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theultimatebakeoff-brianna · 1 year

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"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" holds true for pastry chef and Vinal Bakery owner, Sarah Murphy

Sarah Murphy is the perfect example of the success that can come from doing what you love. Her love for baking began at her home in New Hampshire. Growing up, Murphy spent days in the kitchen with the bakers in her family. Some recipes at Vinal are inspired by recipes from Murphy’s aunt and grandma. After getting a degree in print journalism, Murphy spent time in an editorial position at Harvard College. During a summer off she started realizing her personality traits and thought about hobbies that could become a career. After spending years in an office job, she took a leap of faith and made baking her full-time career. From all her practice, Murphy managed to skip culinary school and go straight to the kitchens of notable bakeries in the Greater Boston area. Murphy followed her passion and turned her dream into reality through years of hard work and experience.

A year before Covid struck and turned the world upside down, Murphy opened Vinal Bakery in Union Square in Somerville, MA in 2019. The bakery is in a busy area across the street from a fire and police station. The perfect location brings in an array of customers. The homemade English muffin breakfast sandwiches attract customers on the go. Murphy is proud of Vinal Bakery’s success along with her wonderful staff members that keep the business going. In addition to the bakery, Murphy owns Vinal General Store conveniently located next door to the bakery. Following her passion has truly paid off. The handmade food and customer service keep people coming back. In this interview, Sarah Murphy gives an insider perspective on what it is like to open and run a bakery. She gives the fascinating story of the big career change that started it all.

Q: Can you give some background of what you did before you worked in bakeries?

A: I studied print journalism at the University of New Hampshire. I left, and I had a few different jobs but I came down to Somerville. I was working at Harvard in an administrative job at the college, which was kind of journalism adjacent with some editorial stuff. I wasn’t very good at sitting all day and I liked to be busy.

Q: What inspired you to enter the baking industry since you majored in print journalism?

A: So I always baked, and my grandma was a big baker. I had started baking a little bit more in college, so it was always a hobby for me. So I thought that maybe that might be an area I’d like to pursue. It was something that clearly was active and I could use creative skills, and I could use my hands. I was thinking about culinary school but I also knew just from reading different things that sometimes culinary school isn’t really preparing you. I didn’t really want to invest the money in culinary school while not really being sure.

Q: How did you learn how to become a professional baker without culinary school?

A: It was 2007 at this point. I was like, “I am going to force myself to bake more regularly at home and hold myself accountable.” And I created a blog. The blog helped me use my editorial and design skills so I was like “Okay this will be good.” I was like, “I'm gonna do things like three times a week by subject.” So it would force me to expand my baking skills a little bit and I could see if I would continue to enjoy it. Cause I also knew from reading different things and from talking to people that often people going from hobby baking into professional baking is very different. It's very different to be like “I like to bake cookies at night” versus “I like to wake up every day and do this for 8 hours a day”. I was like “let's see if I commit.” I very much did still enjoy it.

Q: What made you decide to take the jump and leave your old job for baking?

A: In 2008 the recession hit, so there was a financial crisis and I got lucky in the sense that my office at Harvard decided to furlough the staff for the summer rather than lay off anyone. Basically, everyone took a little hit instead of someone losing their job. That kind of gave me about 8 or 9 weeks to be like “Okay this is my opportunity essentially risk-free, let me see if I could go find a baking job that I could do.” I had my job to come back to at Harvavrd so if it was a disaster, that was okay I had a safety net. So I got a job at Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard for the summer.

Q: What are some of the bakeries you worked at before opening Vinal Bakery?

A: I worked at Flour Bakery for about 7 years so I got a lot of experience there both in front of the house and in the kitchen. Then I was overseeing their pastry production kitchen when I left. Then I left, and I worked at a few other places because I needed to get experience in different kitchens. So I worked at Sarma Restaurant as a pastry assistant, I worked at Bagelsaurus for a long time, and I worked at 3 Little Figs.

Q: How did you decide to go independent and start your own bakery?

A: I think the biggest thing for me is what I really like, and I think that some business owners don’t like, is that I like doing a little bit of everything. I do our bookkeeping, I like managing our staff. I think it’s just my nature. I'm a little bit of a busybody so I like doing that but I also like keeping things really interesting. That I'm not just doing one thing, and I like the challenge of it. I had always gotten into that being my end goal and here we are.

Q: What do you like most about baking?

A: I like the predictability of baking and doing the same thing every day. I think when we hire new bakers that's the thing we talk about a lot. The difference between culinary school and baking at home is that you do the same thing every day.

Q: How did you choose the location of Vinal Bakery?

