Lady Jaye Is Opening a Whole Dang Bakery in South Park

Lady Jaye has been one of the city’s best barbecue places for years, but for the past year-plus, it’s been doing double duty as a kind of sotto voce bakery. On Sundays, the West Seattle Farmers Market takes over the block outside Lady Jaye’s doors, so co-owner Charlie Garrison began doing biscuits and gravy, then started experimenting with pastries in February 2022. Fruity Pebble Rice Krispy treats, shokupan milk bread doughnuts, cookies, all manner of biscuits.

This wasn’t easy, co-owner Evan Carter tells Eater Seattle. Lady Jaye isn’t set up to be a bakery and has just two small convection ovens. To do a bakery pop-up, Garrison “has to get creative and he has to come in at 3 a.m. to get everything done,” says Carter.

But what was once a side project is turning into a bigger deal, as Lady Jaye recently announced plans to open Little Jaye Cafe and Bakery, a pastries-and-sandwiches spot that will occupy a space in South Park’s Cloverdale Business Park (in the former home of Osprey Bistro). According to Carter, there’s not a ton of work that needs to be done on the space and the team is targeting a late August opening date.

Down the street from Lady Jaye is Bakery Noveau, known for its delicate, French-inspired goodies. Garrison’s goodies are not as delicate. “Like what your grandma used to make” is how Carter describes the vibe. “Huge Rice Krispy treats, big cookies.” That’s not to say there’s no art to Little Jaye’s offerings — it takes serious skills to make a shokupan doughnut — just that the spirit of fun, flavorful excess that defines Lady Jaye’s barbecue menu carries over to the bakery.

Little Jaye’s rotating sandwich menu will be meat-heavy (which you might expect), but not reliant on barbecue flavors and instead feature stuff like roast beef. It will have an identity different from Lady Jaye, and likely serve different coffee — Carter says the team is still deciding on what roaster they’ll go with. And while Lady Jaye is all about cocktails and dinner, Little Jaye is going to target the weekday breakfast and lunch crowd; it’s opening hours will probably be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it may open seven days a week.

Those are just details, though. The important thing is that you won’t have to wait for the weekly farmer’s market to get your hands on one of those doughnuts.