There’s a Bakery in Seldovia!
by Jenny Chissus
Seeing the light in the window and the OPEN sign at the Tidepool Cafe was a wonderful treat after over 6 months of quiet! We have all heard rumblings that the Tidepool was going to be under new management, and that we would see the doors opening “soon” – but until Saturday – the situation was officially unknown! Not any more!
Sonny and I had the opportunity to be the second customers in the door on opening day – to enjoy a coffee and the freshly baked croissants Michel Bieri has been talking about! He has been a chef for almost 50 years, since June 29, 1965! Michel has owned and operated hunting and fishing lodges, restaurants, the Linwood Bar and Grill, and created a very successful bakery in Anchorage among others! We are so fortunate to have a chef of his experience and caliber here in our little community of Seldovia!
Michel is not new to Seldovia either, as he married one of Seldovia’s own, Liza Colberg Bieri and has been operating his fishing and hunting businesses down in the Kodiak area with Seldovia as his home base. Besides opening the Tidepool, Michel is also working diligently to lease the new building on Dock street to bring in the equipment to produce his salmon product “Seldovia Wild” right here in Seldovia!
The Tidepool is going to be open 7 days a week, from 7:30am to 3:30pm for breakfast and lunch. The menu will be a bit limited these first few weeks, as he’s just getting started training and organizing the kitchen and wait staff with the new menus and systems. Michel is thankful that a few of the original Tidepool staff will be opening the restaurant with him, including Stacy in the kitchen and Sirena managing the front, making for a smooth transition. Michel promises that even though he’s not rolling out his full menu quite yet, it will all taste delicious and that you will be happy about the prices! Because of his other work, he’ll be traveling to Anchorage weekly to get supplies, ensuring that all the produce is fresh and that he will never run out of product. Michel himself will be cooking/baking in Seldovia 5 days a week!
You will also eventually see the moving of equipment and additional showcases to house the wide variety of baked goods Michel is planning to offer Seldovia! When we visited, he stressed to me that this will be a bakery/cafe, making fresh bread daily in Seldovia! “When people walk in you will know that you are in a bakery! It will smell like a bakery!” Michel will have retail priced baked goods, croissants, baguette, puff pastries, tarts and even cakes! Making the bread on site will keep the prices inexpensive, and his hope is to match the Anchorage prices – right here in Seldovia!
Michel is all about taking care of the local clientele as well as the folks who are visiting for the day. The prices that he is proposing are very reasonable! The standard hamburger with fresh bun and fries will be $9.95! The butter croissants are under $2, and the delicious reindeer sausage puff pastry is $3.95!
To give you an idea of the menu for breakfast, here are a few teasers: ham and cheese croissant with black forest ham and swiss cheese, reindeer sausage Dijon butter puff pastry, chocolate croissant, butter croissant, pancakes, eggs, omelets and many specialties like eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, french toast and breakfast sandwiches. There will certainly be something on the menu for everyone!
His lunch menu looks just as spectacular with the standard hamburger and cheeseburgers with mushrooms and avocados, corned beef, roast beef Philly and French Dip, turkey and chicken, meatball and even italian sausage sandwiches all with fresh bread and homemade french fries!
Michel will be bringing many French favorites to the menu like the Croque Monsieur (Black forest ham, swiss cheese with sautéed mushrooms, Dijon mustard and lettuce on grilled white bread with Bechamel and gratinee parmesan cheese on top!) There will even be a few Italian-style pasta specials like fettuccine, linguine and spinach ravioli! All this to say that he will have a nicely varied menu – with some uniquely international flavors to tempt all types of customers!
Another big focus to the restaurant will be the availability of fresh seafood! Michel is adamant about getting fresh fish: cod, bass, salmon and halibut to the Tidepool tables for you – along with mussels, oysters, crab, shrimp – whatever he can get his hands on! This will be a fabulous addition to the Seldovia cuisine, as many people coming to Alaska want to savor our bounty from the sea – and Michel will do a masterful job of preparing it so that they will remember Seldovia and Alaska seafood with appreciation!
So, grab a friend or loved one and head on down to the Tidepool and enjoy a nice breakfast or lunch! Soon, you too will greeted by that amazing French bakery smell when you walk in the door.
A bientôt!
Category: Business
Seldovia Time
