A little over two years after starting what eventually became known as I Knead Coffee, owner Carley Schwab, in partnership with Cailey Plath of Cailey’s Kitchen, is set to open the company’s first brick and mortar location in Bridesburg.
The shop will be located at 4600 Richmond St., the former home of Bridgeview Cafe and Catering, with Schwab targeting a July 16 opening date. For the Bridesburg native, it’s a major opportunity for her to further expand her business.
“I’m hoping that I’m able to reach a larger audience,” Schwab said. “With my customer orders, I have a super fantastic and loyal customer base. And a lot of my customers are from the neighborhood. So I’m hoping that I can just expand that to a larger audience and hopefully grow my team.”
After spending the better part of three years working in the corporate world as an analyst for a remodeling company, Schwab left that job in late 2019, picking up baking, a lifelong passion of hers, full time not long after. She initially operated her baked goods operation out of her parents’ kitchen, taking custom orders while also running pop-ups at various events. After finding a good deal of success, opening up her own shop became one of her main goals.
“It was always the plan, but it definitely was maybe like a 5-10 years from now kind of thing for me,” Schwab said.
However, after a friend connected her with the landlord of the Bridgeview location, she decided that now was the right time to establish her own physical location.
“I went in there and I was like OK, this was one of those moments where you needed an outside push because it really was the perfect space,” Schwab said.
For this endeavor, Schwab is partnering with Plath, Schwab’s longtime friend, as well as Moonraker Coffee Roasters, which will be the shop’s coffee provider. The menu will mainly include breakfast treats and baked goods such as cinnamon buns, muffins, scones and cookies. In addition, Plath will be running her catering business out of the shop, offering food specials and breakfast sandwiches on certain days of the week.
Schwab said the shop will feature a cafe-type setting with the hope of eventually serving as an event space. She wants to provide something for the neighborhood that she always felt was missing while she was growing up there.
“I’m hoping that we can just kind of bring a cool new spot, very relaxed atmosphere, great food, and all that,” Schwab said. “And hopefully I can bring some more people on to provide just even more good.”
