Longtime pastry chef opens own bakery
Pastry chef and restaurant veteran Wim Miree is using his pastry skills well.
He recently opened Hello Bakery in Crestline Gardens after deciding he wanted to focus on his passion for being a baker.
“I didn’t have any other job I wanted,” Miree said. “I had to create my own job. It’s been on my mind for a while, opening my own place. I really wanted to be in a bakery.”
Miree’s journey began 26 years ago, working at Continental Bakery before moving through various restaurants in the area, including Hot & Hot Fish Club, Daniel George, Ollie Irene and FOODBAR.
He said his biggest challenge in owning his own business is having to do “everything,” as opposed to being able to focus on his baking.
“I’m paying people to bake while I do all of these other things,” Miree said. “But I don’t have to answer to anyone else. It was frustrating to me to not be in control [in my other jobs], but now I’m the bottom line.”
Miree says that being a successful pastry chef is about attention to detail, which he also uses in his personal life. He shared that he wants to focus on his customers and products at Hello Bakery.
“I don’t want to take over the world,” he said. “I want to have this bakery. I want to see the regular customers coming in every morning to get a cup of coffee and croissant. I don’t plan on opening any other Hello Bakery [locations]. This is it.”
He also didn’t hesitate when asked what he loved to bake.
“Croissants, definitely. I like making ice cream too, but the laminated dough is fun to play with,” Miree said.
While he loves baking croissants, he said his number one seller is not a pastry.
“The biggest seller in terms of quantity is Marie’s Fig Cookies, which came from a recipe taught to me by my 90-year-old neighbor, Marie. The biggest seller in terms of dollar value is our ham and cheese croissant,” Miree said.
Even though the ham and cheese croissant is a top seller at Hello Bakery, Miree says he has no plans to expand his menu beyond pastries and ice cream. He isn’t interested in turning his business into a catering operation, either.
“When you start mass producing things, the quality starts going down,” he said. “I like small batches, small quantities because I have more control over it, and it can be better quality.”
Miree also says that while they make whole cakes, they are not in the market to produce decorated cakes.
“We sold a lot of pecan pies and caramel pies at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but other than that, we don’t want to get out of our routine of making what we need to make for the bakery,” he said.
Hello Bakery maintains three employees: Miree, pastry chef Melanie Thorne Moyer and general manager Taunya Bray. Miree said he could not run the bakery without them and is grateful to have them on his team.
While Hello Bakery does have a small online presence via Instagram, don’t expect to find a website or other social media accounts for the bakery. Instead, visit Miree and his team at 1109 Dunston Avenue, Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.