A: Location was definitely the hardest. I knew from living in Somerville the whole time that ideally, I wanted to be in Cambridge or Somerville if I could find it. And I just feel like I got very lucky that I found an old pizza place that was selling in Union Square, which is my neighborhood anyways. And it worked out. I feel very fortunate.

Q: What are some things you do to attract customers?

A: We try to stay somewhat active on social media. So specifically we have an Instagram just to keep engaged with people and show specials. But honestly other than that it’s just continuing to be consistent both with service and good quality so that word of mouth continues. That has worked for us so that we find new guests all the time. And more importantly, the same guests keep coming back which is what really helps us stay successful.

Q: What is something that makes Vinal Bakery different from the rest?

A: Our homemade English muffins. I think our product. You know, you see bagel shops around a lot but you don't see English muffin shops. I think by building that culture and community I hope resonates in our service. I am always very proud that a lot of our reviews mention both that they love the food and that the service was great. Which always makes me very proud.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced while running the business?

A: I guess the big obvious one would be the pandemic. Lots of different challenges. I think in some ways there are a lot of silver linings as a small business in the pandemic. We changed a lot of things. We are much more efficient, we changed our hours, and we moved to online ordering. So I think from a business standpoint there are definitely lots of things that have been “wins” out of the pandemic. But I would say not just the actual pandemic but all of the economic, supply chain, and labor challenges that have come from that does make it a very challenging time to be an independent small business owner.

Q: How did you navigate the challenges of the pandemic after recently opening?

A: The thing I’m very appreciative of is that we had only been open 11 months when the March lockdown began, so I was still very much in the early new business pivot mode. Versus other people I know if they were much more established that had been doing the same thing I had been doing and working, I think it was more challenging to pivot. But I was still kind of in that “oh its our first year and we’re changing things up to see what the community wants.” So I think that helped me and my mindset to navigate pivoting during the pandemic.

Q: What is something you have learned from running a bakery?

A: I weirdly know more about that stuff than I thought I ever would, like how to clean a condenser. I'm pretty good at that. You know, I never could’ve gotten that at Harvard. That’s one of the things where I'm like, maybe when I'm older and not running a bakery I’ll be like “That knowledge was weirdly helpful.” And I find it very interesting. I think it’s kind of the same way I like running a business as I like to know about a lot of things, so it's just “add it to the tool kit.”

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shanie-the-toyaddict · 2 years

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All potential booking whatevers aside.

The entire reason we got the Yep Movement in 2018 is because Sami had to step in to prevent Shane from ending Kevin's career.

Read that again.

Sami had to step in.

As in, even in 2018, Shane was being booked as stronger than Kevin.

This is the same Shane who went toe to toe with the Undertaker in HIAC. The same Shane who put on a banger of a match with AJ Styles a year later. The same Shane who, 20 years ago, went so damn hard in a match against Kurt Angle that people are still talking about it to this day.

Why is Shane being booked as a credible threat in the ring such an impossible thing for people to wrap their heads around?! Even if he did do it this time, it has been happening for over 20 years now, ever since Summerslam '99 when he stepped into the ring with his good buddy Test, put on the match of the night, and everyone realized "Holy shit, this kid can wrestle!"

When the hell did that change? I'm not talking about screentime here, I'm talking about when the hell did the perception that Shane has no place in the ring happen? So his punches are ugly. Tell me the Leap of Faith isn't a thing of beauty. You, you right now. Get up on the turnbuckle and drop an fn Coast 2 Coast.

Shut up about Shane not being able to wrestle because he's far from the worst person to lace up and tussle and frankly, him being a credible threat in the ring is something that has been happening for over two decades now.

And, if your entire reasoning for him not belonging in the ring is because he is Vince's son?

Coming as someone who was in that exact position where I was pursuing a path in life that was the same as my fathers, I can tell you now that people like us have heard every single one of your bullshit excuses and shouts of nepotism and such. We know that, in your minds, the very fact that our fathers run the show means that all our efforts to be the best are invalidated on the spot. We know you think that and we know that every time we put ourselves out there, you are sitting at home talking that shit to all your friends.

And all it does is make us work harder, do better, and shove ourselves more and more into the spotlight to prove you assholes WRONG and it will never end until either the shouts of inferiority stop or, more than likely, the toxic environment involving our fathers causes us to lose the love we had for the job. It was the second one that got me out for good and the second one that drove Shane out the first time. But this time? Who knows. If it's true that Shane is being given actual power and influence this time, he may never leave the company again.

Shane is a badass. Stop fighting it and move on. Because the more you try and tell him he shouldn't be in there, the longer he will be.

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