Rustica Bakery & Cafe gets a new owner, but the bittersweet chocolate cookie will remain

The Twin Cities bakery known for its bittersweet chocolate cookies, French pastries and breads has changed hands.

Rustica Bakery & Cafe, launched in 2004 by baker Steve Horton, and acquired in 2015 by Greg Hoyt, will mark its 20th year under new ownership. Jester Concepts, the restaurant group behind Parlour, Butcher & the Boar, P.S. Steak and more, has brought the bakery into its portfolio, with plans to expand locations and wholesale operations.

"I've always been in love with Rustica and their pastry program and bread program and I just thought it was a really good fit for us," said Brent Frederick, an owner of Jester Concepts. "It's got that high-quality product." Rustica is already providing table bread and desserts to Jester's restaurants.

The deal was long in the making. Frederick and Hoyt began discussing an acquisition in 2019, but the pandemic tabled those talks. Five years later, "The timing was right for me," Hoyt said. "I consider myself a steward of Rustica for 10 years, and there's a time for everything."

With two locations — on W. Lake Street in Minneapolis and at Southdale in Edina — Hoyt believed there was room for Rustica to grow.

"A business like Rustica needs scale to thrive," Hoyt said. "The brand is strong, we're successful on a lot of measures. But really it's scale that I think is going to lift small businesses like Rustica to be able to thrive, and Jester has that."

Hoyt will stay on in an advisory role during the transition, with plans to devote more of his time to a food venture fund he started five years ago, Gather Venture Group.

Frederick is planning to open more bakeries in suburban locales, with at least one planned for 2025. He wants to beef up Rustica's savory menu, rolling out more breakfast and lunch items over the next couple of years. His other plans for the brand are to integrate Rustica products into all Jester restaurants, and to go deeper into wholesale and retail, putting Rustica products back into co-ops and grocery stores.

Shawn McKenzie, the Cafe Cerés owner and pastry chef who joined Rustica in 2022, will stay on as head of the production team, Frederick said. Beloved menu items, like those bittersweet chocolate cookies, will remain unchanged.

"Shawn is in charge of those super high-quality items," Frederick said. "Our goal is not to change anything that's there."

When Hoyt took over, he said Horton "never gave me a mandate, you better do this, you better do that," though it was clear to him that some products, like that cookie, "were sacrosanct," he said. Hoyt, in turn, did not hand Frederick a list of bakery icons to preserve, but "I didn't have to at all. Brent is a very intelligent person."

Frederick shared his reverence for the brand. "We're all for carrying on traditions," he said, "and I think Rustica has a lot of them."

Rustica is located at 3220 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, and 200 Southdale Center, Suite A, Edina. Find more information at rusticabakery.com.