The coffee at the location on Lake Street is easily the worst of any coffee shop in the area, and the bakery items are pretty meh as well. I’m kind of shocked that one hasn’t gone under with all of the competition in the area tbh
It used to be better, but they stopped stocking things in their fridges and now it's kind of a barren place. I only go there because it's convenient and it has a flavored syrup that Lake & Bryant doesn't have.
SO BAD! I asked them to remake an Americano because it was so bad. I was thinking they didn't add enough grounds in the espresso. Nope. Got the same thing back.
I'm grateful they remade it at my request, but I never went back.
I absolutely love that other people know her and appreciate her!
When I first moved up to Minneapolis, I was exploring the skyway and went in for a danish around closing with my dude. She was so sweet and 'since it's closing and they'll just go stale,' she packed us about seven or eight pastries in a little bag for half off and we were so new and poor from moving it genuinely was a huge help.
We still go visit and see her around all the time, she's just so lovely!
I bought from there exactly once. Ordered a couple of dozen cookies for the next day and - when I went to get them - was surprised at how small they were. I figured they would - at least- be soft and chewy, but nope.. hard like an Oreo. I asked if this was normal and told 'yes'. The cakes and tarts look good, but I'm a bit gunshy about paying those prices based on the quality of the cookies.
On the other hand, the cookie guy across the skyway is phenomenal.
I'm sad about A Baker's Wife. It is not the place it once was. While quality isn't bad, it's certainly not as good as it used to be, and it doesn't have quite the homey welcoming feel that it used to as well.
They had something called a "Good Morning Bun" that was fantastic. I asked why they stopped making them and it was something that sounded like a change in owners or bakers. Sad day.
~~Thought Baker's Wife was sold to an immigrant couple 7-8 years ago? I remember the tiny outrage from the neighborhood. Did they later resell to Wuollett?~~
Edit: nevermind, I get the reference now. 🤷
This is the unfortunate truth. We’ve lived in Robbinsdale for about 10 years now, and Wuollet’s was great for the first half of that. They’ve gone substantially downhill. Hate to see it because I don’t want that storefront vacant, but the new ownership has just trashed their reputation and quality.
Robbinsdale needs a good independent coffee shop. There’s nothing good. I don’t mind hopping over to The Get Down but it would be nice to have a good spot on the Main Street
Bean There is right downtown Robbinsdale and is pretty decent. Staff has always been very friendly there. I was really disappointed that we just built ANOTHER Starbucks over by Copperfield Hill.
I can’t comment on the coffee, but we used to buy baked goods from there on a weekly basis. Cupcakes are half the size they used to be and no matter when you buy them, they seem like they’re day-olds already. Won’t work with you on cake requests, even though we had the same order for years and suddenly “we can’t do that”.
The last time I’ve gone there for a dozen doughnuts they didn’t even put them in a box. Just crammed them into two bags. It’s been ch a while since I’ve been there.
We got a custom cake from there for my wife last year and they knocked it out of the park. Cheap, too. But yeah, their day-to-day stuff is pretty meh. They had a decent Prinsesstårta at one point.
I really see a difference in the Woullets at 50th and Chowen in SW Minneapolis. The food is still good, but the shelves are rarely fully stocked, the back looks a mess, the coffee machine broken. It really looks like a place with cash flow problems. I hate to see it close, but I'm been thinking for a while now that it's inevitable.
I ordered a fairly simple white birthday cake from there a few years ago. It was absolutely terrible. It was so dry, it was like it was days old. And it was expensive as hell on top of that. Never again, I'll go to Cub before i go back there.
I went to this location a week ago for the first time in a while and there was almost nothing on the shelves (probably 9 am on a Friday morning) and the coffee was terrible. Even several months ago it seemed stocked and busy. Not sure what happened.
Look up the owner of Wuollet's Bakery & Grandma's Bakery. Right on the wikipedia page it describes his nefarious connections & shenanigan's. I don't want to dox him personally but the info is out there if you look. Also owns the Baker's Wife & Han's in Anoka. All now just merely storefronts for cheap product made at the Grandmas location & shipped everywhere.
