Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Bun Bun’s Bakeshop is opening in Brunswick at 30 Bath Road on February 2.
Owner Laurie Smart-Pottle said she is enthusiastic for the grand opening of the bakery, which boastsfree WiFi, comfy booths, and of course, baked goods.
“It’s so exciting sometimes I just feel like I am going to burst and other times I think, wait a minute, am I dreaming?” said Smart-Pottle.
Owning a bakeshop has been a dream of Smart-Pottle’s for her entire life. She said she initially started decorating cakes so she could stay home with her children and stepchildren, who are now adults.
As a self-proclaimed military brat, she traveled while young, and briefly worked with water waste in the military before marrying a career soldier. No matter where she was living, Smart-Pottle found herself happiest in the kitchen.
“Family and friends are everything to me—I’m just a real down-to-earth person who loves to be around people and make them happy with really good food,” she said.
The decision to make a leap from her normal life and open up her own bakeshop started with her husband.
“My husband and I just got to thinking, because he’d been thinking of retiring—he’s been in the Guard for 28 years—we were thinking, ‘what can we do to get our retirement years going?’” she said. “So we started thinking of opening a restaurant, a little buffet kind of idea.”
The idea seemed far-fetched and expensive to them at the time, but they eventually decided that their dream might actually be a possibility.
“One night [my husband] looked at me and was like, ‘Why don’t you open up your bakery?’ and I was like ‘Really?’ and so that’s what we did,” said Smart-Pottle. “We just found a location, got the town involved to get the required codes, started hiring the right crew—plumbers, electricians, that kind of crew—and it kind of snowballed.”
Small-Pottle is cultivating a warm and inviting feel for the bakery.
“[It’s] super friendly, almost like a going-home-to-mom’s kind of place, because everything you’re going to eat is going to be homemade, not pretentious—something that you’d probably get at your mom’s dinner table—hopefully,” said Small-Pottle.
Due to staff restrictions, the bakery will not deliver to Brunswick, but it will make an exception for Bowdoin. Smart-Pottle said she envisions parents sending eight-inch cakes to students on their birthdays.
“We would deliver it with a card and balloons to the location—that way you have a little piece of home on the occasion,” she said.
Smart-Pottle has a number of ideas for the future of her business. She already sees the need for more space and has thought about opeing a food truck that would sell coffee and muffins. She also hopes to put tents and picnic tables in the parking lot so she and her husband can hold lobster bakes and pig roasts.
“I’m just really excited to open the doors, because so many people have stopped by and are really excited about a bakery coming,” she said. “They have all been so supportive and so friendly, I think I’m just ready to open the doors and be a real legitimate business.”