When Mission’s newest bakery opens its doors this summer, it will mark the latest chapter in a story that began decades ago.

Co-owner Abeer Jari has been whipping up sweets since she was young — in elementary school, to be exact.

Some of her earliest memories involve sneaking into the kitchen as a fourth grader while her mother napped, careful to get cakes baked and the mess cleaned up before she was caught baking without supervision.

It makes Jari laugh to reflect on these memories now that she has children of her own. Soon, she’ll have a bakery of her own, too.

The new venture, Levant Bakery, will open in Mission this summer, co-owned by Jari and her sister, Areej Jari.

Though the exact opening date is not yet determined, she said, the goal is to open in mid-July.

Levant Bakery is coming to ​​6518 Martway St.

• The bakery is moving into a space at the Mission West shopping center, just off Johnson Drive and Lamar Avenue in Mission.
• Multiple tenants have previously occupied that space, including a tax office and a smoothie shop.
• Once it opens, Levant Bakery will be open at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. each day.

Levant Bakery will serve Middle Eastern-inspired treats

While Levant Bakery will be primarily rooted in Middle Eastern flavors and techniques, the bakery’s menu will reflect Jari’s much broader personal journey.

Jari has spent years traveling, collecting and perfecting recipes of pastries from different countries she’s visited — such as kolaches, a filled pastry originally from central Europe (known alternatively as “fatayer” in Saudi Arabia, where Jari grew up).

She has already sourced Belgian and French chocolate suppliers that can ship to the United States.

Another star of the bakery’s menu will be mifa bread, a traditional Saudi Arabian flatbread.

“I’m gonna have some Middle Eastern items there, but they’re gonna have big twists,” she said. “I want something that everybody’s going to like.”

Rather than chasing trends, she said, she wants to build a menu of enduring favorites. She plans to also feature some rotating items, as well, for repeat customers who want to switch it up.

“I don’t want to go with trendy stuff only,” she said. “Any kind of bakery or pastry that I tried around the world, I’ve been practicing the recipes to master them, and we’re going to put them on the menu.”

Jari has kept her sourdough starter (from which many of the bakery’s breads and pastries will be made) alive for more than seven years, carefully nurturing it through international moves and family milestones.

It’s as much a piece of home for her as it is a baking ingredient. Back in Saudi Arabia, where she grew up, her grandmother used to use the same yeast to make fresh bread every morning.

The way the bread’s aroma filled the house became something Jari has longed to recreate here in the United States.

“Waking up with the smell of good bread is one of the things you miss over here,” she said.

Upon opening the bakery, the Jari sisters (who both live on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metro) hope to introduce these breads and pastries to their new community, too, by offering a free monthly catering special to local schools in the surrounding area.

Jari will mostly handle the baking side, while her sister will take on the primary roles of catering and marketing.

Jari is not new to the food world

After relocating to the United States more than a decade ago, Jari earned her MBA studying mass production of food. Though she was once drawn to the idea of large-scale manufacturing, she said, she learned over time that there were trade-offs.

“I always had a passion for mass production, but then I saw the impact of it,” she said. “That was one of the reasons I decided, we don’t need to be open 24 hours, we don’t need to be producing so much. I’d rather apologize to customers because I’m sold out than have 100 (pastries) in the freezer that I just pop in the oven.”

Though this is Jari’s first bakery of her own, she often bakes in her own kitchen on weekends and shares the treats she makes with neighbors — many of whom encouraged her to open said bakery.

It’s this form of baking, Jari said, that feels like a return to the more intimate version of cooking that she loves most: crafting high-quality breads and pastries without the pressures of high quantity.

“I’d rather be sold out than compromise the quality,” she said. “I want people to come back because they tried something they can’t find anywhere else.”

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