Joy Road Bakeshop opens up a pop-up on Main Street while waiting for construction on their Bakeshop B&B

Photo: Elin Hill

Owner Olivia Fobert stands in the newly-opened Joy Road Pop Up Bakeshop

Penticton's Joy Road has opened up a unique pop-up bake shop in town, while they wait for their full operation B&B bakeshop construction to get underway.

Joy Road Pop Up Bakeshop opened Wednesday morning at 557 Main St., welcoming in customers to a wide selection of grocery items either handmade in store or specially curated, bakery goods and features.

Owners Brett Turner, chef, and Olivia Fobert are now leasing the space ongoing until their new building on Winnipeg Street is built, spending the last three months renovating, updating, installing all of their equipment to outfit the space to be their bakeshop.

“The idea of the bakeshop really came about when we bought Joy Road a couple of years ago. We were looking to grow from just a farmers market stand on Saturday into a more full-time retail outlet so the idea to do this pop-up bakeshop came along when our building on Winnipeg had some delays with COVID, construction, pricing, and engineering,” Turner explained.

“With the delay, we decided to not sit around and wait for events to come back and instead do this open up a bakeshop.”

The pop-up shop boasts a large courtyard with plenty of seating to enjoy the daily provisions that the chefs prepare or bakery goods offerings, featuring four to six different loaves of bread, a dozen different pastries, and a coffee program boasting a pour-over option.

Or take a bite out of their breakfast and lunch menu items, with breakfast bowls and sandwiches created with seasonal ingredients from local farmers.

The store is currently waiting on their liquor license to come through to offer wines, beer, and cider.

“To be honest, it's a super lifeline right now because events are entirely shut down. We had 52 weddings this summer most of which were canceled. Really this pop-up bakeshop is allowing us to employ more of our team, otherwise, we'd be entirely shut down,” Turner added.

“We're able to keep buying from farmers and other artisanal creators with this pop-up...This option for us was much better than having to let our whole team go and sit here waiting for the restrictions to relax.”

And so far, the first couple days have received lots of positive feedback.

“I think because Joy Road has been around Penticton for such a long time, there were people waiting for us to open versus a brand new business. We had long-time regulars that have been in.

“If we're able to start here and then move over to the location, I think people will just follow us other there.”

While the owners were hoping to break ground in January at 227 Winnipeg Street to build the bakeshop complete with four B&B-style suites on the second floor and a courtyard, they're crossing their fingers to start in June.

The pop-up bakery is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.