WHO IS SUNFLOWER BAKERY: THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE BUSINESS

Sunflower Bakery, Co-owners – Ryan Newton and Jamie Brandon

Written by Stacy Thomas

Photography by Angela Bliss Photography

A double love story? A hockey player from Alberta & a surfer from Australia, the two owners of Sunflower Bakery came a long way to get to where they are now, and they have two Kylies to thank for it. 

Kylie Newton and Kylie Brandon, to be exact. 

The co-owners met each other in Whistler over ten years ago, when they started dating two women who happened to be best friends and roommates: two Kylies. As the two romantic relationships flourished, so did the friendship between Ryan and Jamie, and whenever they would get to talking, the conversation would always come around to future plans.

They were both working in hospitality at the time—Brandon worked his way up through the ranks of Gibbons hospitality, from bartender to General Manager, and Newton as head chef of Merlin’s & GLC  for Whistler Blackcomb—and it was obvious almost from the start that they had a shared vision. As a decade went by and they each followed separate career paths through high-ranking positions in hospitality, the conversation always returned to that vision of having their own business. 

“We worked hard for those companies, and we really did well,” said Ryan. “We worked and learned from some amazing people during these times that paved the way to where Sunflower is now. Our work ethic is something we both have always had.”

After a two-year stint as the hospitality manager for the Vancouver Canucks, Jamie returned to Squamish to look for the opportunity they’d been waiting for, and when he found out that Sunflower Bakery was on the market, he knew that he had found it. He asked Ryan if he wanted to return to his roots as a pastry chef and baker back in Australia. Without hesitation, the answer was, “Yes”. 

“We just implemented our hard work from those employers, he was front of house, I was back of house, it worked,” Ryan says.

They purchased the bakery and hit the ground running, not closing for a single day but staying open, making changes as they went, and continuing to work their full-time jobs – Ryan as executive chef at Furry Creek Golf & Country Club and Jamie as the general manager of Norman Rudy’s. 

Putting in 90-hour weeks, the two put their combined twenty-plus years of customer service and restaurant experience to work pulling the 25+ year old bakery out of a rut and making it the bustling, busy, hub of activity and community that it is today, only a year and a half later.

“We came in and refreshed the menu, the vibe, the look, feel, smell, taste – changed it all, gave it some new life.” 

“That was the fun part,” Jamie says.

“We felt that this place was very quiet, and could be a place with tons of energy,” adds Ryan. “All it needed was a little bit of paint, a little bit of a face lift up front, refresh the food, and really good coffee.”

Coffee. 

In Australia, they tell me, coffee is paramount. Without good coffee, a café will not succeed – it is the one thing on which everything else hinges. 

“We’ve really got to ensure that the coffee we’re doing is on point, every cup of coffee is as on point as we possibly can and have that guest trust – trust that the coffee’s always going to be epic. And with that they’re going to have food, and with that they’re going to continue to come.”

So they’ve brought this philosophy—this edict, really—from Ryan’s homeland to every cup of coffee they serve. And it’s working, because Sunflower won in 7 categories of the Squamish Chief Reader’s Choice Awards in their first year, a pandemic year, no less. 

Best Cup of Coffee, Friendliest Staff, Best Café, Best Bakery, Best New Business – the customers have spoken. The years of hard work at other companies, and now pouring everything they have learned into the bakery are showing. 

Before he was a chef in the kitchens of the Sea to Sky, Ryan was a pastry chef who apprenticed in Australia and trained in France. Now, he delights in throwing himself into his original passion by dreaming up mind-blowing pastries to pair with that perfect coffee.

And the two girlfriends who brought them together? They’re still best friends and are now their wives, as well as being mothers of young children and professionals in their own rights. They can be seen around the bakery, pulling shifts while the dads are taking turns with the kids, and helping to manage the admin and wholesale side of the business. 

The main goal of Sunflower Bakery is to be a consistent, dependable and vibrant part of the community. After staying open during the day throughout the pandemic, and continuing to make improvements at night, they have managed to continue to build a loyal customer base that is growing all the time.

“Our drive is ridiculous,” Jamie says. And it’s a drive to serve, to be good employers and community members. 

“Being part of this community that is frickin’ awesome is a huge one for us,” Ryan says.

“We want downtown to be as busy as possible, so if we can help get every other place busy, we want them to succeed, with them succeeding brings more people downtown, which ends up helping everybody out.”