After a successful season selling her baked goods at the weekend farmer’s market at Pike & Rose, local baker Caroline Yi has decided to open her own store in the North Bethesda mixed-use neighborhood.
Federal Realty, which owns the development, announced Tuesday that Yi, 26, will open Sunday Morning Bakehouse next summer at 11869 Grand Park Ave.
“I knew if and when I opened my first business it had to be in my hometown. After visiting Pike & Rose for the first time, I fell in love with it and knew it was the only place I could picture my bakery and café,” said Yi, who grew up in Potomac. “We are creating a place where people will gather for a coffee, a croissant or a meal, where they can pick up a freshly baked baguette after work or where they can find respite from their busy day and catch up with an old friend—kind of a home away from home.”
Though Yi has been baking since she was 7 years old, she only began pursuing her dream of opening her own bakery in recent years, according to a statement from Federal Realty. After graduating from Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville, Yi attended the University of Maryland at College Park and graduated with a degree in American Studies. She then took a job in digital marketing, but realized she wasn’t happy sitting in front of a computer and decided to pursue her dream.
For the past three years, she has worked on perfecting her technical skills and the recipes she uses to create her Sunday Morning Bakehouse products that she has sold at the Pike Central Farm Market, which is open from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at 910 Rose Ave.
Yi’s 2,500-square-foot shop will feature her signature pastries, including handmade traditional croissants; brioche donuts filled with seasonal homemade jam; and her latest creation, “twice-baked Elvis croissants filled with roasted peanut filling, fresh bananas, and crispy bacon,” according to the statement.
The shop is expected to have seating for as many as 30 customers and serve an all-day breakfast menu that will include a variety of sweet and savory toast offerings as well as omelettes and other egg dishes. The lunch menu will include sandwiches.
