NEWS

Something wicked, sweet planned at Keizer Village

While Wicked Sweet’s bread-and-butter will be doughnuts, the owners will also offer a variety of other treats.

Katie Peters didn’t want to give up on Stayton’s The Doughnut Shop, but reality has a way of interfering with even the best laid plans. 

Katie and her husband Michael took over the store and all its ingredients in January 2018. Katie spent the prior six months in the store baking up treats and serving its customers as a way to learn the ropes. But, after a year of “giving it a real effort” things weren’t coming together as she’d hoped. 

“That shop was doing enough business to keep its doors open, but not enough for us to actually make a living from it,” Katie said. 

It was a devastating decision to pull the plug, but Katie and Michael regrouped and began reviewing all the lessons learned. 

“We had a product that we believed in, and we had learned a great deal from the year we spent running The Doughnut Shop,” Katie said. 

They went in search of a new location that would provide access to a larger customer base, but still in reach of the diehard fans it had in Stayton. 

Spots in Salem wouldn’t accommodate the fryer without major renovations and they almost picked a new site in Dallas before finding out about Keizer Village on River Road. 

“Our realtor brought a newly listed location in Keizer to our attention; the same day it became available, actually. We met and toured the space. It ticked all the right boxes, and so we found ourselves signing a lease,” Katie said. 

Wicked Sweet Bakery, at 3852 River Road North, is opening … sometime. With stay-home orders and a pandemic sweeping the globe, there is still much uncertainty. 

“We plan to open with a limited menu of doughnuts and (Odolla Coffee Roasters) espresso, offering curbside pick up and delivery. Our hope is that we will find our footing with the limited menu and add our other menu options as we are able,” Katie said. 

The other things Katie hopes are added to the menu soon aren’t found in run-of-the-mill doughnut establishments. The full menu will feature cupcakes, cookies, scones, cinnamon rolls and sticky buns, brownies and a “miscellany of other baked goods.”

The pandemic has meant not hiring the staff originally anticipated for the roll-out of the shop, and there’s a growing frustration in not being able to show off the space she and Michael have tried to create inside. 

“Well, we had planned on opening with our full menu and an open seating area, but that plan has since gone out the window. It’s a real bummer,” Katie said. 

Eventually, when everything returns to some semblance of normal, Katie said Wicked Sweet Bakery plans to offer its sugar injections Tuesday through Saturday from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

For updates on progress, follow Wicked Sweet Bakery on Facebook.