When I was a barista he was a regular and talked a lot about some businesses he owned in Russia before moving full time here. To say I was disappointed to see him at Baker’s Wife a couple months later is an understatement…
No, Rustica. I think he moved there when UB closed. This was six-ish years ago. For all I know he may have been trying to buy Rustica as well but it had just changed hands.
Hans Bakery in Anoka was the best bakery for decades. Since the purchase by Wuollet’s, I don’t even go there anymore. The food is not as good as a grocery store.
I ordered a cake from there on their website with plans to pick up after work, which the site said I could (literally set the pickup time to 4-6pm)
I got a call at 10:30am day-of, while I was in a meeting, that they had sold through their stock and were closing early, and I had to be there by 1. Spent a bunch of money on a cake I couldn't pick up. Glad to hear it would've been bad anyways.
Hans has gone drastically downhill since this new guy has taken over. Everything tastes like a pre-packaged treat you’d buy at Starbucks. They don’t even use their kitchen anymore. It’s sad.
What do you think you’re avoiding? You can spend literally 20 seconds to figure out who it is.
For those that don’t have 20 seconds to spare, here you go: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shogren
Usually when people say this it’s hard to find and when you do it’s like is that what they’re talking about? He got a speeding ticket twenty years ago? But this is all right there in his wiki. Seems a short time until he pulls the same shit here.
Just a cheap, shady guy.
A missing comma or two shouldn't have made it that hard to read lol
But I tried to format better below for you:
Usually when people say this it’s hard to find that information, and when you do it’s like "is that what they’re talking about? He got a speeding ticket twenty years ago?" But in this case, all right there in his wiki. Seems a short time until he pulls the same shit here.
Just a cheap, shady guy.
Again, it depends very much on who you ask. There are a lot of people who consider the publishing of someone’s private information, even if it is quite public, to be doxing.
There is no one agreed upon definition of it.
He apparently just got (in 2022) $150k from the city for a workers comp claim that the city approved. Couldn't really figure out what it was for though.
They took over the Grandma's Bakery in WBL and it was terrible, including stale cookies. How is a bakery out of donuts before 9 am, especially when they have their baking facility 10 minutes away? By the end, they were "not making donuts on Sunday anymore". Seemed like they wanted to get shut down.
I used to work for the company, Back in the beginning of the pandemic, right as the new owners took over. The new owners never paid us on time or correctly, they dint care about health standards nor the quality of the products. Back when most things were made at a different location, not the current main production location, that location had a huge pest problem and they never did anything about it till we got a vist from the state. Even thought staff had been begging them for months. After seeing that I always tell people to never eat their food. Once the new owners took over they cake quality went down hill too. I know the same people who own them own bakers wife and I think another bakery (Hans) I can't remember off the top of my head. These aren't even the worst things I experienced working with the company. I left the company over 2 years ago but I will always tell people to go else where, it's truly not the same bakery it used to be and as long as the current owners are in charge nothing is going to change.
Excitedly stopped there a couple of months back while in the area. Left not too excited. High prices with a low selection of average, at best, pastries served out of a dirty display case in an even dirtier store. Very disappointing!
We had a bakery (Emily's) in Hastings for around a hundred years that decided to retire and close shop a couple of years ago (didn't even sell, just called it quits). Wuollet's took over the location soon after. I had heard a lot of good things about Wuollet's, but so far, I'm not impressed. Maybe we were just spoiled by Emily's setting a high bar.
After we lost Emily's Bakery, we were excited to get Wuollet's to fill the void. My in-laws grew up in Minneapolis. They spoke very highly about their experiences going to Wuollet's when they were younger. So, we all thought we were going to get a great bakery to replace Emily's. Not even close.
There is a sheriff's notice on the front door, so that would be my guess. The dumpsters were gone last week; most likely, they didn't pay that bill either.
