New Bakery and Community Spot Set for Springdale

When Aubrey Howlett created Holy Moly Bakery, she wanted to cultivate community in the small town of Springdale. “I want the face-to-face contact, I want to watch kids grow up, I want to watch families get bigger, the kids graduate. When you walk in, you see people you know in your community that you haven’t seen in a while and say, ‘Oh, let’s meet at Holy Moly,’” said Howlett.

“We don’t need a bar to be our main point of community, and we don’t need it to be a church either…I want somewhere where people, no matter how they feel, can meet up and have a cup of coffee and treat and enjoy each other’s company,” she said. Holy Moly will offer “old school treats,” said Howlett, including cinnamon rolls, different types of lemon bars, no-bake cookies, rice crispy treats, and related goods. Essentially, Howlett will serve “everything grandma made but with a twist of either tastes better or it’s a little healthier,” she said.

Holy Moly will also offer pour-over coffee, hot chocolate, iced tea, lemonade, and eventually sodas. She said her favorite dessert she makes are pineapple lemons bars. “They have a coconut crust. They taste like a pina colada in your mouth. In the dead of winter, they make you feel like you need to sit on a beach,” she said.

The bakery is expected to open by the end of August, about a year after Howlett co-purchased the 2,500-squarefoot former Sacred Heart Catholic church in Springdale, at 110 S. Main, for $104,000. The main worship area, called the nave, will be the seating area for the coffee shop that goes with the bakery, and it will also offer consignment retail space.

The kitchen is where the bakery will be, said Howlett. “My biggest thing is that I want people to be able to come in, no matter your income, stature, outward appearance, or where you feel you are in life. For $2.50 you’ll get a treat and a coffee,” said Howlett. The Holy Moly special will be $5 for two and will include a weekly-revolving treat and a choice of water, tea, or drip coffee.

Howlett said she also plans to offer baking classes and host events such as Nintendo Wii nights, taco nights, and spaghetti feeds. She also plans to rent out her kitchen and open the space up for people to offer classes like yoga or other offerings, she said. “It just depends on what the community ends up wanting and needing out of it, but I really want it to be somewhere people can be,” she said.

Howlett said she has dreamed of owning a coffee shop for a very long time, and wants to open what she calls a “C.A.F.E." (Community and Family Education.) “I’m a mom. I teach everything I do…it’s ingrained in my bones,” said Howlett, who has five children, with the youngest being 19 years old. “I want somewhere that people can come learn to make cinnamon rolls, where people can learn how to make cookies, the snickerdoodles that they never learned how to make,” she said.

Howlett said she is still in the process of remodeling the former church for her business. As of July 5, she is working on getting the remodeling permits and kitchen certifications off to Stevens County for approval, she said. Before Holy Moly, Holwett opened a bakery in Post Falls called Hobo Baked; “Hobo” being the combination of her children’s and stepchildren’s last names.

After that, she worked as a private chef for Ann Louise Gittleman, a New York Times bestselling author of several books on dieting and nutrition, said Howlett. Working with Gittleman taught Howlett how to cook a variety of recipes with a variety of ingredients. That includes gluten free, dairy free, and other food restrictions. “It was awesome. With that experience, I can add all sorts of different layers to the bakery now that I couldn’t before,” she said.

While working to open Holy Moly, Howlett runs a baking stand from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

She expects to open Holy Moly Bakery from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m., potentially seven days a week.