Spruce Confections
It started with a cookie named after a building... the Old B (of which more later). Now David Cohen's Spruce Confections makes more than 60 different pastries, breads and cakes, along with soups, salads, sandwiches and uncountable cups of fresh-brewed coffee and espresso. Despite its growth (from David's apartment kitchen, to his house on Spruce Street, to the cafe at 767 Pearl Street, and now to 4684 North Broadway as well) every batch of cookies, and all the other food, is still made from scratch, by hand.
Spruce is in its 17th year and has become a beloved neighborhood fixture, filled with regular customers who bring friends, family and even their pups to savor the cafe's renowned small-batch goods (yes, made-from-scratch dog biscuits too). The cafe has a European feel, and does offer some of the best croissants this side of Paris; but Spruce has built its reputation on simple food made with good ingredients, and American classics like banana walnut bread and chocolate cupcakes share the case with cinnamon schnecken (snails) and David's famous fruit-filled scones.
100% wind powered, recycling or composting up to 80% of its waste, and sourcing natural and organic ingredients as close to home as possible, Spruce Confections is constantly striving for a smaller environmental footprint along with ever-better products. It's a business that aims to be constantly evolving, not to follow trends, but to steadily improve everything it does.
Some things, though, need no improvement. Remember the Old B cookie? First made by David in a co-op housed in the Old Barrows building at Oberlin in Ohio, it's still the star of the Spruce cookie lineup, in both the butter and the vegan versions, its combination of almonds, walnuts, pecans, coconut, chocolate chips, oats, cinnamon and vanilla just seems to defy improvement.
Question: What do you call a guy who got his degree in music composition, makes better gelato than most Italians, puts pistachios on a ham sandwich, and started a bakery in his apartment kitchen that now makes all-natural from-scratch pastries for the entire Denver metro area?
Answer: David Cohen. Founder and owner of Boulder cafe's Spruce Confections (on Pearl Street and North Broadway) and sister restaurant Two Spoons (also on West Pearl Street), David continues to invent and reinvent countless delicious handmade, small-batch foods for retail and wholesale. A hands-on leader who still bakes, cleans and does paperwork at his stores, David can also be found hiking, gardening and, with his wife Heather, parenting three impossibly cute children.
Watch the video and learn more about David and the bakery team at Spruce!
Meet the Owner of Spruce Confections
A Spruce Confections nugget:
Here's the secret to fully appreciating the baking mastery at Spruce Confections.
Go there EARLY in the morning! Yeah, I know... obvious huh? Well, still, I have to say you wouldn't believe how unbelievably tasty those scones are straight out of the oven.