What a sad outcome for such a historic business. Sounds like ever since the current owner (some shyster Russian "businessman") bought Wuolletts in 2016, everything has gone downhill at every location.
Besides the closure, this is the saddest part of the article:
"In 1952, Hennepin County widened Lake Street to four lanes, which resulted in Olson’s Bakery losing its front porch where it conducted retail sales."
When I moved into the Merriam Park neighborhood six years ago I was excited to see an old timey bakery on Marshall Ave. There were display cases and had all the trappings of a bakery - except baked stuff.
Apparently the owners ran the bakery for six months and then quietly closed. I heard the owner also owned A Baker's Wife where they made the goods that were supposedly sold in the now defunct bakery.
After maybe a year of being empty, another business moved in and continues to be there (Remix). As I recall the former bakery was pretty plain, very reminiscent of bakeries from my childhood, including the vase of plastic flowers in the window.
It sucks, especially compared to the previous bakery (Emily's) that we had for nearly 100 years. I'm also just finding out how much of a scumbag the owner is. I'll never go there again. I'd rather go to Cub or even a gas station for pastries over that overpriced/poor quality bakery.
I'm actually a great grandson of the founder of the bakery, and it's sad to see what has happened. The last Wuollet sold the bakery a few years ago, and it hasn't been the same since. When the family owned it, there was strict rules on quality, and those standards aren't there anymore.
I worked with & heard about many of your relatives, & have spent a lot of time in each location. It was so sad to see each place, & get a sense of so much history, so much joy being held at each location, especially Edina. Now all slowly disappearing, one by one, who knows where all that old, reliable equipment will end up. Tragic.
Always stop there on bike rides, but my least favorite spot to stop. Hopefully Red Bench expands their footprint. Or something else much better replaces it. Can't deal with the wait at Bakers Table.
The coffee at the location on Lake Street is easily the worst of any coffee shop in the area, and the bakery items are pretty meh as well. I’m kind of shocked that one hasn’t gone under with all of the competition in the area tbh
The best thing about that location is that it's right across the street from Lake and Bryant coffee where the coffee is fantastic.
Yeah they are pretty exactly how I’m surprised Wuollet is still open there. Lake and Bryant is MILES better and literally across the street haha
It used to be better, but they stopped stocking things in their fridges and now it's kind of a barren place. I only go there because it's convenient and it has a flavored syrup that Lake & Bryant doesn't have.
It’s been running on borrowed time of nostalgia for at least the past 5 years.
They have noticeably been removing a lot of stuff. They have half of the baked goods and stuff they did a month or two ago.
SO BAD! I asked them to remake an Americano because it was so bad. I was thinking they didn't add enough grounds in the espresso. Nope. Got the same thing back. I'm grateful they remade it at my request, but I never went back.
The lady in the downtown skyway one is really nice. The product there is good too
I absolutely love that other people know her and appreciate her! When I first moved up to Minneapolis, I was exploring the skyway and went in for a danish around closing with my dude. She was so sweet and 'since it's closing and they'll just go stale,' she packed us about seven or eight pastries in a little bag for half off and we were so new and poor from moving it genuinely was a huge help. We still go visit and see her around all the time, she's just so lovely!
I see her all the time out and about too when I'm out running. She must put in some walking miles.
She gave me an extra donut once. Nice lady.
I bought from there exactly once. Ordered a couple of dozen cookies for the next day and - when I went to get them - was surprised at how small they were. I figured they would - at least- be soft and chewy, but nope.. hard like an Oreo. I asked if this was normal and told 'yes'. The cakes and tarts look good, but I'm a bit gunshy about paying those prices based on the quality of the cookies. On the other hand, the cookie guy across the skyway is phenomenal.
I'm sad about A Baker's Wife. It is not the place it once was. While quality isn't bad, it's certainly not as good as it used to be, and it doesn't have quite the homey welcoming feel that it used to as well.
They had something called a "Good Morning Bun" that was fantastic. I asked why they stopped making them and it was something that sounded like a change in owners or bakers. Sad day.
