No one walking along Second Avenue West in the morning could possibly resist the smell of the freshly baked rolls and pastries filling the air as they approach 520 underneath a row of red and white Danish flags.
Located in the daylight basement of a light-gray modern condominium building, the entrance to Nielsen's Pastries might be overlooked if it weren't for the warm fragrance of those buttery goodies baked every day except Sunday.
All passersby need do is follow their noses, walk down a few steps and they'll find themselves inside the cozy little shop where owner/baker Darcy Person, a Magnolia resident, may be in the kitchen finishing a walnut coffee cake or sprinkling almonds on a giant Kringle, a pastry shaped something like a pretzel.
Darcy rather likes the fact that her neighborhood shop is partially below ground. "You don't know it's here if you're outside, so it's kind of like a secret place, but inside ... all this daylight," she said.
Just inside, a big golden Kringle, an artifact with a crown on top-the traditional symbol used to denote bakeries, or konditori, in Denmark-hangs proudly above a counter where visitors are welcome to help themselves to a steaming cup of coffee to go with their peach or apricot Danish or maybe a cinnamon roll stuffed with nuts. Posters just inside decorate a pastel-flowered wall and feature Copenhagen's "Little Mermaid" and Tivoli Gardens, which help to welcome "guests" to this Lower Queen Anne homage to Denmark.
Many Seattleites remember Nielsen's from its former location across from the downtown post office. Indeed, on any given morning it wouldn't be unusual to hear a couple of Scandinavian accents in the conversation of some of the older customers.
The original owner, John Nielsen, who in fact hails from Denmark, opened his shop on Third Avenue in 1965 as Nielsen's Authentic Danish Pastries; he was forced to move in 1997 when Benaroya Hall became a reality. Darcy worked for John in the downtown location after graduating from the culinary program at South Seattle Community College in 1985. Many bakers considered it "a badge of honor" to have worked with John downtown, she says.
Even now, John often stops by the new Nielsen's to say hello. He is glad he made the decision to sell to Darcy. "She tried so hard to do it exactly like I did," John said when thinking back to that time. "She wanted to learn. People recognize the quality and that makes me happy."
Before buying Nielsen's, Darcy picked up additional experience in the baking kitchens of the Seattle Sheraton Hotel and Towers, the Upper Crust Bakery in Magnolia, and McCormick & Schmick's Harborside Restaurant.
By 1999, John was hinting that he might be ready to retire, and Darcy decided to make him an offer. She knew his recipes and his clientele, had grown up in Seattle herself and had attended Queen Anne High School, but by then had married and was living in Magnolia. Purchasing the bakery seemed a perfect fit. John remembers telling her, "If you want it, I would love to sell it to you."
Initially, Darcy didn't change much about Nielsen's. Still, being the new owner, she wanted to put her own stamp on her business while retaining the spirit of the shop. She added a little color-the walls are a soft, butter yellow-and she had to replace the glass cases and counters. A chalkboard also went up behind the front counter.
The recipes and products offered, however, mostly remained the same, undoubtedly much to the relief of long-time customers who felt they couldn't live without their weekly visit for one of the tender flaky classic Danish or a slice of marzipan cake.
"People are possessive," Darcy explained. "It was tough when John left because people loved him so much."
Because she and John were kindred souls, however, Darcy naturally adopted his work ethic, which basically involved doing something as well as possible. She said he'd start whistling and remembered how he loved to have his hands in the flour.
Keeping his standards high was important to him, she said, and it's important to her as well. "So much of it (for John) was the joy and process of things," Darcy recalls.
Consequently, Darcy, too, takes pleasure in seeing the process through from start to finish, in getting the raw material and going through the various stages.
And raw material for Nielsen's is no small matter. The goodies require 450 pounds of butter and 2,000 eggs a month. Approximately 40 pounds of almond paste a week are used to create the delicacies customers expect to see when they arrive for breakfast on their way to work, or when they stop in for an afternoon pick-me-up. The shop sells about 2,500 Danish a month, and roughly 1,000 "potatoes," a specialty at Nielsen's since its inception.
A dessert pastry that actually resembles a small Russet, Nielsen's "potatoes" are composed of a cream puff pastry shell stuffed with a filling of whipped cream and custard. Next, a layer of marzipan is laid over the shell; then the whole "potato" is dipped in cocoa powder.
Becky Person, Darcy's sister-in-law who works behind the counter, says she can't resist them. In fact, she says, she has one every day. Scrumptious, delicious and fabulous are just some of the adjectives that have been used to describe the "potato."
At present, Darcy employs just two full-time and two part-time staff, and she likes the fact that her extended family has been involved in the operation of Nielsen's. While she considers herself a baker first and businesswoman second, Darcy says she also appreciates that her teenage children are learning about how hard people work. Nielsen's is something they can be proud of, she says.
Last year, Darcy and her family traveled to Denmark for the first time to visit bakeries there. They discovered that stepping down a few steps into a Danish konditori was quite typical. "I'll bet subconsciously John saw that that worked," she mused. "In Denmark, lots of shops are a couple steps down."
That discovery must have provided a little affirmation that Darcy's enterprise really was authentic. Perhaps more important, however, was her discovery that her Seattle products "could go right onto a shelf [in Denmark] and nobody would blink an eye, so I was proud of our standards."
The trip to Denmark also provided Darcy with the encouragement she needed to make a few small changes. While she has no desire to tamper with the overall concept, or expand the product line too much, she noticed that some of the Danish pastry shops had updated their own products.
"It freed up my thinking because time moves on," she explains. "John was an apprentice in the '40s. I could go in any direction I want."
One of the items she particularly liked in Denmark was called a fro snapper, which is a twisted Danish pastry with both poppy and sesame seeds. She also is considering adding a mail-order line in the future. At present, she's satisfied that Nielsen's Pastries isn't "slick," and remains a little old-fashioned.[[In-content Ad]]
