We are a CarbonFree Partner®! This means that we offset the carbon footprint for our selves, our business and each of our employees. While we reduce what we can, we offset what we can’t, allowing us to take action on global warming now.
We work with Paul Gregory, an organic farmer in Silverdale, to provide you with the freshest in-season produce available. Paul also picks up our food waste to use as compost on his farm. It is a wonderful circle and we are working together to offer you more all the time.
Our dairy and eggs come from Puget Sound Dairy, a Bremerton based distributor. Dave ensures that our dairy products and chicken eggs are Western Washington grown, and free of hormones & antibiotics.
We get lots of produce and other food from our local small farms and producers, such as Start Now Gardens, Providence Family Farms for duck eggs, Abundantly Green, Pheasant Fields and many more. We proudly use Duck Delivery in Sumner for what we cannot get locally. Duck is nationally recognized for their efforts towards sustainability and they have a great selection of Northwest produce to offer.
Our house blend coffee comes from Personal Roast, right on the canal in Silverdale. Paul and Dean are busy roasting their organic, fair-trade beans to our specifications, and giving back to the community through donations of both time and money.
Local Bees keep us in sweet honey! Bob Martello in Seabeck lovingly wrangles the bees to keep us in the sweet stuff for our breads, baking, coffee and more.
We feature sodas from Humming Bird Hill, brewed in Silverdale by Mike & Dee Armstrong. Their root beer is so good it sells out all the time!
Our flour is Washington's own Shepherd's Grain, an alliance of family farms dedicated to practicing sustainable agriculture. Their farming practices have been certified 'environmentally and socially responsible' by Food Alliance.
Those Fabulous Pickle Spears come from Pleasant Valley Farms in Mt Vernon.
The farro we use comes from Bluebird Grains in Winthrop and our other salad grains come from Finn River Farms in the Chimacum Valley.
Cb's Nuts in Kingston provides us with fresh peanut butter. This family owned and operated business sources raw conventional and organic peanuts, pistachios and other nuts grown by hardworking farmers across the United States. |
A family owned and run business in Woodinville called Saltworks provides our salts. We use their Sonoma salt, which is the only commercially produced
sea salt in the United States.
Harvested from evaporation ponds
in Northern California, this is a natural
sea salt that contains no anti-caking or
free flowing agents. We use their specialty salts in many of our recipes as well.
Our poultry is Washington/NW grown free-range and we source from small Northwest Farms for grass fed beef and natural, organic pork. Our salmon is wild-caught Washington or Alaskan. Everything else is chosen carefully to be safe and satisfying for you to eat.
We use only olive oil, canola oil, nut oils and unsalted butter for fats in our cooking and baking. Nearly everything is made from scratch right here in our kitchen, so we can guarantee the the quality and freshness of every bite.
Our paper products, including baking papers and coffee filters, are unbleached, and we try to find paper products that are at least partly post-consumer recycled.
Our light bulbs are compact fluorescent lights. We subscribe to green power through PSE and all of our cleaning supplies are environmentally friendly and chemical-free except for those chemicals required by law.
You may notice that we offer plastic utensils and paper cups. This is because we learned in an energy audit that it would be about the same impact on the environment to do that, as to wash 'real' dishes, due to energy, water and chemicals used in the washing process, and the amount of washing we would do. Using post-consumer recycled and recyclable items helps reduce our impact, and financially costs us less in the long long run, which means it saves you financially, too.
We compost our food waste, recycle everything that the county will take and monitor our water usage. We donate to the food bank several times a week support many local charities.
We want to leave a smaller footprint on this earth. We are doing some things well and we know there are lots of ways that we can do better. Some of them are expensive and therefore are our future goals. Other things we may not be aware of and we welcome your suggestions and ideas.
Monica’s Team is grateful to each customer who walks through our door. We know that you choose to come here and spend your time and money with us. We want you to know that we are taking responsibility, being active in our community, and taking better care of you with every bite you take.
Thank you for letting us feed you! ~Team Bakery |
Vision, mission, goals and core values
Our vision: For our business is to be the number one choice for casual dining in the greater Kitsap area; to pursue excellence and creativity in everything that we do; and to be the employer of choice for hospitality minded and team-oriented individuals.
Our mission: To nourish our community, be the community leader in Remarkable Customer Service, and follow sustainable business practices.
Our Goals: Accomplishing and maintaining these goals helps enliven the café and enhance the wholesome spirit we want to project.
These goals are long term, ongoing and ever evolving as we grow and learn our business, and are in no particular order:
1. To maintain positive balance in our lives so that the business rounds us out and reflects our values.
2. To embody the meaning of hospitality through a strong, reliable staff.
3. To offer our community wholesome foods that are satisfying, great tasting, and worth every penny.
4. To have our employees and customers feel appreciated, supported and satisfied, every time they come in.
5. To support local business and the farming community through buying locally, keeping it simple and in season.
6. To remain connected to our community with our charitable giving.
7. To have this business comfortably support our employee family in all ways possible.
Our Core Values help guide us in a life rich in experience, creative spirit, laughter and all the things that we value most:
1. Respectful curiosity. A desire to learn about the values, beliefs and foundations that others stand on turns all fears into learning tools.
2. Integrity. When we live as an example of our own values it is reflected back to us in the people that are attracted to our lives.
3. Creativity. To remain open to exploring the creative process in any form; A colorful, fully expressed life.
4. Honoring spirit. When we strive to honor the true spirit in others, our own spirits cannot help but grow.
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Mark Downen is our lead baker, my business partner and my husband. Mark
has always had a knack for baking and working with his hands; he was an auto
mechanic for 16 years prior to this career move. We have been dating since 1987, when he was in the Marine Corps and I was in college. We married in
1991 and Mark has never failed to
support me in anything; this café is no exception.
I am Monica Downen,
owner and operator of Monica's Waterfront Bakery & Café. I worked for the
King County Sheriff's Office for 15 years as a dispatcher/911 Operator and in July of 2005 I quit my job and, with the encouragement of my friends and family, entertained the idea of
opening a restaurant. I had worked in all aspects of restaurants throughout high school and college, but that was a long time ago, so I knew I had some research to do. After 11 months of informational interviews, mentoring and training, we opened this cafe under our own management.
This life is far more
than I could have ever bargained for, and I love every second of it. Even
the less pleasant stuff is a learning experience and I start, and end, every
single day with a huge THANK YOU!