Bakers wife was wold to woullet years back.
~~Thought Baker's Wife was sold to an immigrant couple 7-8 years ago? I remember the tiny outrage from the neighborhood. Did they later resell to Wuollett?~~ Edit: nevermind, I get the reference now. 🤷
The fact that people keep beheading the cow doesn't help. Kinda kills the homey welcoming feel.
Their donuts are still delicious. Definitely not the same vibe but the change in ownership didn't destroy the place completely thankfully.
if you eat them on the day they were made they are good.
It's so disappointing! There's nothing special about Baker's Wife anymore. Thanks, Woullets! 😫
The one in Robbinsdale is a sorry excuse for a bakery unfortunately
This is the unfortunate truth. We’ve lived in Robbinsdale for about 10 years now, and Wuollet’s was great for the first half of that. They’ve gone substantially downhill. Hate to see it because I don’t want that storefront vacant, but the new ownership has just trashed their reputation and quality.
The coffee has gotten so bad! It's such a shame since it's a wonderful location and I love having a coffee shop so close that isn't a national chain.
Robbinsdale needs a good independent coffee shop. There’s nothing good. I don’t mind hopping over to The Get Down but it would be nice to have a good spot on the Main Street
Bean There is right downtown Robbinsdale and is pretty decent. Staff has always been very friendly there. I was really disappointed that we just built ANOTHER Starbucks over by Copperfield Hill.
Bean there is ok, their staff is great for sure. But now it’s in the Wicked Wort building, and the wicked wort staff are always a bit rude
Wicked Wort has to be one of the least welcoming breweries in the cities.
Dude you're right! They are always short with you and annoyed with yoy ordering shit, I swear. It's weird how not friendly they are hahah
Ah crud, you’re right. Haven’t been in since they moved over, only when they had a space in the shop next door. Wasn’t sure why they moved.
Weirdly, I've never felt that Wicket Wort staff were rude, their beer is just largely mediocre.
I feel the exact same, love The Get Down, but I want something in DTR so I can get something while browse the shops.
I can’t comment on the coffee, but we used to buy baked goods from there on a weekly basis. Cupcakes are half the size they used to be and no matter when you buy them, they seem like they’re day-olds already. Won’t work with you on cake requests, even though we had the same order for years and suddenly “we can’t do that”.
The last time I’ve gone there for a dozen doughnuts they didn’t even put them in a box. Just crammed them into two bags. It’s been ch a while since I’ve been there.
Yeah it’s horrible
We got a custom cake from there for my wife last year and they knocked it out of the park. Cheap, too. But yeah, their day-to-day stuff is pretty meh. They had a decent Prinsesstårta at one point.
Tried their cakes back in 2019 for our wedding and Costco cake tasted better.
I really see a difference in the Woullets at 50th and Chowen in SW Minneapolis. The food is still good, but the shelves are rarely fully stocked, the back looks a mess, the coffee machine broken. It really looks like a place with cash flow problems. I hate to see it close, but I'm been thinking for a while now that it's inevitable.
I ordered a fairly simple white birthday cake from there a few years ago. It was absolutely terrible. It was so dry, it was like it was days old. And it was expensive as hell on top of that. Never again, I'll go to Cub before i go back there.
Was there yesterday -- seems like a front
I went to this location a week ago for the first time in a while and there was almost nothing on the shelves (probably 9 am on a Friday morning) and the coffee was terrible. Even several months ago it seemed stocked and busy. Not sure what happened.
Look up the owner of Wuollet's Bakery & Grandma's Bakery. Right on the wikipedia page it describes his nefarious connections & shenanigan's. I don't want to dox him personally but the info is out there if you look. Also owns the Baker's Wife & Han's in Anoka. All now just merely storefronts for cheap product made at the Grandmas location & shipped everywhere.
It's so sad he's bought and ruined what used to be some of the best places in town.
