A small Kansas town gets its own bakery and cafe in an unexpected spot
Hesston, population 4,000, isn’t exactly overrun with restaurants.
So when a slick new one opened, it got some attention.
But the fact that Hesston Bakery & Cafe is the small town’s only bakery isn’t the only thing that makes it unique. Its location is a bit unusual, too.
The cafe has opened at Schowalter Villa, an assisted living community owned by Bluestem Communities. And while its managers hope that it will enhance the lives of its residents, they stress that the bakery is a business like any other and is open to the public.
Hesston Bakery & Cafe is inside the new $6.1 million Mullet Place community building at the corner of Hickory and Main in Hesston, a town about 30 miles north of Wichita.
“We heard from different focus groups that they wanted another location where community members could join the Schowalter Villa community,” said Ariana Kauffman, vice president of marketing for Bluestem . “It’s a place for all ages to gather and enjoy easy, quick, light meals. We didn’t really have a bakery in the town of Hesston.”
The new cafe, which opened in September, serves salads, soups, sandwiches and bakery items like muffins and cinnamon rolls. It’s open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The cafe seats about 50, plus there’s seating on an outside patio.
Schowalter Villa’s 300 or so residents are excited about the addition, said Josh Miller, the vice president of culinary for Bluestem, and so are its staff members, who welcome a place to grab a quick meal or sit down and use the cafe’s free Wifi.
While it’s unusual for a town to have an open-to-the-public restaurant that’s inside (and run by) an assisted living facility, Miller said that Bluestem wanted to try something different.
“We want to be really innovative, and this is one way to go about it,” he said. “Anybody can come. We are just giving people more options in Hesston.”
The new Hesston Bakery & Cafe is at 445 S. Main in Hesson. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 12:24 PM.