Our Story by Kelly & Mark
Rocket Bakery & Fresh Food opened in March of 2011 in a big, old heritage building on St. John’s main street downtown: Water Street. Mark and Kelly commuted back and forth from Toronto while Dave was on the ground here in St. John’s until they packed up their two sons and their cat and moved to St. John’s permanently, arriving July 9, 2011.
So many people have asked us over the years why we decided to move here and it was because, to us, NL seemed exotic! Beyond the dramatic physical landscape, the culture intrigued us: the commitment to family and community, the friendly casualness, that “twinkle-in-the-eye”, fun-loving sense of humour, the music … it was all really appealing and, though it may sound cliché, we purposely reflected back what we admired about NL culture in the design of our stores and in our interactions with the community.
We feel we’ve been around for 15 years because people tell us the spaces and experiences we’ve created make them feel like they’re sitting in their Nan’s kitchen. To us, this is the highest compliment … (other than our fish cakes are as good as their Nan’s!)
We started Rocket from scratch, having never been in the food & bev business before, and built the business from 0 without a playbook, developing everything from recipes to cleaning protocols from scratch.
Dave was an entrepreneur both here in SJs and back in BC, (where Dave, Mark and Kelly all met), Kelly was a PR agency account director with over 25 years in the industry and Mark had a degree in fine art and over 25 years experience in film as a set decorator. It’s actually the reason Kelly married him: he could draw AND he knew how to use power tools! 😃
The skills we had from those industries, we used to create Rocket. In other words, none of us knew much about this kind of food business (although Dave owned Pi pizzeria with another partner) but what we DID have was a mutual love of music and fun and comics and cartoons, having grown up in the 60s and 70s, so that really shaped our approach to the business.
From the very start, most of what we’ve done has been based on our desire to have fun and express that desire creatively in our interactions with the community and through our product offerings. If we were going to do this anywhere, NL was the place. The logo, which Mark drew, encapsulates that, we believe … it’s a fun icon, contains “The Rock” in reference to NL and also signals to customers that we’re not taking ourselves too seriously!
We like to mix the old with the new and create classics with a twist and it’s the sense of “fun” that customers have picked up on, allowing us to maintain an attitude of lightheartedness every day! Hope you can join in on the fun! 🙂
Kelly & Mark
PS – We moved to our new Water Street home, one block down the street to a bright, blue building, February 2021. We’re very happy here!