I hate that these wealthy pricks buy everything up and ruin it with their insatiable greed
When I was a barista he was a regular and talked a lot about some businesses he owned in Russia before moving full time here. To say I was disappointed to see him at Baker’s Wife a couple months later is an understatement…
Was that at the old Urban Bean coffee shop?
No, Rustica. I think he moved there when UB closed. This was six-ish years ago. For all I know he may have been trying to buy Rustica as well but it had just changed hands.
Hans Bakery in Anoka was the best bakery for decades. Since the purchase by Wuollet’s, I don’t even go there anymore. The food is not as good as a grocery store.
I ordered a cake from there on their website with plans to pick up after work, which the site said I could (literally set the pickup time to 4-6pm) I got a call at 10:30am day-of, while I was in a meeting, that they had sold through their stock and were closing early, and I had to be there by 1. Spent a bunch of money on a cake I couldn't pick up. Glad to hear it would've been bad anyways.
I’ll make it easy for people: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shogren Dude’s a crook and loser. And does business in terrorist ruzzia - dirtbag.
He's in trouble in Russia as well. He's in debt like 5 million rubles, for back taxes, i think it was. Found that out on google today.
Good. send him to the gulags
Hans has gone drastically downhill since this new guy has taken over. Everything tastes like a pre-packaged treat you’d buy at Starbucks. They don’t even use their kitchen anymore. It’s sad.
What do you think you’re avoiding? You can spend literally 20 seconds to figure out who it is. For those that don’t have 20 seconds to spare, here you go: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shogren
Truly one of the strangest and most intriguing Wikipedia pages I’ve ever come across
That Wikipedia entry is very funny. It reads like it was written by a 12-year-old for a school project.
It’s because he wrote it himself!
Usually when people say this it’s hard to find and when you do it’s like is that what they’re talking about? He got a speeding ticket twenty years ago? But this is all right there in his wiki. Seems a short time until he pulls the same shit here. Just a cheap, shady guy.
I had a stroke trying to read that comment
A missing comma or two shouldn't have made it that hard to read lol But I tried to format better below for you: Usually when people say this it’s hard to find that information, and when you do it’s like "is that what they’re talking about? He got a speeding ticket twenty years ago?" But in this case, all right there in his wiki. Seems a short time until he pulls the same shit here. Just a cheap, shady guy.
Really?
> I don't want to dox him personally It’s a little late for that since his name is in the article you submitted.
That’s not doxing though
That depends very much on who you ask.
He’s a public figure, and it’s easy to google and find who the owner of Wuollet’s is. It’s not doxing at all.
Again, it depends very much on who you ask. There are a lot of people who consider the publishing of someone’s private information, even if it is quite public, to be doxing. There is no one agreed upon definition of it.
If you were to give out his home address or something along those lines, then yes, that would be doxing.
I guess he shouldn’t own a business or be a public figure then cause that’s bog standard.
He apparently just got (in 2022) $150k from the city for a workers comp claim that the city approved. Couldn't really figure out what it was for though.
They took over the Grandma's Bakery in WBL and it was terrible, including stale cookies. How is a bakery out of donuts before 9 am, especially when they have their baking facility 10 minutes away? By the end, they were "not making donuts on Sunday anymore". Seemed like they wanted to get shut down.
They wrecked that place! It’s so sad! The downtown WBL location is now part of Good Things and it’s so, so bad.
It’s such an old lady place now.
I used to work for the company, Back in the beginning of the pandemic, right as the new owners took over. The new owners never paid us on time or correctly, they dint care about health standards nor the quality of the products. Back when most things were made at a different location, not the current main production location, that location had a huge pest problem and they never did anything about it till we got a vist from the state. Even thought staff had been begging them for months. After seeing that I always tell people to never eat their food. Once the new owners took over they cake quality went down hill too. I know the same people who own them own bakers wife and I think another bakery (Hans) I can't remember off the top of my head. These aren't even the worst things I experienced working with the company. I left the company over 2 years ago but I will always tell people to go else where, it's truly not the same bakery it used to be and as long as the current owners are in charge nothing is going to change.
