Vicki Hink honed her cooking talent behind the line of many of Columbus’s most prestigious eateries, always quickly rising through the ranks. While she knew that someday she wanted to open her own restaurant, a vacant storefront spotted on Oak Street in her adopted neighborhood of Olde Towne East had too much potential to ignore.
Gathered at Yellow Brick Pizza with friends last fall, she felt moved to transform the long abandoned space just across the street. The store boasts the strong architectural bones unique to the neighborhood, but the shop needed serious care after ten years unoccupied. With her moody and whimsical aesthetic, Hink rehabilitated the space into the bakery of her dreams.
From the striking chartreuse façade on Oak Street, to the burgundy tin ceiling and bistro tables made of lacquered salvaged wood, walking into the Angry Baker is like entering a bright and cozy little world. To say nothing of the food.
The café menu at the Angry Baker is clever, unfussy, and delicious. Using seasonal and locally sourced ingredients when possible, the gourmet sandwiches and salads have attracted neighborhood fans as well as eager lunch patrons from throughout the city. The egg sandwich, a fried egg with Ludlow cheese on a bacon, swiss and chive scone, has a legion of local followers already.
“We’ve been busy since day one,” Hink says.
The bakery case hosts a small army of rotating goodies, from Hink’s vegan blueberry brownies to Dr. Pepper cake and daily scones. Word spread of Hink’s baked goods, made from scratch every day, and soon she was supplying bread wholesale to restaurants like the Jury Room, Betty’s Fine Food and Spirits, Black Creek Bistro, and Yellow Brick Pizza.
With Olde Towne East quickly becoming a gourmand destination, The Angry Baker matches pace with the neighborhood while claiming a bold and tasty niche all its own.
While Vicki’s skill and grit carried her far on her journey to restaurant ownership, a small business loan from the Economic and Community Development Institute allowed her to renovate the once shabby Olde Towne East storefront into a beautiful, bustling bakery where neighbors could meet and share a scone. In the past, ECDI has been able to finance businesses like the Angry Baker primarily through federal, state, and local programs. As the demand for our small business financing products skyrocketed, we knew it was time to create a new source for loan funds by launching the Invest Local Ohio campaign.
Every dollar committed by individual investors to the Invest Local Ohio program will be loaned to a local small business and leveraged with at least two more dollars from other ECDI loan funds and guarantees a minimum two percent return. Investors have the opportunity to lift up hardworking entrepreneurs like the Vicki Hink, whose success bolsters the local economy, creates jobs and taxpayers, and translates to more Ohioans participating in the economic mainstream.
To learn more about the Angry Baker’s menu and offerings, visit TheAngryBakerote.com.
If you could invest in fuller lives for Central Ohioans looking to capitalize their dream, would you? For more information on becoming an investor in the Invest Local Ohio campaign, contact ECDI President Steve Fireman at 614-732-0577 or [email protected].
