Bunny Bakes recipe of teamwork and respect delivers desserts and growth
Coffee shop and catering is 'means of keeping our adults connected to the community'
Bunny Bakes, a Squirrel Hill-based coffee shop, offers not only sweet treats but communal betterment.
Since opening in November 2023, the store has had limited catering options. In recent months, as the business has grown, Bunny Bakes has increased the size and number of orders taken.
Operated by Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh, Bunny Bakes is predicated on maintaining a space that “aligns with our mission,” Friendship Circle’s Executive Director Rabbi Mordy Rudolph said.
The organization routinely hosts programs designed to bolster social connections for area youth and adults with “diverse abilities.” Bunny Bakes extends this charge by helping adults with disabilities develop professional skills, Rudolph explained.
Inside the coffee shop, adults manage the register, greet patrons, organize items and help the bakers. A yearly paid training program, which is taking new applicants, enables participants to learn workplace safety, professionalism and teamwork. Several Bunny Bakes employees are graduates of the program.
There aren’t enough positions in the bakery, so the hope is other local employers with “some kind of food element” will look to hire graduates, Rudolph said.
Jenna Johns is bakery manager at Bunny Bakes. On the day the Chronicle visited, Johns moved between the counter and a nearby table, overseeing operations while explaining a common feature of the business.
“We’re very interactive with our guests, and it’s not just me as a manager thing — everybody, all of the staff members, do a very good job at that,” she said.
Mingling with customers and asking about orders is standard fare in food services. At Bunny Bakes, the practice has an additional purpose.
“It’s a means of keeping our adults connected to the community,” Rudolph said.
Several employees live in Squirrel Hill. Others reside in Fox Chapel and surrounding areas.
Staffing local residents creates a “community element,” Rudolph said. “It’s about working at your neighbor’s coffee shop.”
Mia Rymer, catering and sales manager at Bunny Bakes, said employees don’t merely don aprons and clock hours in the store. The business’ catering component requires adults to travel offsite, set up tables and arrange baked goods according to customers’ specifications.
At a recent event, staff brought numerous materials for a cookie making demonstration and partnered with customers to create delicious desserts.
“The kids loved it,” Rymer said.
Whether it’s Bunny Bakes’ training program or catering, these are means of “getting our employees out into the community,” Rivkee Rudolph, Friendship Circle’s director, said.
“Seeing our employees with disabilities being really successful, out and about, is really an important part of our mission but also a really important part of our business plan: being a model of what an inclusive business can look like, what a diverse employment group can look like, how our employees work together to support each other,” she continued.
When Johns and Rymer were hired, neither’s job description included language about “supporting people with disabilities,” Rivkee Rudolph said. Instead, Bunny Bakes employees are asked to be a “team player, and I think that’s a value all employers want their employees to have: to support one another — and that means supporting your colleagues with or without disabilities. It’s about teamwork, and recognizing we all have strengths we bring to the table, and we’re a stronger team together when we work together and support each other.”
As their conversation with the Chronicle came to a close inside the packed coffee shop, the Rudolphs, Johns and Rymer pointed to a glass-protected counter with bourekas, brownies and cookies. Each of the staffers encouraged readers to consider Bunny Bakes for a future event.
“There’s been a lot of trial and error, but we keep improving the product,” Mordy Rudolph said.
In some sense, he’s referring to the pastries; in another, he means the operations.
“We chose this business because we wanted something where our adults could help with the production and the community could come in. We didn’t want to sacrifice one for the other,” he said. “We wanted our adults to be involved from beginning to end. And we want to engage more members.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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