Rheycel started in October of 2008 and she jumped in with gusto! She was thrown into the mix rapidly when staffing and weather played havoc on all of us and she has always fit in like a natural part of the team. We love Rheycel's willingness to adapt and her wry sense of humor, and she tosses a mean salad. She shines on the line and keeps the team running like a top.

Ivy worked with us from August 2007 until March 2009, then she branched out into the world for awhile. She has returned to Team Bakery as of September 2010 and she is excited to help us grow and travel in new directions. She is baking, making soups & salads, and helping up front whenever we need her.
We love having her back!

Kayla is the newest member of the team, joining us in August 2011. She is so excited to be a part of the team and is a delight to be around. She fits in as if she had always known us and we are loving her taste in music! She is rockin' out the line and classing up the place!
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Betuel has worked at the café since 1989 and we are honored that he decided to stay on with our team. He is
our right hand man in the kitchen, providing us with much of our
daily prep work. Among other things, Betuel makes the Wraps, Panini, focaccia, Dilled Chicken, Pesto Tortelloni, Meatloaf, and helps out with
much, much more. Muchas Gracias, Betuel!
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Sharon has worked at the café since 1999. She
is our front of house supervisor and is usually the first face you will see in the
mornings. She is in charge of most of the ordering, and she helps us keep
the place running smoothly. Sharon's input is invaluable to me in my
decision-making and I always know I can count on her to help me think things
through. Sharon's laugh is infectious and makes my day when I hear it!
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Erin climbed on board with us in February of 2009, and she is now our primary baker! She is sweet and smart and a very quick study. Erin is creative and innovative in the kitchen and her energy renews us daily. She loves to learn and has inspired us to continue to improve our offerings.

Victoria joined our team the first week of September, 2009. Her fantastic team spirit and hospitality shine through every day and she is a joy to work with. She is eager to learn new things and share her knowledge with the rest of us. Vicki is our number one customer service pro, and she enjoys serving at catering jobs as well as working the front of the cafe.

Elizabeth joined us in Spring of 2011 and she is quickly becoming a master of all trades. She knows her stuff, is eager to learn more, and we love her infectious laugh. She is taking over soups and salads, and it wouldn't surprise us one bit if she eventually stole the crown for being the fastest ever on the sandwich line!
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