Support Our Promotion from Pop-up to Pretzel Pub

A Wandering Collaborative promotion from Papa Pretzel food stall to The Wandering Bock Bakery and Pub:

*Newly added Papa Pretzel Update!

What: We are upgrading our nanobakery/food stall to a microbakery/pub called The Wandering Bock (as in a male goat). We will feature fresh artisan pretzels, soccer games, and, yes, goats! (not live ones).

NEWS UPDATE! Wait, what about Papa Pretzel: Papa Pretzel is not going anywhere. We have big wandering plans for Papa Pretzel. However, in order for those plans to come too fruition, we need to expand our Pretzel Making Capacity and add streams of income. Let's just say, the Wandering Bock is the newest addition to our ecosystem.

What??? You heard me. We have secured promotion to a larger "brick and mortar" space where we can expand our brand and our offerings.

Why: Because we are searching for THE GREATEST OF ALL TIMES (a little goat humor).

Where: We will still be inside Greyline Station in a former pizza bakery in the North Limestone area of Lexington, KY.

When: January 1, 2024

How can I help? We need to add new equipment and survive the first few months of additional overhead to jumpstart this venture and make it thrive. We are asking for your donation at any of the following levels:

$20 - BOOTS (Stickers, Glassware, Soccer Scarves, Tin Tackers)

$50 - KIT (Lighting, Paint, Stencils, Color-Printing)

$100 - CAPTAIN (Bratwurst roller grill, sauce warmer, Bock merch)

$500 - GAFFER (rethermalizer, proofing cabinet, work tables, electrical upgrades)

$1000 - GOAT (Bakery and Bar Equipment a.k.a. Food Processor, Refrigeration, TV)

OUR STORY IN SUMMARY:

There are moments in our lives when small, simple, semi-conscious decisions can cause ripples, like the proverbial butterfly wing. For us, it was during COVID lockdown, when, like everyone else, we were stuck at home figuring out how to feed ourselves and occupy our time together. Like many people, we started playing with dough, a tactile joy that fit the amorphous moment, which could nourish us in all kinds of wonderful, tasty ways. The particular decision was when Jeremy was making pretzels and twisted one into a braided circle instead of the traditional shape. It was more whimsical than rebellious, a delight akin to watching a figure skater gather herself into a combination spin.

What we didn't realize at that moment is that the braided circle would become a talisman for our clan, a symbol of the resiliency that would help guide us through the fragile, uncertain post-COVID years ahead.

Today, the braided circle also symbolizes community. It is the people we know and trust, woven together by circumstances and our relationships. The first pretzels we pulled apart at home during lockdown were a fun way to eat a snack. Now, THOUSANDS of pretzels later, the daily unbraiding is our way of sharing our story and breaking bread with neighbors and strangers alike. Through this exercise, we begin to self-reflect: what is it that we ultimately want to build within our community? What is the bigger circle, and where will the larger ripples carry us?

This year, we began looking outside the scope of our small but growing microbakery, located in a food stall within an old Greyhound bus garage. We formed an LLC called The Wandering Collaborative, an homage to our philosophy and our peripatetic past. Our vision is to collaborate with other wanderers seeking community and resiliency. Through shared interests and a commitment to sustainability, we want to participate in and help build the local systems that communities depend upon, especially food systems.

In January, we are signing a lease on a larger space which will allow us to not only grow our production volumes but also have more control over our climate, expand our menu, and have a place to host our friends, fans, and passers-by. The expansion would also create a platform to reach further afield by participating in farmers' markets and other local events.

Outside the generosity of Jeremy's dad, who bought us our first commercial oven and mixer, we have been extremely self-reliant. This upgrade however will unavoidably incur higher overhead costs and require some new equipment and further generosity to manage. That is why we are reaching out to those in our community that want to be a part of the story that began with a braided circle of dough.

PROLOGUE TO OUR BACKSTORY:

There is no golden ratio to our lives. The circles we tread (and sometimes retread) loop out in random directions–swirling and overlapping– because life is full of surprises and detours. For Nicole, it started with a love of gardens and landscape architecture which lead to historic museums which lead to museum administration which lead to art education which lead to public education…and so on. But it also lead her to Jeremy–and then children–and all the new circles that an expanding family creates. If we had the overhead view of her life, we would see that her circles wandered, but then they always seemed to come back around, too.

Jeremy almost went to culinary school. He was intuitive in the kitchen, cooking up random dishes from his dogeared and signed copy of The Joy of Cooking. Chicken Gumbo, Pad Thai, Rouladen…anything was fair game, because that was yet another wandering. It was from growing up in a military family probably, which knew the world was big and had lots of different flavors in it. He found his stride working alongside Belgian brewers and Irish whiskey distillers, sharing samples and telling their stories. But he never made it to culinary school.

It seems like we don’t really “follow our dreams” after all. Really, what we do is we wander towards them, taking quite a few forks and hitting a dead end or two or three. We retrace. We do what is absolutely necessary. Sometimes, we really step in it. And yet, without an accurate map or even a clear destination, we fashion together some kind of compass that leads us in a general direction. What we discover is that marriage is the hardest and most treacherous path; we aren’t even really on the same path! And we are yelling what direction to turn, blind to what the other is seeing. But on we tread, trying to find the place where our paths merge.

20 years later, Nicole has steered her school career back towards gardens and agriculture and Jeremy has concocted a hodgepodge education in sourdough baking. We started a little business. It is exceedingly improvised and windswept, stuff strewn all over the place. But our paths are just beginning to really merge. We often still don’t know what direction to turn, but at least we are on the same path, wandering towards the same dream.