For so long as Erin Eire can bear in mind, she has adored animals and ardently sought out scrumptious meals, however it wasn’t till virtually 10 years in the past that her two biggest passions harmoniously collided.
Now, the glowing proprietor of To Stay For, a brand new plant-based bakery & café, she is dedicated to channeling her love for all residing issues into creating vegan pastries and making them as accessible as doable to her native Vancouver neighborhood.
Courtesy of Erin Eire
Starting her profession as a meals reporter whose suggestions suited carnivores way more than the plant-based neighborhood, Eire garnered a considerable readership and following on social media lengthy earlier than her vegan values emerged.
Throughout this time, she additionally kick-started her baking journey: crafting the primary recipes for her now-legendary banana bread and lemon loaves, buying area in a commissary kitchen, and attracting over 70 wholesale prospects.
For the love of animals
On the age of 30, Eire’s journey to a dairy farm for a piece task and her subsequent viewing of Shaun Monson’s Earthlings introduced her to an moral standstill. After witnessing the behind-the-scenes actuality of animal agriculture, her animal-lover instincts and meat-heavy food regimen had been abruptly, basically, and painfully at odds.
After months of grappling with how you can align her newfound values together with her rising on-line viewers and baked items firm, Eire determined to strive a stealthy strategy. First, she fell quiet about her wholesale treats on-line and went to work adjusting her recipes.
Courtesy of Erin Eire
As soon as she’d efficiently rid them of animal merchandise, Eire merely emailed her distributors to inform them she’d made “some adjustments” and to “see hooked up” relating to the brand new recipes. “No one requested any questions; I didn’t lose any prospects,” she says.
From there, Eire’s passionate perception in plant-based baking took maintain, and the seeds for To Stay For Bakery & Café solidified their roots.
Bakery and past
When strolling into Eire’s shiny and bustling East Vancouver area, prospects are greeted by a heartwarming wall-sized mural of two rescue cows. “They’re why we do what we do,” Eire says, reminiscing about that first journey to a dairy farm. Befittingly, the café’s to-go cups are printed with a graphic of a cow and Eire’s rescue canine, Effie, that prompts: “Why love one, however eat the opposite?” Eire’s highly effective vegan ethics are grounded in care, neighborhood, and anti-speciesm, and he or she prides herself in training precisely what she preaches.
Courtesy of Erin Eire
The mom of two rescue canine in addition to two younger kids, Eire warmly refers to To Stay For’s brick-and-mortar as her “fifth youngster.” “After I’m not right here, I need to be right here,” she says.
Since opening up store, she has devoted herself to being as current as doable in its progress — fairly actually, as she’s within the bakery recipe testing, cake adorning, studying to be a barista, creating social media content material, and serving prospects virtually every single day since opening.
What does a day-in-the-life of such a plant-powered superwoman appear to be? Although she admits she loves spontaneity and embraces days which can be “filled with surprises,” Eire states she has come to cherish probably the most customary duties and moments in her day by day routine.
Courtesy of Erin IrelandCourtesy of Erin Eire
6:30am to 9am: The bakery is just about all the time on her thoughts, Eire confesses, however when she first wakes up, her priorities are getting herself and her children prepared for the day and ensuring her two pups, Effie and Suri, get in an excellent stroll.
“I’m such a morning particular person,” Eire professes. “For years I’d stand up tremendous early to go for a run, go to a espresso store, and be house earlier than my associate awoke … now life is completely different.”
“I’m embracing slower mornings due to how treasured this time is with my children—watching them get up is considered one of my day’s highlights.”
Each morning, Eire whips up her personal tackle a London fog tea sweetened with a wholesome dose of maple syrup and a beneficiant splash of Earth’s Personal Barista Oat Milk. For her children, it’s time for three-ingredient pancakes or “daddy avocado toast”—avocado and tofu mashed collectively on toast.
9am: After dropping off her six-year-old daughter Roen at college, Eire spends the morning with River, her three-year-old. As soon as per week, Eire arms off her youngest to the grandparent-on-duty for further bonding time earlier than she’s dropped off again on the bakery.
9:30am to 2:45pm: If it’s not considered one of her two days off (or it’s, however somebody on her employees wanted their shift lined), Eire arrives on the bakery and instantly shares a video on Instagram of the cake fridge and the pastry counter, stocked with the day’s scrumptious choices.
