Easy Bake Ovenly

If you were in the market for a baking partner in crime, where might you look? Perhaps a book club dedicated to food might be a good place to start. In May of 2009, Greenpoint resident Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin crossed paths with one another at Four Burners, the aforementioned book club where each club meeting revolved around a book and a meal to reflect it. (Think The Fly-Truffler paired with French cuisine.) It wasn’t long before the two ladies, both with delectable desserts in tow, were swapping treats and passing each other’s imaginary taste tests with flying colors. “We both had made desserts and we basically were [both] like, oh my god, you’re amazing!” Kulaga said. Kulaga and Patinkin spent all night chatting about sweets and dreams only to be followed by, what else, but a meeting the next day where they decided to go into business together. They began to map out plans for what would, a few months later, become Ovenly, a “creative kitchen that adventurously explores culinary traditions.”

Kulaga, who had earned her points in the kitchen baking for friends and burying her nose in books about food, had been wanting to take recreational baking to the next level for a while at that point, but opportunity had not yet knocked, that is, until she met Patinkin. “At the time I knew a lot of people that wanted to bake but didn’t want to pursue it beyond that, and I guess it was a little intimidating to try to do something on [my] own. And then when I met Erin, it was just like, we should do this!” Kulaga exclaimed. Patinkin had also put in her foodie dues personal cheffing for a family and rooming with a food magazine writer—maybe there was something in the water.

If the first ingredient that went into making Ovenly was a desire to bake, and the second, the right partnership, then the last necessary component was a break, or maybe just luck. This good fortune came in the form of friend Heather Millstone, when she decided to open up Veronica People’s Club, a hip new-ish neighborhood (Greenpoint) bar with an a.m. coffee window. Once Kulaga and Patinkin got word that VPC would be selling coffee, they figured they might want some pastries to go along with their delicious Intelligentsia brew and emailed Millstone asking if they could bake for the new spot. The answer, fortunately, yes. “Without that, who knows where we’d be,” Kulaga said.

Getting to bake for VPC helped to broaden the ladies’ culinary scope. They had originally planned to be strictly a dessert company highlighting some of their rich staples like chocolate stout cupcakes with salted caramel frosting and vanilla bean pomegranate cupcakes. While dessert is certainly still at the forefront of their business—including these delicious treats specifically—now with breakfast pastries on the table, pun intended, they have a wider menu than they otherwise would have. “We were going to be a dessert company [only] and then we started doing this [breakfast food] and I think that’s what kept us evolving even more. And now, doing the bar snacks too, it’s just another thing that has been really fun for us to do,” Kulaga said.

After they sealed the pastry box with VPC, another friend emailed to say his girlfriend was opening up a coffee shop and that they should talk baked goods. Since, the opportunities have been coming as if being churned out from under a rolling pin. If—or more appropriately, when, once you have tried them—interested in consuming Ovenly pastries and treats yourself there are now a number of places where you can do so. For morning scones—their biggest sellers are currant rosemary, blue cheese pecan and parmesan honey walnut scones—try, of course, VPC; and for bar snacks—such as spicy bacon caramel corn (as in pop)—and soon to be desserts and scones, as well, stop by Brooklyneer. Also carrying Ovenly pastries is Bedford Hill (in Clinton Hill); and you can follow the bacon fat-washed Old Bay peanut (made with Brooklyn Pilsner) trail until you get to them and the rest of Ovenly’s bar snacks at Brooklyn Brewery.

Next on their creative kitchen list is ice cream toppings, and their first taker is Paulie Gee’s, the pizza restaurant in Greenpoint who carries Van Leeuwen ice cream as their sole dessert. Topping details are still being worked out, but for now think caramel corn, salted caramel and smashed salted brittle.

As for how and when they get it all done, the term “baker’s hours” isn’t an urban myth or an old wives tale. Most days Kulaga and Patinkin get up at 5:00 a.m. to use the space they rent out in the kitchen at Paulie Gee’s. The master plan for Ovenly is to continue baking out of Paulie Gee’s until they can eventually get their own space (or possibly partner up with friend Anna Wolf from My Friend’s Mustard) that consists of a production space in the back and a small retail space up front. For now, the Ovenly ladies are gearing up for more events such as wedding and parties. They would also like to continue to focus on desserts and bar snacks, in particular. To help out with this next wave of plans, Ovenly will be looking for interns so if you think you’ve got a sweet tooth or kneading hands, find these ladies via their site for more information: ovenlynyc.com.