Deer & Dough Bakery Cafe was a mainstay of the Fairfield area, serving coffee and delicious baked goods from their tucked away location on the corner of Fairfield Road and Moss Street.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, the business had to vacate their former location last August.
Now, after one year of searching, Deer & Dough’s owner, Melinda Friedman has signed the lease to take over the former location of downtown Victoria’s Shatterbox Coffee, at 770 Fisgard Street.
“I’ve wanted to open a bakery since I was 15. My first job in High School [sic] was in a bakery and I was immediately hooked,” Friedman told Victoria Buzz.
She says that after high school, she moved to Vancouver, enrolled in film school and worked for many years in the film and television industry.
Friedman and her husband moved to James Bay during the pandemic as she decided she wanted to embark on a new path and reinvigorate her passion for baking.
“I started baking out of my James Bay home and selling to neighbours,” explained Friedman.
She says it became successful enough that she took the plunge and opened her tiny brick and mortar shop that was operational for 18 months before closing.
“It was really, really devastating, and for the last year, I’ve been searching for a new space to start again,” she said.
“I tried to acquire [three] other locations that didn’t work out. So I’m really excited that I’ve finally secured a great space and I can pick up where I left off.”
The space Friedman will be reopening Deer & Dough in was home to Shatterbox Coffee until April, 2024.
Shatterbox closed down in an unsavoury manner after the owners left the country, allegedly neglecting to pay their former employees what they had earned.
Because of this, Friedman says she hopes the former employees will apply to work at Deer & Dough as she is now hiring for several positions.
“They really got the short shift,” Friedman said of those who were employed by Shatterbox. “It seemed a sad ending for a lot of the staff who were working there so hard.”
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The space will be getting spruced up over the next month as Friedman is hard at work painting and making it work for what she has envisioned.
She says she is really excited to be able to provide indoor seating as well as patio space in her new spot, a luxury she did not have in the old location.
Friedman will be bringing back all the sweet treats that Deer & Dough became known for as well as putting together a lunch menu with a plethora of savoury goods.
“Last time we really focussed on baked goods, and we still will, but we will also have soup, salads, sandwiches made fresh-to-order… in an open kitchen,” she said.
“And the bakery space is going to be quite a bit larger, so we can do a lot more special orders and birthday cakes.”
Friedman says she is working on hiring and getting the space just right while she prepares to open the cafe in August.
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