See what’s coming to storied Tri-Cities restaurant spot once home to Foodies and Kagen’s
Annelee Guiese mused online that her business, Rise & Shine Bake Shop, was outgrowing its home at Red Mountain Kitchen in downtown Kennewick.
She’d launched Rise & Shine in 2021 at the commercial kitchen, which serves as an incubator to food businesses. But after two-plus years, she was running out of room in the shared space.
She wondered on her private social media page what the future might hold.
Giese wasn’t interested in leaving downtown Kennewick. Her father had been a pastor and business owner there. She grew up frequenting businesses along West Kennewick Avenue.
If Rise & Shine was going to move, it would have to face Kennewick Avenue, preferably near Dayton Street.
Within a few hours of her post, her phone rang.
Kagen Cox, owner of Kagen’s Coffee & Crepes, was on the line. Giese was surprised. He wasn’t one of her online friends.
But he’d heard about her predicament and he had a proposal: Rise & Shine would be the perfect tenant for the spot where he and his wife, Jennifer, had just opened their second crepe shop.
Kagen’s Kennewick launched in November in the former Foodies Brick and Mortar spot down the street from the Red Mountain Kitchen.
But Cox was feeling overextended and wanted to close the Kennewick restaurant to refocus on his Richland location and his other ventures. He needed a tenant to take on the space at 308 W. Kennewick Ave. that he’d exhaustively renovated.
Rise & Shine was the perfect candidate for Cox, who owns the building. He offered Giese a sweetheart deal and she said yes.
May 31 opening
She enlisted a silent partner to cover the $60,000 it cost to move and equip Rise & Shine as a standalone bake shop and espresso stand.
Rise & Shine opens May 31.
Giese, her six-person staff and her mom, Bev Casey, create cookies, muffins, bars, scones and other items from recipes she adapted. It will serve coffee drinks made with Rockabilly Roasting Co. beans.
Bakery treats are just the starting point for Giese.
She will add scratch-made soups, salads and sandwiches to the lineup in October, to celebrate her birthday.
New look, same space
Rise & Shine didn’t alter the structure of the former Kagen’s.
Cox overhauled the space after Foodies moved out following a devastating 2022 fire next door at the Cascade building. Foodies moved to Columbia Park, then closed in February before being sold to new owners who are reviving that business.
Giese liked the open plan, but not Cox’s black-and-white color scheme, which she swapped out for pastels and cake decor.
“I think I bruised his heart a little,” she said.
The look, she said, reflects her ‘80s upbringing, surrounded by Care Bears and My Little Pony.
Reluctant entrepreneur
Giese loved cooking and baking for her family as a child. Her father even encouraged her to start a restaurant or coffee shop. In her younger days, owning a business wasn’t on her radar.
She graduated from Kennewick’s Southridge High School and headed off to college to study sociology and psychology.
She intended to become a social worker focused on women and children.
But empathetic by nature, she found the prospect overwhelming. She wanted her own family and moved home to Kennewick in part to take care of her father in his final years.
She and her husband, Jonathan, a Pasco school bus driver, have three children, 12, 14 and 16.
Side hustle
She started her first business, The Ruffled Cupcake, to make hair bows and generate side income. It was lucrative, until it wasn’t.
The COVID-19 pandemic rendered hair accessories nonessential and business fell. She turned to sewing, baking and gardening to fill her time.
Friends and family suggested she sell her treats. Even then, she was reluctant but the side income helped.
A chance event at Red Mountain Kitchen provided the spark.
Red Mountain hosted a pop-up event for the Ruffled Cupcake. Giese learned how the commercial kitchen opened in 2018 with a mission to incubate food businesses in downtown and perhaps help launch the Tri-Cities’ next great restaurant.
Red Mountain guided her through the process of getting started.
Its commercial facilities provided the perfect spot to start producing food for sale. She’d considered, but rejected the idea of starting as a cottage business.
State law allows small home-based businesses, but limits revenue to $20,000, too preposterously small to be viable, Giese said.
As a tenant at Red Mountain, Rise & Shine had access to baking facilities and the ability to sell to the public. It introduced her to customers, who became fans.
Giese said she never advertised and was pleasantly surprised to see sales grow to the point she no longer needed the safety of an incubator.
Giese said she’s grateful to Red Mountain for giving her a start, but she’s ready to stand on her own.
The new space offers seating for customers and the chance to build the atmosphere she wants.
“I want you to belong here,” she said. “I just want customers to come in and know they literally belong here.”
Once open, Rise & Shine business hours will be 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesday to Saturday.
Follow its progress at facebook.com/riseandshinebakeshop/
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