic breads to “bring somebody the best bread they’ve ever had.”
While the operation is still a pop-up run out of Martin’s home, “I would like to find a place in Hastings,” said Martin. “Bakeries bring people together.”
To reach Hackel Haus Bakery’s website visit hackelhausbakery.squarespace.com
To reach Emily’s Pop-up Bakery, visit the Emily’s Pop-up Bakery Facebook page.