Black sesame hazelnut thumbprints (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)
The business has grown with pop-ups and holiday events (Image: Kemi Dessert Bar)
The success of Kelly Miao’s black sesame hazelnut thumbprints, matcha kumquat cakes, and dense slices of Hong Kong milk tea basque cheesecake is so close, you can taste it.
“It’s in the palm of my hand right now. I just need to make it happen,” Miao tells CHS as she prepares for her planned opening next month of Kemi Dessert Bar, a working dessert kitchen and cookie, cake, and pastry walk-up counter planned to open soon on 12th Ave.
Miao comes to Capitol Hill having cut her sweet tooth in New York City’s “Instagram Bakery Scene” — yes, they have one of those — and honing her craft in pastry arts at a prestigious roster of NYC bakeries, bars, and restaurants, including a joint with a Michelin star.
There are no Michelin stars on 12th Ave but Miao arrived in Seattle with the dream of opening her own place here and started to get to work with the locals. Miao joined up with the crew giving Coping Cookies a go on 12th Ave where they combined chocolate chips with support for social causes. Coping Cookies also built out a lovely bakery for the venture.
Soon, the cookie business wasn’t working out and Miao decided it was time to step up. “I’m trying to get my roots in Seattle — I figure I’d shoot my shot and see if I could take over their space.”
Now Kemi Dessert Bar is about to happen.
In the start of her career, Miao says she wasn’t comfortable with connecting her identity as an Asian baker to her craft but the flavors eventually took over.
Black sesame, matcha, jasmine, and hojicha are only the start. Then there is the basque cheesecake. Nothing Asian about that — but Miao says the dense cakes make the perfect base for flavors from around the world. “The whole thing is that they are semi molten in the center,” Miao adds.
With the new space, Miao says she also hopes to dig in deeper to working with the French patisserie techniques she has been trained in.
Kemi Dessert Bar’s exploration of all of that fits in with other Capitol Hill projects like the arrival of Pinoyshki Bakery and Cafe here last year bringing Aly Anderson’s Filipino-inspired takes on the Russian pastry to E Pine.
Miao is also joining a community of Capitol Hill dessert creators including the well-worth-your-wait-in-line dessert walk-up R&M Dessert Bar on E Pike and Baking Company and its nostalgia-filled Squareos a few blocks south on 12th Ave.
There are also other sweet Capitol Hill openings coming this year. CHS reported here on the plans for the Insomnia Cookies chain to join Broadway in the Pride Place building.
The New York transplant Miao is still getting around to meeting all of these neighbors. She’s been busy with a Seattle season of Thanksgiving pies and holiday cookie boxes already under her apron.
The opening of Kemi Dessert Bar planned for the end of February, Miao hopes, is just the beginning. She’s been thinking of having her own place to bake and meet customers since she was 10. Someday, she hopes for a place big enough for people to sit down — “a nice neighborhood spot,” she says. 12th Ave is a new start.
Kemi Dessert Bar will open soon at 1828 12th Ave. Learn more at kemidessertbar.com.
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YESSS welcome to the neighborhood, and good luck with the new venture
Pastry Mittens on 13th Ave just north of Jefferson is a Japanese bakery w excellent offerings – I adore the black sesame shortbread cookies.
I’ve been lucky enough to stop by a Kemi Dessert bar pop-up and everything I bought was AMAZING. Happy to see them join the neighborhood.