( Lark Cake Shop and Bakery)
They are a family owned and operated cake shop and bakery in Los Angeles with an established reputation for providing unmatched customer service.
Their specialty is wedding cakes and cupcakes.
And so we spoke to John Hensley from the Lark Cake Shop and Bakery.
Q – John, seeing as how the Lark Cake Shop is a family business, where do you fit into the family? Are you the person who started the business?
A – No. I’m the guy who bought the business from the guy who started the business.
So, in 2007 another individual started it on Sunset Blvd. here in Silver Lake. It was a pretty big gamble. It was him, a liquor store, a dry cleaner, and maybe one or two other retail things and he decided to start a cake shop. In 4 years he was a little overwhelmed with it ‘cause he had a growing family and there was just a lot to do. So, he sold it to me and I’ve owned it for the last 15 years ( since 2011).
Q – Before you bought the shop what were you doing?
A – I worked in television.
Q – What were you an anchor? A correspondent?
A – I was the Executive Producer of the KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles.
Q – You left that position for the bakery business?!
A – No. I didn’t leave there. Our co. which was owned by the Tribune which owned the L.A. Times and KTLA and a lot of other properties got sold to a billionaire name of Sam Zell.
I got promoted to Senior Management just in time to get the ax with all the Senior Management when he came in.
I found another job in t.v. It was right during the great recession 2007 going into 2008, but I just had my daughter and figured I’m gonna be in television and I’ll never see her. It was a 24/7 thing.
So, I said I’m gonna buy my own business and looked at all sorts of businesses to purchase and I found this one. The product is great. It’s delicious and I thought I can do this.
Q – Did you have any formal training in baking or is this something you picked up along the way?
A – Oh, no. I don’t bake anything. I don’t decorate anything. I just own the business. I don’t have that training and I didn’t have any expertise in pastry or baking.
Q – So then, you’re an administrator. You oversee people.
A – Yes.
Q – How many people does it take to run your cake shop?
A – We used to have two locations. We had one in Pasadena and then we were moving to our new building that we had purchased and building a brand new kitchen and retail. It was in Altadena which is probably about a mile and a half from where we were. We were leasing there. We had bought the building and unfortunately it burned down in the Eaton fire. So, we’re back to having the one location in Silver Lake. Right now with the one location we have a decorating team of two and one baker. So, it’s just three people in the kitchen.
Q – Do you or did you sell more pastries than say cakes? What does or did the public seem to want?
A – We don’t sell anything other than cakes and cupcakes. That came about in 2013 when I got a Field X System. We looked at everything. We sold cookies and creampuffs. Sounds great, right? But, we weren’t selling any of it really. (laughs). It wasn’t making us any money. So, we just moved to the kind of in and out model where you got your core things and we sell cakes and cupcakes.
Q – For awhile cupcakes were the rage weren’t they?
A – When I bought the business it was kind of at the peak of it. Everybody loved the gourmet cupcakes, the sprinkles, the magnolias and on and on.
Q – Los Angeles is a big city. What’s the competition like? Is there enough money to go around for everybody?
A – It gets harder and harder every year I’ll tell you that much. When you’re looking at rising rent and minimum wage which has really exploded it’s not easy. The cost of goods has shot up tremendously and there’s only so much you can push your prices onto the consumers because they’re feeling the pinch too, inflation being the way it is. So, it’s definitely not easy, but we’ve been doing it for 19 years now and we love being part of the community.
We’ve been in Silver Lake for the whole 19 years and we have a real nice following of people. It’s kind of our core.
Q – Have you baked a cake for any celebrities you can mention?
A – We’ve done a ton but it’s my philosophy that I don’t put anybodys’ name out there because they didn’t come in and order the cake from us so we could use them for publicity.
So, I respect their privacy.
But, yeah we’ve done dozens and dozens and some of them very A List. We’ve done a lot of celebrities.
I’ve had some big names that you’d know that just sort of walked in and bought something.
It’s like Wow! There they are. They didn’t come in here with the idea of oh we can now use them to pick up publicity for ourselves. I don’t want them to feel that way. I want them to feel comfortable so they can come in, call in or e-mail.
They’re just going to get treated nicely just like any other customer. I think they appreciate that.
Q – Do you advertise or is it strictly word of mouth?
A – It is strictly word of mouth. In the past we’ve done our targeted Facebook ads during the holidays but we do not advertise much and honestly I don’t have the budget to advertise. We’ve been here a long time and we try to do really good stuff and we feel that word of mouth has served us well.
Q – This is pretty much a 7 day a week business isn’t it?
A – Absolutely. We are open 7 days a week, 363 days a year. We’re only closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
©Gary James
Official Website: larkcakeshop.com
