Getting Sweet at Knotty Buns Bakeshop

While selling a variety of treats, Knotty Buns specializes in European-style pastries and breads with focus on French and Italian flavor profiles. “What we wanted to do with the bakery was to create a niche for ourselves by offering flavor profiles and pastries that you can’t find other places here in town,” said Tobias.

As pastry chef, she gets to experiment and create delicious concoctions that Knotty Buns sells, such as the cruffin top — a croissant rolled and baked like a muffin, stuffed with flavors including pistachio crème or amaretto cherry, and the “Phatty cookie” — a decedent stuffed cookie coming in flavors such as chocolate toffee or the seasonal “Shamrock Crybaby.”

“My job is to play mad scientist in the kitchen and come up with fun flavor blends, and then have all my friends and family test them,” said Tobias. “If we like them, then we add them to the shop menu.”

Having worked in a coffee shop while in high school, Tobias first got the idea of opening her own shop from her former boss. “The owner there was very possessive of her business, and I’m one of those overly helpful people, and so I always wanted to make it better and had all these ideas for improvement,” she said. “One day she said to me, ‘Cascade, when you get your own shop, then you can do what you want. This is my shop, we’re going to do it my way.’

“That kind of stuck in the back of my head for years, and it became this dream to have my own shop,” said Tobias.

Working off and on towards her goal despite a few setbacks over the years, Tobias recently graduated from Auguste Esciffuier School of Culinary Arts this last November.

It was Chavers, co-owner and business manager for Knotty Buns, who originally approached Tobias about a bakery business.

“We’ve been friends and neighbors for a long time, and I was her taste tester for pastry school and before that, and so when she was like, ‘I’m going to pastry school’ … I had a dream and went like, ‘Oh we should totally do this together,’” said Chavers, “I came to her and I’m like, ‘I had this dream that we’re opening this bakeshop, and we’re going to call it Knotty Buns,’

“She looks at me and I looked at her — and it was just some sort of casual interaction — we’re like, ‘Let’s do it,’” Chavers said.

Chavers, who has experience working in business management, handles the marketing, financial and merchandising aspects of the business. “I do all the stuff that’s not the mad scientist,” she joked.

The two initially started off their business selling their pastries at The Dalles Farmers Market, where they slowly started establishing regular customers. “People would tell us, ‘We came just for you,’” said Chavers.

In November, Knotty Buns moved into the first-floor space of The Foley, located on Fourth Street in The Dalles. In January, they held a grand opening, where they invited the community to both taste and name some of their developing recipes. According to Chavers, the “Rad Riverhawk” — a date toffee pudding cruffin top, and “The Missing Link” — Faux sausage and sage butternut squash galette, were just a couple of the names community members came up with.

Besides pastries, Knotty Buns also sells a variety of flavored popcorn, including white-chocolate Oreo, chocolate caramel, cheddar and Jolly Rancher flavors.

Customers can also pick up some “sassy” merchandise, including tote bags and mugs made by Chavers and Tobias. “It was a way for us to kind of express ourselves and kind of the attitude around here and give some people some things to look at, and maybe some bags that carry their baked goods home in. And honestly, they’re just so much fun to make.”

According to Chavers, while some are bought in bulk, many of the mugs they use for merchandise are repurposed, their goal being to reuse items and reduce waste as much as possible. “A lot of them are from the secondhand stores,” said Chavers. “As long as they’re in good shape, we put our own flair on them.”

“And the sayings are so much fun to pick out,” laughed Tobias.

As there isn’t a space in The Foley, Tobias is still baking out of her home, but she Chavers are currently on the hunt for a commercial kitchen, where they can have the space and freedom to expand their menu even further.

“We’re working with the health department to find a kitchen that will work for us,” said Chavers. “We could do things like creams and custards branched out a little bit more, some meat product stuff, we’d love to be able to do that next.”

“I’m dreaming of the day when we have a commercial kitchen and I can make cannoli,” said Tobias. “I just love to play. Food is kind of my love language, and I really enjoy sharing it with everyone that I know. It’s how I share a little bit of myself with the people that come into contact with.”

“One of our main goals is to just spread joy through the food and give people something extra to look forward to or to just make things special,” said Chavers. “What makes The Dallas special is being able to go somewhere and feel special, have an experience when you go there. We want to create an experience that will enrich people’s lives.”

Knotty Buns Bakeshop is located at 106 E. Fourth St., The Dalles, on the first floor. They are open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can reach them at 541-398-2867 or knottybunsbakeshop@gmail.com. Visit their website knottybunsbakeshop.com or find them on Instagram at @knotty_buns.