Opening a Bakery with Bethany Costello
I make baked goods that people will shit out, so there’s no need to get my panties all up in a bunch if something goes wrong. I just want to make sure people are happy with what they eat.
Bethany Costello is on a mission. Later this year, the young but experienced pastry chef hopes to open her own bakery, Eat Like Kings, in Nashville. Costello has roots in Tennessee, but has spent the last six years working her way up the culinary ranks in NYC. Her latest gig as pastry chef at M. Wells has garnered attention for her creative treats and roving, old-style dessert cart.
While running a pop-up restaurant at Bonnaroo last year, Costello got the itch to return to her Southern roots. After surveying the Nashville food scene and finding herself impressed, she also saw an opening for some quality pastries. Paste talked to Costello about her experiences thus far, and we’ll be checking back to get an inside look at what the process of opening your own bakery is really like.
Paste: Let’s start at the beginning. What inspired you to become a pastry chef?
Bethany Costello: My mom. She began baking with me from a young age. Growing up we would make elaborate cakes for my birthdays, and hundreds of cookies at Christmas time. I was making pâte à choux swans before I could even legally drive. Both of my parents have supported me through dropping out of college to move to New York and go to pastry school and all the jobs, moves, and tears that followed.
Paste: What’s your concept for Eat Like Kings?
BC: I really want an open kitchen with bench seating around it, that way people can sit and watch what we are doing and smell it the minute they walk in. I want long, farm-style tables in the middle where we can have pop-up dinners with guest chefs. I envision music blasting while Kaylee (my best friend and a partner in the business) and I dance around the kitchen and enjoy our lives. The open kitchen is really important to me, because we’ve been trapped in basements for so many years. We want to see people, but also give people a chance to see what we do. I want people to walk into Eat Like Kings and feel like they are in their friend’s house just there to smash on some dessert.
Paste: Where are you in this whole process now?
BC: Right now I have a completed business plan, and I’m focusing on financing and business licensing. I’m talking to investors, looking for a space in Nashville, working with a banker, and running an Indiegogo campaign to try and raise some working capital. And moving. It’s been a challenge because I’ve been in Brooklyn trying to start a business in Tennessee while working a full-time job. We’ve rented a commercial kitchen space for during the build-out and have gotten into a few farmers’ markets. We’re hoping to do that and some wholesale accounts during the summer to generate buzz about the opening and give people a chance to try our stuff!