Le Rêve Bakery & Café

If you ask anyone who lives on Queen Anne, especially on top of the hill, why they live there, you will hear that it's truly a neighborhood where you run into people you know, talk on the street or in the stores and spend most of your life (school, business, sports, shopping, dining). Business partners Sharon Fillingim* (left) and Andrea Nakata (right) wanted to tap into that neighborhood life by creating a community gathering place. They've done so with Le Rêve Bakery & Café.

Still a brand new business (opened November 12, 2010), their goal is already being met. People arrive in a steady stream, they all seem to know at least one person in the room and there's constant conversation taking place. Like all neighborhoods, Queen Anne has its share of coffee shops. Le Rêve ("the dream") uses Olympia Coffee Roasting Co., a small, local company that roasts organic coffee. Le Rêve is their first client in Seattle. But Le Rêve also offers something different: a real bakery. Pastries, muffins, tarts, cupcakes croissants, scones, mini-cheesecakes and custom-made cakes are all baked on site. Sandwiches on housemade bread, soup and salad are available for lunch. Local purveyors are used as often as possible.

"Putting this together was a team effort," says Andrea. "Sharon and I have been fast friends since we met at our kids' school. Our daughters were in the same kindergarten class. We came up with the café and bakery design and a friend did the build out. Family designed our website. Girlfriends assisted with the décor. Everyone who helped is a friend, neighbor or relative. And the staff is our dream team." Their three chefs, Honor Amourall, Jason Gere and Sarah Mullins have years of combined experience and are passionate about their chosen careers.

The dream started simply enough. Sharon and Andrea had worked together on arts projects for their childrens' school fundraising auction and ended up creating Camp Artsmart at the Queen Anne Community Center. They did their planning at various coffee shops. A few years prior, Andrea had been in Paris with friends, loving the café culture. Sharon had previously owned coffee shops and Cool Hand Luke in Madrona. They started talking about creating a Parisian-style coffee bar for Queen Anne. A restaurant deal Sharon was working on fell through and Andrea was looking to start a second career (along with the property management company she and her husband own and four children). When Andrea saw the ‘for lease' sign on their current space, she could picture tables on the porch and in the courtyard. "My husband grew up on Queen Anne and I've spent the last 20 years here. Sharon also lives on Queen Anne," she says. "We wanted to be part of this neighborhood and bring something to it." They started seriously putting things together in June. "It seemed like it wasn't going fast enough, but in retrospect we opened pretty quickly."

Opening with no fanfare, just word of mouth, they still blew through their first coffee order in four days, double the speed they thought reasonable. "The neighborhood has been wonderful, both individuals and businesses," says Andrea. "They feel that the more foot traffic there is, the better off we all are. Local business people tell their clients about us. And some locals come in three times a day, once for pastry, then lunch, then something to go."

Le Rêve offers box lunches to go as well as pastry or sandwich and salad assortments people can pick up for their business and personal gatherings. They offer classes for adults like baking with chocolate and infusing truffles. Kids' classes include gingerbread house workshops and painted cookies. The space is available for private parties in the evening and they have a liquor license they use for events. They've already had a documentary film screening and a cabaret soiree. Canned goods were collected from the film evening and 10% of the proceeds from the cabaret were given to the Queen Anne Helpline. "We want to give back to the community through the bakery," explains Andrea. "Even before we opened, we had donated cakes to the Edgar Martinez Foundation."

One thing they don't offer is Wi-Fi. "We made a conscious decision about this. There are plenty of places on Queen Anne with Wi-Fi. We wanted to create a place where conversations are taking place. We wanted it to be lively, not silent.

"Le Rêve is our dream come true. We're so grateful for the neighborhood support and the way everyone has welcomed us with open arms. Being part of this community means so much to us."

*Sharon left to start "Grub," a restaurant on Queen Anne.

Connie Adams/December 2010