DENVER — Spreading love through sweets — it’s the mission pastry chef Maggie Kates embarked on when she and her husband opened Le Clare’s Patisserie on East Colfax Avenue last July.
“The previous owners of the shop here, I worked for them at their first bakery about 12 years ago,” said Kates. “When the opportunity to kind of take over the space presented, we didn't want to make cookies, which was the idea, but we purchased their physical assets and transformed it into Le Clare’s Boutique Patisserie.”
But ongoing construction of the Colfax Bus Rapid Transit project really slowed things down.
“Oh, man, it got ugly for me,” she recalled.
Le Clare’s Patisserie was then forced to make some tough decisions.
“I'm just sitting here staring at the construction and the empty street. And this is my choice: Like, I can choose to sit here and suffer, or I can think of something new,” said Kates. “There are so many other ways to make this work. It doesn't have to be the model that someone set years ago.”
That’s how Le Clare’s Patisserie’s one-year anniversary party turned into what they’re now calling a ‘pivot party.'
They’re closing walk-in retail operations and cooking up a new idea instead — creating a culinary collaborative experience to bring the Colfax community together.
“We’ll still be open for more intimate ways to interact, to tell the stories about the food, our travels through food, how the community has impacted us,” she explained.
Le Clare’s will now offer hands-on cooking and pastry classes, private dining experiences, and collaborations with other local makers.
“Times are changing. We either get on board or you don't, and I'd rather continue to just be curious about the changes, instead of being like, that's not going to work. I'm done,” said Kates.
And it's not just a cookie-cutter business — it’s how Le Clare’s is blazing a different path and whipping up a new recipe for success.
“It feels like a block, you know, but I am releasing our pastry energy in a different way. No one's gonna block us,” said Kates.
