White Tree Bakery continues legacy of Lincoln, Palisades cafés in new Mount Vernon café

MOUNT VERNON — As Jen Juhl piped icing for custom cake orders from her house in 2022, baking was just a hobby that was becoming a nice side business.

But this year, after three moves and just as many years of exponential growth, her pipe dream has become a reality with White Tree Bakery’s newest location on Mount Vernon’s main street.

With its move to 117 First St. W., White Tree Bakery has more than a bona fide store front — it has a home. With plans to become a full deli within the next year or two, the owner has a mission beyond letting the public eat cake.

“I really want to feed the people of Mount Vernon — the people that work here every day — something really good, fresh and local,” Juhl said.

Expanding the menu

The bakery’s growth, year over year, has been “exponential.” Since moving into the new space in early February, sales have doubled nearly every month.

Now, that growth is extending to the store’s menu, which will transform over time from a bakery into a full deli open for breakfast and lunch with rotating daily and weekly specials.

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Soups and salads make an appearance on Fridays with varieties like chicken tortilla, loaded baked potato and ham and bean. Saturdays are for cinnamon rolls, and Sundays offer quiche.

Starting this summer, diners can enjoy sandwiches, too.

Scones are coming into the mix with two sweet and two savory options per day.

Sweet options include chocolate-based selections, like the S’mores, or fruit-based ones, like peach. Savory scones take on “mad scientist” formulations like Crab Rangoon, Everything bagel, sweet potato, chorizo kale, and Mediterranean with a fig jam.

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Juhl’s signature sweets continue with four types of cookies, two types of bars, coffee cakes, blueberry almond Bundt cakes and two kinds of cheesecakes on offer daily.

Carrying on the legacy

Carrying on the tradition of the address’ former residents, Juhl’s mindset has evolved considerably with the legitimacy that backs a business on First Street.

The storefront may no longer serve the beloved diner food of Palisades Café or signatures from the acclaimed Chef Matt Steigerwald’s Lincoln Café. But through a new menu, the space’s legacy will live on in new ways.

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“Matt always said he liked making ‘Good, Honest Food,’ ” Juhl said. “I want to carry on that tradition in a way. I just want to keep the spirit of the building alive.”

And she’s not just a tenant. Two months into White Tree Bakery’s new residency, she purchased the building.

For Juhl, baking has been a lifetime passion. As the baker-turned-deli owner plants deeper roots with a business where custom orders are now split evenly with retail sales, she keeps an eye on value.

She’s constantly looking at how to elevate the cheesecake — using Biscoff cookies for the base, or incorporating cookie butter, for example. For simplicities like her signature bars, she wants them to be a little heftier — to feel like they’re worth their weight in gold.

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In the era where local entrepreneurs have to compete with big businesses, it’s a mindset that often bodes well in helping small business owners stand out from the crowd.

“I want it to be good and satisfying, and feel like you got it from a bakery,” she said.

Custom orders and catering still continue to be a strong representation of her business. But now, customers have a place to buy goodies throughout the rest of the week when they have a craving too small for an order.

Now, customers can enjoy a scone with drip coffee by Little Scratch Coffee Roasters, have a working lunch with their laptop, and linger with the kind of environment a café provides.

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The fourth “and final” location, which the owner calls a perfect fit, comes after three others. First at Juhl’s home around the corner before moving into First Street Community Center, and then 100 First St. West — on the corner where Wren & Purl is located today.

“I feel like this gives us a home,” Juhl said. “It affords us so much more than any other space could.”

The mother of two never used to envision herself leaving Iowa City and moving back to Mount Vernon. But now, two full years after she quit her job as an intensive care unit clerk for the University of Iowa Health Care, she couldn’t imagine thriving any other way.

“The community support has been more than I had asked for,” she said.

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Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.

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