PVDonuts Owners Lori and Paul Kettelle Launch Oak Bakeshop
Their New Bakery’s Offerings are a Little Bit Jew-ish, a Little Bit Not
How many Millennials already have their retirement business up and running? Look to Lori and Paul Kettelle, who have degrees from Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in pastry arts and business, respectively. In late 2022, the couple opened Oak Bakeshop, 20 or 30 years before they planned to do so!
“Opening a bakery was one of my life goals,” says Lori, who grew up reading baking cookbooks and experimenting. “Once PVDonuts [their wildly popular first business venture] got underway, I thought that Oak Bakeshop would be our retirement plan. We’re able to do this sooner rather than later, thanks to PVDonuts.”
A LITTLE BIT JEW-ISH, A LITTLE BIT NOT
After college, Lori felt inspired to reconnect with her Jewish roots and traditions; she and Paul——who is not Jewish——celebrate all the major Jewish holidays at their home. That led them to explore traditional Jewish desserts and wonder: How could we make those traditional desserts with our own spin on them? The bakery’s mission “to explore and share Jewish traditions and culture and beyond through food” reflects their passion and curiosity.
Attending a Passover seder hosted by a roommate of Lori’s many years ago sparked Paul’s interest in all things Jewish. “I hope that through the foods we make people can gain the same interest and appreciation that I have over the years,” he says.
Without many family recipes of her own, Lori, along with Paul, collected friends’ recipes. Alena Bertoncini contributed her aunt’s challah recipe, which Oak Bakeshop uses for their cinnamon buns. Alena and other local friends, Tareq and Whitney Kheirbek, eagerly taste-tested repeated iterations of the cinnamon buns and other treats. Lori endlessly tested recipes from Uri Scheft’s Breaking Breads: A New World of Israeli Baking (Artisan, 2016) and Melissa Weller’s A Good Bake: The Art and Science of Making Perfect Pastries, Cakes, Cookies, Pies, and Breads at Home (Knopf, 2020). “I tested so many recipes from A Good Bake that it lost its binding,” says Lori.
“Our pop-ups at PVDonuts were the best place to get direct feedback,” Paul says. “We could see what was selling and what people were asking questions about; some people had never seen hamantaschen [a Purim holiday dessert] before.”
The bakery’s products are a delectable mix of baked goods—some “Jew-ish,” some not. From Jerusalem bagels (bathed in sesame seeds and different from “traditional” bagels), rugelach, challah and knishes to the gluten-free honey cake, quiches, cookies and scones—both savory and sweet—there’s plenty to satisfy every craving. A full coffee bar (lattes, espressos), a variety of teas and a curated beverage case elevate the customer experience. And, they sell shop-made dog biscuits, too.
Head baker Julia Menendez, who came to the United States from El Salvador as a child, loves experimenting with Lori. With an associate degree in pastry arts from JWU and experience baking at PVDonuts, Julia finds inspiration for new recipes through social media, Jewish baking platforms and the New York City—based bakery Librae, which is described as a third-culture bakery with Middle Eastern roots and Danish technique.
“We incorporate different traditions and cultures, and we dove into really understanding Judaism——that’s why we emphasize the ‘Jew-ish,’” explains Julia.
Although some customers have requested rye bread, the bakery’s limited space makes that impossible. Eager to please customers, Julia is developing a rye chocolate cookie that she plans to introduce soon. “It’ll give people some of what they’re asking for,” she says.
SPREADING HAPPINESS TO THE COMMUNITY
While some bakeries are content with satisfying customers’ cravings, Oak Bakeshop also is committed to contributing to its Camp Street neighborhood, one of the least affluent on Providence’s East Side. “We love the area; we bought our first condo there and it feels like a special place,” says Paul, who notes the benefits of owning the bakery’s building rather than renting as they do at PVDonuts.
They’ve delivered art supplies donated by customers to Mt. Hope Learning Center and will begin offering baking classes for youth who attend the Learning Center. “We’re delivering boxed and shelf-stable foods to the Mt. Hope Community Center, which delivers them to elderly members of the community. If we’re going to exist in any community, we should contribute in any way we can,” says Paul.
“Paul and Lori reached out to me,” says Mt. Hope Community Center Executive Director Helen Baskerville-Dukes. “I spoke with them on a Tuesday and by that Friday they’d [delivered] food for our Friday deliveries. Some 20 or 25 seniors get these nonperishables.”
Everyone has their favorites; while Baskerville-Dukes, who has also become a fan, can’t decide between the chocolate chip cookies and the brownies, her husband goes for the honey loaf cake. Without doubt, Lori chooses their Jerusalem bagel with the labneh plate; Paul would steal some of Lori’s bagel and opts for the honey loaf cake and the jalapeño scone.
“I’m really good at trying all the stuff that Julia bakes. It’s a hard job,” jokes Lori, who acknowledges that she does recipe development while still working full-time at PVDonuts. Calling himself the “operations guy” who handles everything unrelated to the kitchen, Paul adds, “I’m a terrible cook. [If I cooked], we would have failed already.”
With a warm and welcoming color palette—pink, ivory, green and off-black—— the bakery is housed in a former bodega on the corner of Cypress and Camp streets. The bakery’s name came from their desire for a familiar, comfortable and neighborhood vibe with lots of greenery, explains Paul.
“I hope we become someone’s tradition; our goal is to have a neighborhood bakery where it seems familiar to customers, whether it’s their first or 20th time coming in,” says Lori. “We want people to feel at home when they come in, eat … and sit doing their work.”
Oak Bakeshop
130 Cypress St. • Providence, RI
OakBakeshop.com
Tu to Su, 7 am—2 pm
