Kickshaws, which sells gluten- and allergen-free baked goods, recently opened a location in Northside. (Courtesy Kickshaws)
While it needed a little more time in the oven than expected, a Fredericksburg bakery’s first Richmond outpost is ready.
Kickshaws, which makes and sells gluten-free, vegan and allergen-friendly baked goods, opened in recent days at 4028 MacArthur Ave. in Bellevue.
The bakery operates out of a 500-square-foot space within The Bellevue, the mixed-use redevelopment of the former Samis Grotto Temple. It is primarily a retail space, but also has counter service and bakes cookies, cinnamon rolls and other select items sold on site. The shop also sells breakfast and lunch sandwiches as well as espresso. Most baked goods are made at the company’s Fredericksburg location and transported daily to Richmond.
“We have a handful, probably like half a dozen items that are baked on site, just because they are a little bit better fresh out of the oven,” Kickshaws owner Kathy Paz-Craddock said.
Kickshaws wanted to establish a local brick-and-mortar presence because the company’s products have had a Richmond-area following. The company started to wholesale its products to a couple of specialty markets a few years ago, and participated in local vendor markets to gauge interest.
“That’s been the plan for the business in general, testing market areas with wholesale and pop-ups and things like that to see how things go in the area,” Paz-Craddock said.
Kickshaws’ hamburger buns are already being served at local restaurants Toast and Cobra Burger, and it also wholesales to Good Foods Grocery in Bon Air. Paz-Craddock said the bakery is looking to expand the wholesale arm of the business.
The Northside bakery has been in the works for months. At one point slated to open around this time last year, Paz-Craddock said Kickshaws was delayed because of problems with a contractor, and a lease dispute that prompted them to relocate to a new space in Fredericksburg.
“We had a combination of chaotic things that happened,” she said.
To maintain awareness of the upcoming Northside shop among Richmonders, Kickshaws held pop-ups outside the storefront while work continued.
“We did pop-ups a couple times a month at our location to try to continue to be present, and talk to people as they came and let them know this is what’s going on, and we are continuing to work on it,” Paz-Craddock said.
The shop is about a year into a five-year lease on its MacArthur Avenue space.
Kickshaws was inspired by the Paz-Craddock family’s experiences with celiac disease and a dairy allergy, and has been in business for more than a decade. It originally opened as a grocery store in 2014. It later evolved into a pop-up bakery and opened its previous Fredericksburg location in 2020.
At The Bellvue, Kickshaws shares a building with menswear store Homme Essentials and gift shop Sun Theory, formerly known as Maven Theory.
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