Flourish Bakeshop opens in Glen Head

When Chelsea Kravitz talks about sustainability, she is not just referring to the ingredients she uses to create the delectable sweets and savories served at Flourish Bakeshop in Glen Head. It’s the business itself that must be able to sustain itself and, to that end, every full-time employee is paid $21 / hour plus benefits (insurance, vacation and sick days), a rarity at small food-service establishments on Long Island.

“These are real jobs,” she said, “and they should be treated like real jobs.”

Flourish’s prices are competitive for the area — individual pastries are around $5; most sandwiches and salads, $16 to $18 — but, instead of a line for tips, each check bears a 20% “equity fee” to support “a fair wage structure for all.” This phrase appears on the website, near the register and on the shop’s front door so that no one is surprised. “I try to be completely transparent,” she said, and “almost everyone is fine with it.”

One upside to the policy is that, in the midst of a historic labor shortage, Flourish has had no trouble attracting staff. “Of my seven full-time workers, there were a couple who were about to leave the industry for good.”

Kravitz, 32, has been baking since she was a child and working in restaurants since she was a teenager, though usually in server / bartender positions because “the wages were so much better than in the kitchen.” During her time working front-of-the house jobs, she also “freelanced” some restaurant desserts and, in 2017, she began a custom baking-and-consulting business, The Bakery Lady. But, in her mind, she had been working toward Flourish for the last decade. In May, all the plans and images and recipes in her head just flowed into the former Iron Horse bar opposite the Glen Head LIRR station.

Kravitz designed every inch of it herself, from the whitewashed, skylit ceiling to the labels on her homemade jam. The sunlit space is white, with accents of blond wood and pastels. Most of the color comes from the baked goods on display: Burnished golden slabs of focaccia, sandy rye shortbread cookies speckled with black and white sesame seeds, chocolate-olive oil cookies whose ebony surfaces are punctuated with bright green pistachios, sunny yellow Key lime pie bars topped with snow-white meringue, chocolate-brown s’mores buns topped with bruléed marshmallow, “Arnold Palmer” doughnuts filled with lemon curd and glistening with a sweet-tea glaze.

Kravitz was adamant that savories “not be an afterthought,” and her regular menu offers about two dozen all-day dishes from breakfast specialties such as “çilbir,” a Turkish-inspired bowl of seasoned yogurt with sunny-side-up eggs and pickled chilies; and the “LA Girl” housemade everything bagel with hummus, cucumber, pickled carrots and greens  to the more lunchable roasted cauliflower piccata with golden raisins and feta cheese; the “Sloppy Chris” sandwich with roasted pork pimento cheese and pepperoncini or the “Big Ham” sandwich with Black Forest ham, Comté cheese and Dijoinnaise on focaccia. I had the “Spring Greens” salad and was glad I did: Tender lettuces and chicories mixed it up with snap peas, wafer-thin radish slices, little nubbins of roasted mushrooms, fennel, dill, feta and a savory sherry vinaigrette.

Coffee comes from a few different sources, including FAVOR, roasted in Roslyn. There’s also a small selection of wine, beer and cocktails.

Flourish Bakeshop is open every day from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 6 Railroad Ave., Glen Head, 516-612-6722, flourishbakeshop.co