It’s been nearly 15 years since Megan and Colby Garrelts opened their popular restaurant, Rye — and even longer since Megan started baking.
As a child in the suburbs of Chicago, she often baked with her mother, picking cherries off a tree in their front yard for cherry pie. A family with “Midwestern roots”, pies on the table were a crucial part of many family gatherings.
This week, customers will get to enjoy those pies in a new space; one right next to where Rye got its start. On Tuesday, Garrelts’ new bakery Cornflower Baked Goods will open its doors in Leawood.
Cornflower Baked Goods is opening at 10555 Mission Road
- The bakery will occupy a space at the Mission Farms shopping center in Leawood.
- There, it will operate near Rye and upscale Greek eatery Paros Estiatorio.
- Once it opens, Cornflower’s regular hours will be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The bakery will offer “Americana-style” desserts
Inside the cases at Cornflower, customers will be able to find a variety of classic American desserts (rather than European-style pastries).
That includes, of course, the pies that Rye has become known for. In flavors like banana cream and lemon meringue, those will be available as mini or whole pies.
In addition to pies, the bakery will offer other treats like cakes (available by the slice or in various sizes), cardamom buns, key lime tarts, cinnamon rolls, muffins, cookies and pints of house-made ice cream (in the warmer months).
Colby Garrelts, Megan’s husband and co-owner of Rye, will handle part of the savory side of things with some seasonal sandwiches as well.
Cornflower will also serve a variety of coffee drinks, made with beans from Arkansas-based Onyx Coffee Lab.
Cornflower is a new chapter for Garrelts
Even before opening her restaurant, Megan said, she’d long pondered the idea of bringing baked goods to the center of a concept all her own.
For a while, it seemed most likely that a dessert-only concept would operate out of a commissary kitchen in the back of Rye. But when a front-facing storefront opened up at Mission Farms, she decided to take the plunge and make it fully separate.
“Dessert is what I do, it’s what I love,” she said. “So it’s just a natural kind of next step to do something that only features desserts.”
Cornflower’s name and branding is the latest iteration of a theme that runs through all of the Garrelts’ concepts to date.
The name of their first restaurant, Bluestem and Rye each give a nod to what grows in the Midwest. The cornflower itself is a deep purple; Megan’s favorite color.
“I also had it in my wedding bouquet, so it’s kind of a nod to that,” she said. “All of our restaurants’ (branding) are a nod to what grows around us.”
As a Leawood resident herself, Garrelts said she’s looking forward to planting more roots in her own community with the new concept.
“My neighbors and my friends, we’re all craving more unique environments and good food and places that are close to home,” she said. “I think that’s what I’m excited for is, selfishly, just to give our neighborhood another place to go.”
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