| CITY OF ATE | t Dish Andrea Meyer is operating the bakery Bisous Bisous in a time of high costs and low inventory. Mike Brooks Soaring inflation take another bite out of profits in the struggling food industry. Sliced Thin BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS T he kitchen of Bisous Bisous, a small French patisserie in Up- town, is a carefully planned or- chestra of people, butter, flour and sugar. And clipboards. There are clipboards everywhere. They hang on tacks across the walls, lined up like toy sol- diers, one after the other, taking and dis- pensing orders from the many spreadsheets clipped to them. It’s definitely not the romantic scene one might envision when they think of owning a quaint French bakery. There are no sexy scenes a la Chocolat. “It’s all about logistics,” chef and owner Andrea Meyer says, which means getting products just in time to get them out, all on a tight schedule, with cases full of perfect pastries on display every morning. On a Wednesday afternoon with Valen- tine’s Day approaching, Meyer was search- ing her kitchen for round plastic trays to hold stacks of bright macaroons, which are usually big sellers in mid-February. She has a stack of cellophane lids, but no trays. “I normally would promote little maca- roon platters, and it [Valentine’s Day] is on a Monday this year, so how cute would that be to take these into the office?” Meyer says, “But I can’t find any trays, and AceMart said the place that makes them literally went out of business. So they’re trying to source them some- where else.” The past two slowed production. “Transitory” inflation is parked on our shores and isn’t moving. Not far from the stack of bottomless cello- “I just want to sharpen my years probably haven’t been great for people who make trays for office parties. And they certainly haven’t been kind to small restaurants and bakeries either. Labor shortages have led to wage increases. Shipping quagmires have snarled deliveries and inventories, driving up prices. Waves of COVID variants have pencil as much as I can and not appear that I’m gouging anybody. Literally every single thing costs more. From plastic wrap to parchment paper to almond milk. Everything.” phane lids at Bisous Bisous is a stack of butter. There are piles of butter everywhere. Every station in this kitchen has pounds and pounds of butter on standby, waiting to be coaxed into something beautiful and deca- dent. Butter is the big kahuna of the bak- ing business. It’s key to good pastry, and the price of butter is up more than 100% from a year ago. When you push out more than 400 croissants a week, that hurts. In January 2021, the average price of butter was $1.35 per pound. The average price this past January was $2.72; a 101% increase. The U.S. Department of Agricul- ture said in a January report output is “hampered at some facilities due to labor issues and delayed production supply de- liveries.” Bulk butter inventories are tight and some “end users report paying hefty premiums to secure spot loads.” Plugra is a European style butter pre- ferred by most pastry chefs because of its higher fat content and lower moisture that creates flakier pastries. Kuluntu Bakery is a cottage business in Oak Cliff that bakes sourdough bread and pastries. They re- cently posted on their Instagram account they’ve had to raise their prices because Plugra has increased $27 a case since De- cember 2021 and $36 since September 2021. “It’s gotta be double digits,” Meyer says when asked about the overall increase in do- ing business now compared with before the pandemic. “We’re not talking about a mild increase. Just the basics — butter, sugar, eggs, flour, stuff that we use massively fast — it’s gone between 35 and 60% higher if not double the price. >> p14 13 13 dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUT |ZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 FEBRUARY 17–23, 2022
