SETO Bakery sets up as a pop-up at Fiddlehead's Miracle Mile location in Rochester

Theodore Tollefson, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·3 min read

Feb. 16—ROCHESTER — Eman Abdul always had the dream of opening her own bakery.

Born and raised in Egypt, she spent many of her years traveling around the countries bordering the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea trying every sort of bakery in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and many more.

Abdul has been in the United States since 2006, first moving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, while her three children attend college around the state. When one of her daughters moved to Rochester to work at Mayo Clinic, Abdul followed.

Spending years in the Midwest, it was hard to find bakeries with foods that were familiar to Abdul. And as her retirement approached, the idea of what Abdul's own bakery could be became clearer.

"When I first came to Rochester, I was looking for baked goods familiar to me that I couldn't find here, but maybe in another city like New York," Abdul said. "My idea became these baked goods from where I grew up. This is something people need to know and I wanted to introduce people here to those types of food."

Following her retirement in 2019, Abdul started using her free time to begin her bakery business, which started in 2020 right as COVID-19 lockdowns began. Abdul used social media platforms such as Facebook to get the word out about SETO Bakery — Seto means "grandma" in Arabic — and have her home business grow.

"This idea came to make it a home bakery because everything was closed and (there was) no contact with people face to face," Abdul said. "I was making multiple orders a day and delivering them to people's homes. I'd drive to the address, leave at the front of the door and send the message to them that the item in was front of you, and they say, 'Thank you.'"

Baking at her own home and delivering directly to customers' doors was how Abdul operated SETO Bakery for the better part of a year. It allowed her to hold off on finding a brick-and-mortar location since her business model did not demand that level of investment at the time.

As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions lightened up, more opportunities for Abdul to get out the name SETO Bakery to the Rochester area became available. Abdul was able to set up SETO Bakery as a vendor at the Night Market and Thursday's Downtown in 2021.

Eventually she came into contact with Jennifer Lester, co-owner of Bleu Duck Kitchen, who gave Abdul the opportunity to set up her own pop-up stand at the restaurant.

Just this last December, Fiddlehead Coffee Company co-owner Sarah Phalen along with Allison Roe, general manager of the company's Miracle Mile location, met Abdul at the Bleu Duck Holiday Market. The trio had a great time talking with each other, and the idea came up for Abdul to set up SETO Bakery with the space available at the Miracle Mile location.

"One of the core values at Fiddlehead is community," Roe said. "Being able to foster the community, it's just part of what we do. It was a no-brainer to be able to offer help to Eman, we have the means to help someone like her, make her feel welcomed and give someone a little lift to use an oven that they don't have access to on their own."

SETO Bakery will be set up at Fiddlehead's Miracle Mile location on Thursdays through Saturdays each week for the foreseeable future. Abdul plans for her own hours of operation to run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each of those days, but knows some hours will fluctuate as more people discover that SETO is there.

Abdul is hopeful that her business will grow exponentially as she spends more time at Fiddlehead with larger baking space than her kitchen at home. A location of her own is always a hope in the future, but with high rent prices listed for properties available, she is grateful for the opportunities that Fiddlehead, Bleu Duck and many others provide to get her baked goods out to the Rochester community.