We have strong opinions about butter. You probably suspected that.
Less predictably, we have strong opinions about forks.
When you run a family-owned regional bakery that hands over thousands of pastries, loaves, savouries and coffees each week, you spend a surprising amount of time thinking about how to hand them over.
Preferably without squashing anything.
At The Baker’s Duck, that starts at the counter. Have a look in the cabinet, make your decisions, order and pay, then collect your food. You’re welcome to take it away or find a table and settle in.
Take your time choosing. We know what we’ve put you up against. Once you’ve collected your food, you’re welcome to linger.
Make yourself at home
We’re a counter-service bakery, so food from the cabinet comes packed the same way whether you’re heading home or heading for a table.
That keeps ordering and collection straightforward and helps our team keep the queue moving. It also means anything you don’t finish is already packed to come with you. An optimistic concern, perhaps, but we like to be prepared.
We do have a small dine-in menu, with dishes served on plates. For the pastries and savouries you’ve been eyeing in the cabinet, though, the box is part of the arrangement.
Good things come in considered packaging
One cup is a small decision. Thousands of them deserve a proper conversation.
So alongside the usual bakery questions — how long to prove the dough, where we source our eggs — we ask questions about cup coatings, cardboard and whether a fork can actually get through lunch.
Here’s what we use:
Hot coffee cups with an aqueous coating that are home compostable.
Clear cold cups that are compostable.
Paper bags, cardboard boxes and greaseproof paper for our baked goods.
Cutlery made using coffee grounds. A second career in hospitality.
Bamboo straws
A useful detail about compostable packaging: home compostable and commercially compostable aren’t the same thing. Check the packaging for disposal instructions and your local service for what it accepts. A compostable cup doesn’t automatically belong in the recycling bin.
We’d much rather you know that than send you home with a reassuring word and no idea which bin to use.
A few things we won’t fold on :)
Packaging has a fairly demanding job description. It needs to be suitable for food, hold up during a busy service, fit in our storage and make financial sense for a small business.
It also needs to get your pastry home looking like the pastry you chose.
There’s no perfect solution to all of that. We weigh up the materials, the waste and the practicalities, then look for options that work at the volume we use.
This has led to more discussion about forks than we anticipated when we got into baking.
But we put a lot of work into what’s inside the box. It makes sense to give the box some thought too.
So yes, you can eat here. Yes, your cabinet pastry will still come in a box.
Find a table. Open it up. We’ve given you quite enough packaging information to go with your coffee.
