BY OWEN MORRIS
It’s a little trick of the trade. A restaurant opens and its prices are pretty cheap. Word spreads about the new restaurant with great prices. As the clientele grows and the restaurant becomes established, the prices start coming up to normal.
Dolce Bakery, 6974 Mission Road, has been open several months now. But even though its customer base seems to grow by the day, its prices have remained low. Creme Brule is $3, a big cream cheese brownie only $2, cupcakes $2.25.
Compare that to its cross-Johnson County-rival Dean and Deluca.
Dean and Deluca is a New York-based gourmet store that sells many of the same items in its bakery section. There, cream cheese brownies are $3.75. Ditto cupcakes. Creme Brule runs $5.
Besides slowly getting established, another reason for Dolce's low prices may be that owner Erin Reynolds knows the Prairie Village location hasn’t been particularly kind to bakeries. Sophie’s Bakery lasted several years in the early '90s but never seemed crowded. Its successor, Phillipe’s Bakery, closed after seven months.
Dolce Bakery is smaller and less grandiose than those two bakeries, with a focus strictly on pastries. It’s a model that hopefully will allow Dolce to last a long time, even if its great prices don’t.
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