Courtesy of Erin Eire
Subsequent, she checks-in with the bakery and front-of-house groups, replies to @tolivefor.bakery’s Instagram messages and Google critiques, has conferences with the bakery’s managers, and begins aiding prospects.
3pm: Eire vacates the bakery briefly to go decide up her eldest daughter from college, then heads straight again so each women can get pleasure from their favourite snack. Proper now, it’s a ache au chocolat for Roen and a cake pop for River.
4pm: The entire household heads house and Eire begins fascinated with dinner. If it’s an order-in form of night time, her favourite restaurant in the meanwhile is Aleph Eatery. “They do wonderful Center Japanese meals,” she raves. “I like ordering their shish kebab bowl for takeout. It’s received marinated soy curls on rice with pickled issues, hummus, and roasted potatoes.”
5pm: If she nonetheless has the power left, Eire begins dinner prep. Ideally, she has a brand new recipe in thoughts to strive, however some days it’s extra of a fridge-clean-out scenario—roasting all of their getting older veggies and tofu to pile atop a grain and drizzle with sauce.
Courtesy of Erin Eire
When she’s not making an attempt a brand new recipe or making certain nothing goes to waste, Eire returns to household staples: Greek potatoes, tofu souvlaki, Greek salad, or spaghetti with marinara loaded with veggies and vegan grounds.
If she’s in want of substances, Eire rallies her pups for a fast stroll to her neighborhood produce market.
6pm: Relying on the climate, Eire and her household spend the remainder of the night lounging round the home or at a playground the place the native children like to collect after dinner. On lovely summer time nights, it’s virtually all the time the latter!
Courtesy of Erin Eire
7pm to 11pm: The gears begin to sluggish and Eire readies her children for mattress. Ideally her daughters are asleep by 8pm, however she confesses they’ve been fairly the night time owls lately.
As she waits for them to float off, Eire joins them in mattress to take heed to a storytime podcast. She all the time makes certain to brush her canine’ enamel and get herself prepared for mattress beforehand simply in case she drifts off as effectively (she admits this occurs fairly usually).
If she doesn’t go to sleep, Eire sneaks away for kid-free time together with her fur infants and husband, Darren, often ending the night time watching a present on the sofa or speaking about their plans for the bakery.
Connecting together with her neighborhood
In some methods, To Stay For has pushed Eire and her employees utterly out of their consolation zones. In others, it has felt like a return to house. Having labored within the hospitality trade for 9 years in her youth, Eire admits she has a ardour for customer support. “I like making these in-person connections with individuals,” she says. “It’s so particular to speak to individuals … and meet different fellow passionate vegans and vegan households.”
Courtesy of Erin Eire
That being stated, she acknowledges there’s been a “large studying curve” to transitioning her wholesale enterprise right into a storefront operation. Primarily, she’s felt a bit of pissed off making an attempt to determine how a lot of every part to make every day, and the way issues like holidays will impression their gross sales.
Nonetheless, she is pleased to be on the café serving to out as a lot as doable and figuring issues out together with her crew. “It’s enjoyable to work with the employees,” she attests. “I believe it helps after they see how a lot I care.”
Eire additionally plans to increase her help to others in her neighborhood by means of a vegan mentorship program, taking up “a number of pre-vegans per thirty days,” and being “obtainable to them each week to assist them on their vegan journeys by answering questions and offering sources” (observe her on Instagram to get updates on this thrilling alternative).
Courtesy of Erin Eire
To Stay For Bakery & Café is positioned within the Grandview-Woodland space of East Vancouver, and has been accepting guests with open arms since November of 2022. If you happen to’re planning a visit, be warned: you’ll need considered one of every part. We’re speaking flaky sausage rolls, seasonal croissants, chive and cheese scones, summer time soft-serve, cinnamon rolls lined in candied walnuts, and their best-selling croissant breakfast sandwich that includes Simply Egg, Violife cheese, and many arugula—all washed down with a creamy matcha, soiled chai, or iced caramel latte.
If the down-and-around-the-block line that continues to assemble each weekend is something to go by, To Stay For’s mission—to show that plant-based meals could be simply as scrumptious (if not extra scrumptious) than conventional baked items and pastries—is already a triumph.
Eire and her crew are dedicated to wowing their neighborhood and past as they proceed to broaden their menu and deal with their doggy regulars with the identical care and enthusiasm as their human counterparts.