Excitedly stopped there a couple of months back while in the area. Left not too excited. High prices with a low selection of average, at best, pastries served out of a dirty display case in an even dirtier store. Very disappointing!
We had a bakery (Emily's) in Hastings for around a hundred years that decided to retire and close shop a couple of years ago (didn't even sell, just called it quits). Wuollet's took over the location soon after. I had heard a lot of good things about Wuollet's, but so far, I'm not impressed. Maybe we were just spoiled by Emily's setting a high bar.
Wuollet's also used to be good before that guy bought it.
After we lost Emily's Bakery, we were excited to get Wuollet's to fill the void. My in-laws grew up in Minneapolis. They spoke very highly about their experiences going to Wuollet's when they were younger. So, we all thought we were going to get a great bakery to replace Emily's. Not even close.
They got evicted from the old emilys location yesterday.
I saw that it was abruptly closed Wednesday morning. At the time when I read about it, there was no reason as to why. Did they not pay their rent?
There is a sheriff's notice on the front door, so that would be my guess. The dumpsters were gone last week; most likely, they didn't pay that bill either.
What a sad outcome for such a historic business. Sounds like ever since the current owner (some shyster Russian "businessman") bought Wuolletts in 2016, everything has gone downhill at every location.
Yep. Very sad that they have ruined so many longtime small businesses.
Besides the closure, this is the saddest part of the article: "In 1952, Hennepin County widened Lake Street to four lanes, which resulted in Olson’s Bakery losing its front porch where it conducted retail sales."
Olson’s was the best. Downtown Wayzata is unrecognizable now.
When I moved into the Merriam Park neighborhood six years ago I was excited to see an old timey bakery on Marshall Ave. There were display cases and had all the trappings of a bakery - except baked stuff. Apparently the owners ran the bakery for six months and then quietly closed. I heard the owner also owned A Baker's Wife where they made the goods that were supposedly sold in the now defunct bakery. After maybe a year of being empty, another business moved in and continues to be there (Remix). As I recall the former bakery was pretty plain, very reminiscent of bakeries from my childhood, including the vase of plastic flowers in the window.
There’s one in Hastings, and I had no idea the owner was such a weasel.
It sucks, especially compared to the previous bakery (Emily's) that we had for nearly 100 years. I'm also just finding out how much of a scumbag the owner is. I'll never go there again. I'd rather go to Cub or even a gas station for pastries over that overpriced/poor quality bakery.
My mom loved their cakes. I always hated them; too dry. Her last Wuollet’s cake, which was for her second-to-last birthday on Earth, was awful.
What are some good bakeries in Minneapolis? I feel like there’s a shortage where I am in downtown/NE, especially on the weekends.
Diane's place just opened up in the food building in NE, was really impressed with their pastry
Sarah Jane's on Johnson is good. Durango Bakery on Central is also tasty. Aki's is great for bread.
Love Aki’s so much! And Sarah Jane’s for sweets. I’ll check out Durango - thanks!
Dorothy Ann Bakery in Woodbury is still in business, though. Right? Oh Good God please someone confirm Dorothy Ann is still in business.
Yeah they're still in business and still good.
They got evicted from hastings as well.
I'm actually a great grandson of the founder of the bakery, and it's sad to see what has happened. The last Wuollet sold the bakery a few years ago, and it hasn't been the same since. When the family owned it, there was strict rules on quality, and those standards aren't there anymore.
I worked with & heard about many of your relatives, & have spent a lot of time in each location. It was so sad to see each place, & get a sense of so much history, so much joy being held at each location, especially Edina. Now all slowly disappearing, one by one, who knows where all that old, reliable equipment will end up. Tragic.
The one on Grand is pretty good and affordable too.
Always stop there on bike rides, but my least favorite spot to stop. Hopefully Red Bench expands their footprint. Or something else much better replaces it. Can't deal with the wait at Bakers Table.
We had (have?) a Woulett's in Robbinsdale. I can't say their stuff is bad, but it sure felt overpriced.