Our story
It started witha better cookie.
Not a rebrand of a cookie. Not a cookie “concept.” Just the realization that a cookie made carefully, eaten warm, minutes from the oven, is a different food entirely — and that St. John's deserved a room built around that fact.
01
One tray and a folding table
The Brown Butter Chunk debuts at the Saturday market. Forty cookies, gone in an hour, and a theory confirmed: people can tell when butter has been browned with intent.
02
The corner on Water Street
A former hardware store becomes a bakery with a two-group espresso bar. We kept the workbench — it's the big table by the window where the laptops and the toddlers negotiate territory.
03
The second oven
Demand outgrew the first oven, so we added its twin — and the community wall next to it: kids' drawings, race bibs, one very good crossword. Bring something worthy and we'll pin it.
Today
Fourteen trays and counting
Fresh trays land every 40 minutes, two single origins rotate on the bar, and the seasonal menu changes when the market does. Same theory as day one, bigger table.
The bakers & the bar
The people behind
the pass.
June Okafor
Founder & head baker
Browns the butter. Names the cookies. Wins the arguments.
Marco Reyes
Espresso lead
Dials in twice a day and will absolutely tell you why.
Sana Iqbal
Pastry
Laminates at 5 AM. The croissant's crunch is her signature.
Theo Park
Front of house
Knows the regulars' orders and the dogs' names. In that order.
Sourcing
Good ingredients,
named out loud.
On the bar · washed
Huila, Colombia
Dark chocolate, red fruit, a long caramel finish. The espresso that anchors the flat whites.
On the bar · natural
Sidama, Ethiopia
Florals and citrus, dangerously drinkable as filter. Rotates with the harvest.
In the dough
Close to home
Stone-milled flour from the valley, cultured butter, eggs from farms we can name. The miso in the caramel? Two towns over.
Small trays only
Nothing is baked ahead by the hundred. If it's on the rack, it was recently dough.
Everyone's café
Laptop workers, stroller fleets, first dates, chess club. The room is built for all of it.
Neighborhood first
Market produce, local suppliers, school fundraisers. We're a St. John's business on purpose.