When: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday, Friday; and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday
Information: www.jonesbroscupcakes.com and 884-2253
Bill Jones, an owner-chef at Jones Bros. Cupcakes, has a voice as smooth as the frosting on his cupcakes. The 41-year-old Omaha native spent the past 17 years in Duluth, Minn., where he was the morning show DJ and operations manager for radio station KQ95 and its affiliated stations.
He and his brother Brad Jones opened their bakery cafe and nightspot in Aksarben Village on May 1, and sometimes you’ll see their parents, Elizabeth Jones and Dr. Jerry Jones, stopping by to help.
Q. You made quite a transition from broadcasting to cupcakes and running a restaurant.
A. I have always loved baking. It was better than (a store mix) because I used butter, eggs and flour. My friends loved it. They always ate everything I brought into work.
It was getting time to move back to Omaha because of my family. My brother and I spent a lot of time visiting the West Coast and the East Coast looking for trends.
Q. So you decided on cupcakes?
A. Yes. It’s a rough job having to go to the coasts and eat cupcakes.
We also picked up tart (frozen) yogurt. It is a great trend. This is back to what I think yogurt should be.
We do specialty coffee, your lattes and cappuccinos, with the highest quality free-trade coffee we can get, George Howell’s Terroir.
Q. And you have a lunch and dinner menu, too?
A. We have a great kitchen manager, former catering manager of Ironwood Country Club Peter Overmyer.
People really like the panini. Our meatloaf (panini) has done very well, on a ciabatta with balsamic ketchup. Smoked salmon salad sandwich. A Reuben, because it’s Omaha.
A huge favorite is our four-cheese, grilled cheese sandwich. We started three-cheese grilled cheese but decided to add a fourth.
Being that we are locally owned, if we get an idea or a suggestion we like, we can add it to the menu the next day.
We have salads. Smoothies. Blender drinks.
Our soups have done very well with this cold spring. We have some specials that pay homage to what used to be here (the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack). The Ak-Sar-Ben Trifecta is a half sandwich, a cup of soup and a mini cupcake. A lot of people take advantage of that.
Q. So you like the independence of owning your own restaurant?
A. People perceive our place as a chain. Webster Design made us look as good as a national company with our logo and signs. And Leo A. Daly (a local architectural company) worked on the interior design. But it’s just my brother Brad and I. He flies in from New York on weekends; he loves to sell cupcakes.
Q. Bakeries tend to be mostly carry-out. How about you?
A. We try to make it a comfortable place to sit down with your whole family. The tables are marble or quartz, and we have started to serve wine and beer. We can seat about 75 inside, and we have a great outdoor patio. I’d say about 25 percent of people stay, and about 75 percent grab to go.
Q. Are your cupcakes catching on?
A. People have forgotten what it is to mix butter and sugar. They expect pudding-moist cakes. Here, all the natural flavors come through. We use Valrhona chocolates. Our butter has higher butterfat. We don’t use Crisco or stabilizers in our frostings. I haven’t had a single person say they don’t like the frosting. On our “soft opening,” we sold 2,500 cupcakes.
I thought our most popular cupcake would be red velvet, but our Black-and-White is most popular: chocolate cake with white frosting. There is Godiva white chocolate liqueur in the buttercream frosting. It’s very good. It has a brown scallop with a white star.
Q. Brown scallop with a white star?
A. Almost all of our cupcakes are topped with a fondant (candy) scallop and a different colored star, individually cut. So when you take them home you don’t get confused. Everyone has star duty (here) to the tune of 600 or 1,000 a day.
Q. Oh my. Cutting sheets of fondant with a tiny cookie cutter?
A. With a little cookie cutter, they cut, cut, cut colored stars to identify different cupcakes. The great thing about our place is you get to eat the mistakes. I really enjoy it, and everybody really enjoys what they’re doing. We try to hire people who are passionate about the business. Who isn’t happy if you get to eat cupcakes every day? No one is above doing stars.
Q. Do you cut them?
A. Yes. Absolutely. We need red stars and brown scallops now.
Contact the writer:
444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com
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