Sunnyside residents rejoice, you have a new bakery in town and it’s good. How do we know Moon Raccoon Baking Co. rocks even though it’s been there only a couple weeks? For the past few years owners Kate Lange and Zoe Deutsch have peddled fresh and innovative baked goods at farmers’ markets around town. While there’s still plans to continue that, now they have a year-round bakery too.
“Either we had to get a brick and mortar and operate year round, or stop,” said Deutsch over the phone. “It’s always been in our plans to have a brick and mortar…but we wanted to build the brand and have a foundation to support it.”
The duo started Moon Raccoon in 2020 as their pandemic project. Both chefs were furloughed from their respected restaurant jobs, Deutsch at Uchi and Lange at Watercourse.
The idea for the bakery stemmed from a cooking project Lange ran from her apartment. The sale turned out so well, Deutsch joined her and the two decided to test out marketing the baked goods, which included oatmeal cream pie cookies, lemon blueberry muffins, and a pretzel Danish with hibiscus sugar and cream, to name a few.
“The intention behind Moon Raccoon was to have laminated pastries, but we didn’t have the capacity to plug in the heater when working out of our houses,” said Lange, mentioning she broke her mixer making large batches of cookies, cakes, and brioche. “We had to wait until we had a commercial kitchen.”
Over the last five years Moon Raccoon has grown from hand-delivered cookies to the Golden Triangle Farmers’ Market to night markets around town. Now the brand offers around 20 different items each weekend, with things changing based on the season, what they are loving, and what sells. Croissants in different forms are always on the menu, as are cinnamon rolls, seasonal Danishes, and the crowd-favorite kouign amann. Other menu items could include the sticky icky buns, honey monkey bread, peach pop tarts, tea cakes, cardamom buns, and more.
At the new shop the pair plan to offer pastries they have never made before, which will only be available at the bakery storefront. The space also features a full espresso and coffee bar. Local pasta company Sfoglina shares the space with Moon Raccoon, so customers can also pick up housemade bolognese, pestos, and dried pasta.
Aside from innovative pastries, Moon Raccoon stand out because both Lange and Deutsch remain dedicated to sustainable sourcing, and even received the Slow Food Snail of Approval award for their practices. All the flour used comes from Dry Storage out of Boulder, honey hails from Bjorn’s Honey, and milk from Five Freedoms Dairy. A lot of the fruit used in the pastries get sourced from the neighborhood fruit trees. In fact, anyone can bring in quality fruit from their trees, and the team will trade one pound of apples, pears, plums, or peaches for one pastry.
“We are excited to be part of the Sunnyside community and finally put down some ovens,” added Deutsch.
But for those who want to pick up fresh pastries at the farmers’ markets, worry not, the stalls will stay there for the rest of year, and most likely be back next year too. Catch Moon Raccoon on the Saturdays at the Boulder and City Park markets, and Sundays at the Laffyette and Parker markets. And when those venues close for the season, don’t worry, with the brick and mortar location you can get Moon Raccoon pastries year-round.
Visit Moon Raccoon Baking Co. Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The shop is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. 2839 W. 44th Ave., Suite 103, Denver, moonraccoonbakingcompany.com
