Goldenrod Goodies
Goldenrod Pastries, on the corner of Yum St and Hungerpang Ln (48th and Prescott) | PC: Kayla Potts
Whether this is your first year on campus or your fourth, you’ve most likely seen the pink boxes from Goldenrod Pastries, one of Lincoln’s most popular bakeries. Angela Garbacz, owner of Goldenrod Pastries, has been sharing her specialty desserts with Lincoln for over two years.
Before Goldenrod Pastries was a bakery, it was actually a blog. Garbacz had been working a full-time marketing job at a biotechnology company. “I didn’t feel fully creatively satisfied,” she said. “So I started blogging just to keep my creativity kinda going.”
During Garbacz’s time blogging, she used Facebook and Instagram to share her writings and pictures. It wasn’t long before people began to ask if they could place orders.
“I was working a full-time job and also baking for orders,” Garbacz said. Baking before work, after work and all weekend, she realized there was a great opportunity in the market for her to keep going with her baking.
The Goldenrod Pastries blog is still active along with the bakery. Garbacz now has a marketing intern, a journalism student at the University of Nebraska, to run the blog. “She does a lot of blog writing for me,” Garbacz said, “But I still write one every month or two.”
One of Goldenrod Pastries’s biggest draws is the availability of vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free desserts. The bakery has been able to cater to many with allergies and dietary restrictions without sacrificing taste.
Garbacz started baking more specialty items when she stopped eating products with milk herself. “I just figure if we can make items that are more inclusive for a lot of people, then why not?” she says. “If we can make delicious stuff that feeds a lot of different people, why not?” Garbacz estimates 30-40% of her customers have dietary restrictions.
The transition from running a blog to running a bakery happened fairly quickly. Garbacz said that she first started telling people about her blog in May of 2014 and the lease was signed for the space in 2015. By May of 2015, a year later, the doors were opened to the public.
Starting a business doesn’t come without its challenges, though. Garbacz started her bakery by herself and over time has hired twelve employees to help run the bakery. “Learning how to manage people and how to have a cohesive team has been the most satisfying and also the most challenging [aspects],” she says.
The benefits vastly outweigh the challenges for Garbacz. She shares her love for the people she works with and her customers. “It’s not perfect, there are always problems,” she explains, “But I guess my favorite part is being excited every morning to get up and come to work.”
The desserts at Goldenrod Pastries are baked fresh every morning and the treats offered change each month. “We just added a flourless chocolate torte that’s really awesome,” Garbacz added enthusiastically. “And now that fall’s coming, the season has changed and so we’ll be adding different things.”
When asked if she had a favorite dessert, Garbacz said that each new item they added became her favorite for a while. “The chocolate torte will be my favorite for probably a week and then it’ll change to something else. But I think this year is a cookie year for me. I’m big into cookies this year. Our confetti cookies are probably my favorite.”
After having tried the macarons, I knew that I’d be returning soon. I highly recommend taking the time to visit and taste the many sweets of Goldenrod Pastries across the street at 3947 S. 48th Street.
Blog: http://www.goldenrodpastries.com/blog/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldenrodpastries/
Website: http://www.goldenrodpastries.com/
Amanda McCarter is a junior studying biomedical science.