After being out of the Galt core for over a year, a popular Cambridge doughnut shop has officially opened a new storefront to offer its wild creations and unique flavours to local customers.
Lady Glaze left their little blue bake shop on Grand Avenue around a year ago but now their new shop, at their main bakery on Franklin Boulevard, looks to fill the void left with that departure and welcome customers.
"We found that we really needed a space to welcome walk-ins and pick-ups," said Mark Brown, owner of Lady Glaze. "We would still like a physical store downtown, but the rental rates are almost double than here."
Having already offered pick-ups at their bakery at 1111 Franklin Blvd. since closing the Grand Avenue location, they found that customers wanted a place where they could just come in and pick from a selection of flavours instead of ordering online.
Brown and his team were pumping out an average of 3,000 doughnuts a day at the bakery for delivery to the three other locations, one in Kitchener, Guelph and Hamilton.
With the new Cambridge storefront offering a more intimate space, Brown hopes to break down barriers between the business and his customers. Lady Glaze is also offering factory deals at their bakery, because it is a little off the beaten path.
Tours of the bakery facility are also in the works.
"With Albert's doughnuts customers will associate it with the owner, Red Eye Cafe people see the couple who owns it, but with Lady Glaze we want to make sure that people see who we are and know that we aren't just a faceless brand," he added.
Brown, who grew up in Cambridge, lives here with his family and wants customers to know they are not some big corporation making frozen or industrialized food.
"Every doughnut or pastry we make is hand made here in the back. We do all of our own glazes, fixings and crumbles here in Cambridge."
To mark the bakery's fourth birthday is this month, Lady Glaze plans to hold an open house on Nov. 25 to show off the new storefront and give customers a behind-the-scenes look at how each of their doughnuts are made.
During the tour customers and doughnut aficionados will be taken through the bakery to meet some of the staff as they make their unique confectionery creations.
"We can't wait to have people in here. It's something we've never done before," Brown said. "Since it's our birthday, we're going to have $1 doughnuts so we will be making a lot of them."
The storefront will remain at the Franklin Boulevard location for now, but Lady Glaze would still love an opportunity to move back downtown.
"I mean of course we would love the chance to be back downtown and be so close to people as they walk around and be a part of the growing core, but it doesn't make sense financially at the moment."
