On the North Coast, creative bakers and chefs are conjuring up all sorts of morsels to tempt and satisfy sweet cravings.

For a real treat, wander the riverside in Nehalem to find Pacific Roots Coffee + Mini Donuts, a food truck serving donuts made on the spot. Closer to Manzanita, stock up on caramels and peanut brittle at Sarah Jo’s Candy. And who can resist made-from-scratch cookies and pastries from Dylan’s Cottage Bakery in Long Beach? Cannon Beach and Astoria are filled with treats, as is Seaside, where it wouldn’t seem like a true beachside adventure without homemade saltwater taffy or caramel corn from Phillips Candies.

A chocolate cafe

After trips throughout Europe savoring fine chocolate, Tim Krupa and his wife, Dawn, lamented how artisanal varieties were not readily available at home on the Oregon Coast.

They then decided to offer chocolates from around the world, launching the Cannon Beach Chocolate Cafe. Featuring imported bars, truffles and other morsels, including a brilliant chocolate milkshake, the Krupas’ quirky shop soon flourished.

In 2020, when the couple considered retiring, one of their longtime staffers, Kelly Mauer, broached the idea that she might be interested in acquiring the cafe, only to find out that her coworker and friend, Danielle Shipp, had the same idea — so the two decided to join forces.

“We were so excited, but nervous when we started,” Mauer said. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, and sales went online.

“It was a humbling experience,” Mauer continued. “The community rallied around us and we partnered with hotels and other shops to get our chocolates out there. Honestly, we had a lot of extra love. Within a year, we had doubled our income.”

Mauer, the self-proclaimed people person, mans the front and oversees staff, while Shipp, who studied at the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco gets creative behind the scenes.

“Danielle uses her fabulous baking skills to create new concoctions,” Mauer said. “Combined with everything she learned from Krupa as a chocolatier, she really can let loose and let her imagination take off.”

“Sometimes it gets me in trouble,” Shipp said. “It’s fun to try new flavors and new recipes like peaches and cream, seafoam, homemade marshmallow or infusing truffles with spirits like whiskey, tequila or bourbon.”

Besides the shop’s vast array of imported bars, chocolate-dipped items, bark and molded chocolate (check out the little critters), there’s a delectable Mayan spice version of hot cocoa, spiked with cinnamon, ancho and chipotle chilis.

Shipp’s homemade pastries are favorites that pair well with the cafe’s teas and espresso. The beloved chocolate milkshake is still on the menu, created with 70% dark Colombian chocolate as a base.

One of Shipp’s other not-to-miss items is her spoon chocolate — which lies somewhere between a sipping chocolate and a pot de crème. It’s so silky and thick, it’s best eaten with a spoon.

Cookies and kids

“You can’t have a bad day if you have a cookie,” said Marcus Koczenasz-Runkle, co-owner of The Cookie Jar in Seaside.

It’s pretty much the philosophy of the new shop that was, “all the kid’s fault,” according to Anthony Koczenasz-Runkle, the other half of the ownership, referring to their 11-year-old twins, Jolene and Castiel, also known as JoJo and C.J.

“The kids saw how Marcus had his own business and thought they wanted their own business too,” Anthony said. “We all sat down and envisioned different ideas and they came up with an enthusiastic, ‘Cookies!'”

“JoJo and C.J. are the company CCOs — that’s the chief cookie officers,” Anthony said with a laugh. “They’re really invested in making the enterprise work and have become cookie connoisseurs. They are continually coming up with new concepts, then Marcus and I do the research to see if it’s a viable cookie, or if it’s only a temporary idea.”

Seven different cookies are offered on a weekly rotation at the shop, with three kinds always available: chocolate chip, vegan chocolate chip and snickerdoodle. The menu changes on Fridays, introducing four new varieties, keeping in mind seasonal tastes.

“The twins are the main reason the whole thing works,” Anthony said. “They man the shop, do sales, tidy up and interact with customers. They’re learning math, responsibility and people skills. I mean, who can resist these cute kids insisting you try their cookies?”

With the twins in middle school, Anthony noted that their enthusiasm has been contagious. Many of their friends, who helped out with the shop’s local farmers market booth during the summer, now seem to be developing inspired ideas of their own.

“I have a lot of hope for the future,” Anthony said. “Our kids have enriched our lives exponentially.”

“It’s a fun, family experience,” Marcus added. “It’s a challenge starting a new business, but we try to keep our sense of humor.”

“We like joyful things. Something as simple as lining our shelves with cookie jars,” Anthony said. “When people come in and say, ‘I remember that jar — my grandma had that one,’ I love that.”

“It’s nostalgia,” Marcus added. “Cookies are comfort. The whole enterprise is just the sweetest thing.”

Full circle

“I didn’t see baking or anything to do with food as a career,” Aleesha Serrita Nedd said, amused at her career path in creating The Naked Lemon, an Astoria bakery.

After graduating from Portland State University with a degree in communication studies, Nedd moved back home to Astoria. To make ends meet, she took a few jobs in food service, all the while experimenting with baking.

“Baking was always a passion of mine growing up, mostly seeing my grandmother in the kitchen,” she said. “I sort of did it as a hobby. At the time I first started a pop-up bakery, I was still working at Coffee Girl. I was getting a feel for things and thinking, ‘Do I want to do this?’ I’m not sure, let me just try this. Let me just start doing a little bit here and there.”

Naming the baking venture was serendipitous. Nedd went to retrieve a lemon wedge at Coffee Girl, but when she opened the fridge there was only one lemon with no rind, having been zested by the chef. She recalled that the lone lemon looked naked and thought to herself that the name “naked lemon” was catchy — and so it was.

“I was doing more pop-ups in other local businesses and I started doing a little wholesale baking on the side too. Then it came to the point of, ‘Gosh, this is growing. I either have to run with this, drop it or keep it really small,'” she said.

A turning point came when Buoy Beer Co. hired her to create three custom celebration cakes for their third anniversary. After her working hours at Coffee Girl, she baked during the night in the commercial kitchen at the Astoria Senior Center, then had to get back to work early in the morning, only to rush back again to finish and deliver her cakes.

“I ended up being awake for something like 22 hours,” she recalled. Realizing it wasn’t sustainable to both bake and work full-time, she realized she’d have to find a place to set up permanently, then gradually transition to baking.

“It was a huge risk, but I had such a good support system with my mother, who said, ‘If this is what you want, then try it out and if it doesn’t work, it’ll show itself. You’ll know when you have to pay bills if you can do it or not,'” she said. “I was 26 and just didn’t know any better, which I guess was a blessing. I just boot-strapped the whole thing, and got going, chipping away at things.”

Even with her own space, Nedd was still renting the Astoria Senior Center’s kitchen, baking early in the morning and transferring goods to her store. She still did custom cake orders, but being alone was difficult and sharing a kitchen was limiting. She decided to seek another location with a commercial kitchen.

“It was a huge draw, having my own kitchen instead of sharing and transporting,” she said. “Finding that kitchen and building out at that location was wonderful.”

Now, Nedd’s French macarons are a favorite. The bakery’s space in the Astor Building on Commercial Street has a small team that includes two bakers, with plans in the works for another location with a production kitchen.

“It’s worked out wonderfully,” Nedd said. “My day-to-day is totally changed now. The shop can run itself and I’m able to do a few more things that I really enjoy doing. I know I had gone to college in communication but my focus and interest was in marketing and public relations and I kind of always saw myself in a role like that, or wanting to do that, but didn’t really know how that would look. And now that’s what I’m doing. It’s been a crazy ride, but I’ve kind of arrived full circle.”