By Almeera Anwar
Megan Jensen, the owner and signature baker at Wild Prairie, said that the main reason for the name change was so that she could better market her shop and people would stop being afraid of mis-pronouncing it. She also hopes the simplicity will make it easier to remember.
“It was suggested to me because Bouteloua was a little hard to pronounce. I mean I don’t care how people pronounce it but they were so concerned that they would call it the “b” bakery instead and it became hard to market.” The inspiration for the original name of Bouteloua comes from Jensen’s background growing upon a family farm in Dalton, Nebraska. A bouteloua is a short prairie grass.
It “took a long time to find the new name, I wanted to find something again that was along the lines of where I grew up,” said Jensen, “And well, prairie bakery was already taken. Then someone suggested wild whisk and I liked the wild, but not the whisk.”
Aside from the new name and logo, customers can expect to see a few other small changes at this local shop. There are some physical changes, such as a few new pieces of furniture and new paintings and pictures on the walls. There are also some additions to the menu such as more lunch options and sandwiches. All the items customers enjoyed before will be back as well.
The bakery and cafe will also now be open seven days a week and they will be doing a brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring items such as biscuits and gravy, pancakes and a tofu scrambler. The brunch option will begin next weekend.
Jensen learned to decorate cakes from her mother but didn’t realize how passionate she really was about it until she was in graduate school for botany. She described how she’d be sitting in class sketching cake designs and how baking was simply always on her mind.
After this Jensen took a masters course in cake decorating, moved back to Seattle and decided that she would bake vegan goods after being a vegan for eleven years herself. She can see why people are apprehensive about vegan items but hopes they give it a try anyways.
“This should not be something that scares people away,” said Jensen, “People need to stop in and try it out – they will be surprised!”
