EPICUREAN ADVENTURES
By Wendy Logan
If the cold weather is already chilling you to the bone, The Newport Sweet Shoppe is the ideal antidote to winter. Just open the door into what might easily be mistaken for a Parisian “confiserie” and the lush, sweet aroma of warmed chocolate, and a rich, buttery bouquet of freshly-baked cookies cuts right through the frigid air.
It’s a Thursday morning in December and Amanda and Patrick Bryan have opened their shop early to chat with Newport This Week about its history and about all things sweet. The owners smile knowingly as I inhale in rapture.
“Brownies just came out of the oven,” says Amanda.
The sweetness starts with her, a graduate of Johnson and Wales University with degrees in culinary arts and foodservice management, and a lover of baking since childhood. If you didn’t know what she did for a living, you might guess by her soft, sweet voice.
Following college, the young chef’s life centered around downtown Newport. She did stints in the kitchens at The Doubletree Hotel on Goat Island (now Gurney’s Newport Resort) and The Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina. Later, her “Auntie Amanda’s Carrot Cake” became a years-long staple and favorite dessert at 22 Bowens.
On a cold New Year’s Eve night, she met her husband, a Rogers graduate, at The Clarke Cooke House, where he had been working for years as part of the front of the house team. They married and had two children, now 15 and 17.
When their kids were young, a car accident put Patrick out of commission for several months and led the couple on a journey that would advance Amanda’s cache as an exceptionally talented baker and land the couple smack-dab in the middle of their dream.
“I left Newport Harbor and became a preschool teacher at my kids’ school. That turned into doing kids’ birthday parties,” she said.
She created “It’s My Party,” a baking-themed celebration for kids who were invited to help bake and decorate their own sweet treats, chef’s hats included, and take home their creations as a party favor. Families were so delighted at the quality of the finished baked goods that they began to inquire about birthday cakes. Amanda rented a commercial kitchen space in Middletown and the couple went to work establishing a brand.
Nearly 12 years ago, after a successful run at area farmers markets where Amanda’s cupcakes sold out weekly, the couple started It’s My Party Bake Shop on William Street, next door to what was then The Newport Chocolate Shop. A year and a half in, their neighbor decided to sell, and following several months of working together, the Bryans took over, combining chocolate production with cookie and cupcake creations, and changing the name to The Newport Sweet Shoppe.
“I’ve been collecting antique chocolate molds since my 20s and I always thought a chocolate shop would be fun,” she said.
Today, Amanda does the baking and Patrick handles the chocolate. They celebrated their current business’s 10-year anniversary in November.
The shop is limited to cupcakes, cookies and chocolates. For the Bryans, the days of cake-making are passed.
“The business has grown, and while there are plenty of shops in town that do cakes, very few are doing cookie and chocolate favors like we are,” she said.
A large portion of the business focuses on wedding, bridal shower, birthday, christening and other special event gifts. Another significant market share comes from regular orders by some of the island’s top hotels and inns for turn-down service and mini-fridge offerings, including Castle Hill, The Viking, Mill Street Inn and Hilltop Inn.
The shop’s inventory is a treasure trove of finely decorated butter cookies in nautical shapes, such as sailboats, lighthouses, shells and lobsters, and seasonal designs like trees, Santas, reindeer and Hanukkah stars. Custom orders of specific shapes and colors are welcome.
The Bryans sell vast quantities of their signature chocolate-covered pretzels, pecan turtles, almond bark, toffee and sea salt caramels made with Newport Sea Salt Co. salt harvested right off Brenton Point. There are also brownies, and chocolate chip, molasses spice and gingerbread cookies.
For the health-conscious, Patrick makes nonpareils with heart-healthy 74-percent dark chocolate. As for cupcakes, the selections are vast and varied, and if you missed the famous carrot cake on the 22 Bowens’ menu, Amanda uses an adjusted version of the same recipe for a carrot cupcake.
The workday starts at 5 a.m. for the baker and the chocolate maker, but they say it’s a labor of love, and they never get tired of the sweet, sweet aroma of butter and chocolate that pervades their lives and drives their business.
"Chocolate" - Google News
December 24, 2019 at 05:58AM
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The Baker and the Chocolate Maker - NewportNow
"Chocolate" - Google News
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