Bliss Caffeine Bar

Brunch Heaven on South Park

BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE

“We saw the vision at the same time,” says Michelle MacDonald of the first visit she and business partner Jenna Oosterholt made to the space on South Park Street that is now home to Bliss Caffeine Bar. “We both looked at each other and said ‘brunch restaurant’. It was like an explosion,” says Oosterholt.

The duo started working together when Oosterholt opened The Ville Caffeine Bar on Sackville Street (which she has now sold) in 2019 and was looking for “the ultimate best pastries ever” to go with her offering of high-end espresso-based drinks. After getting a recommendation to reach out to MacDonald, “I slid into her DMs with a nice little message,” says Oosterholt. That was a few months before opening The Ville.

**Jenna Oosterholt and Michelle MacDonald**

At the time, MacDonald, a self-taught pastry chef and cook, was operating her company Buttered Bliss, which she started in 2017—two years after moving to Halifax—as a stall at the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market. Her business evolved into a repeat pop-up sandwich gig at 2 Crows Brewing, then selling treat boxes full of hand-made pastries such as pop-tarts, doughnuts and scones when the pandemic started.

Oosterholt contracted Buttered Bliss to provide pastries, and The Ville eventually became the pick-up location for the treat boxes. Then, MacDonald started helping out by filling shifts when the café was short-staffed. As MacDonald and Oosterholt became more professionally intertwined, they recognized each other’s strengths, weaknesses, passions and talents, and the powerful potential of their partnership became obvious. Oosterholt, already a hospitality vet and business owner by her mid-twenties, was the coffee expert and front-of-house specialist, MacDonald, the culinary talent.

“Michelle always wanted to open a bigger space, and I always wanted to open a brunch restaurant in Halifax,” says Oosterholt, who first moved to the city in 2012 to attend Dalhousie University. “I slowly started to plant the seeds of maybe we should do it together.” At first, MacDonald wasn’t exactly into the idea. “We were talking about the industry and how everything’s changing. We were both scared,” says MacDonald. “We were spending more time together because I was working with her every weekend.” MacDonald was afraid of ruining the friendship by going into business together but eventually warmed to the idea of co-owning a business with Oosterholt. “We’ve actually become much, much closer—like family. Which I think is special and unique,” says MacDonald.

“We ended up going for way more than we originally planned,” says MacDonald. The earlier idea wasn’t to immediately open something as big as Bliss Caffeine Bar—a 2700 square foot brunch restaurant and coffee bar with 54 seats (plus 36 on the patio, seasonally). But after having the same “epiphany” at the viewing, not only did they sign the lease for a bigger space, they took on an extensive renovation project to turn it into Bliss, and—all this went down during the first part of the pandemic.

“September 2020, when covid was looking really good at that time,” says Oosterholt. “[We thought] it would be over by the time we open.” Not only was the pandemic not over when they opened on May 22, 2021, but the local government had once again restricted in-person dining, limiting restaurants to takeout-only. Bliss Caffeine Bar opened, despite everything, just three weeks later than anticipated—primarily due to the hands-on approach the pair took to the construction work—to a lineup around the block. “The line lasted six hours,” says Oosterholt. “We could not keep anything in the pastry case and we went through 10 pounds of espresso in one day. It was so crazy.” After operating similarly every day for nine days, the two closed for a couple of days to get some sleep. Opening in the middle of a lockdown, “people were also just excited because it was something new. Thank you for doing this—we’re just so goddamn bored,” says Oosterholt.

Since then, Bliss has been busy and steadily growing its clientele. The hours are 8 p.m. to 4 p.m. six days a week, closed on Mondays. The food menu, developed by MacDonald, is available all day. It is a thoughtful blend of breakfast and lunch dishes and elegant pastries showcased on the coffee bar. Bliss offers classic brunch cocktails, wine, beer and smoothies in addition to the caffeine bar menu. And considering Bliss is half caffeine bar, the coffee (beans sourced from Java Blend) deserves a big shout-out. Oosterholt, the driving force behind the coffee side of the business, admittedly felt that before opening, it was hard to find a place in Halifax where “the coffee is as good as the brunch.”

When you enter Bliss, the duo’s influence is apparent. The pale orange-pink walls open up the already airy space. High ceilings with exposed ductwork painted jet black and concrete floors juxtapose the softer touches like white tables and chairs, a white portion of a dropped ceiling, white counters and pale wood shelving holding delicately lined wine glasses and bags of espresso beans. Customers can go directly to the espresso bar to order and grab takeout or wait to be seated for full table service.

On the heartier side of the menu, Bliss has breakfast tacos, gnocchi topped with a poached egg, plus two items that have earned cult status—the fried chicken sandwich and the ‘sunriser’ breakfast sandwich (which started at The Ville). What makes the fried chicken so beautiful is the maple-buttered brioche bun, infusing the entire dish with irresistible sweetness in every bite, complementing the rich combination of Parmesan-crusted fried chicken, smoked Gouda, and spiced garlicky aioli. It also has crunchy iceberg lettuce and thinly sliced red onion. This sandwich is a joy to eat.

The breakfast tacos, on house-made corn tortillas, are each generously filled with a fried egg, refried black beans, aged cheddar, candied jalapeños and charred tomato salsa. The tacos come with Peruvian green sauce and Parmesan roasted potatoes. (Two people could easily share this dish.) The green sauce is light and frothy, offering plenty of cilantro and lime notes, a lovely accoutrement to the heavier flavours in the tacos. The potatoes are highly addictive—crispy, cheesy, and herby. Just lovely.

I also tried a couple of bites of the skillet Belgian waffles. Perfectly crispy outside, topped with an intense blueberry purée, whipped cream and maple syrup. Delightful. The pastries rotate, but that day the doughnut collection included delights like vanilla bean cream, pistachio cream with caramelized white chocolate, chocolate cream, and cinnamon sugar. Additionally, there were salted caramel chocolate chip cookies, cinnamuffins, blueberry-orange scones, and strawberry pop tarts with ginger-lime glaze. MacDonald’s pastries are unique, visually stunning, and taste as delicious as they look.

“Everyone who works here really genuinely cares,” says MacDonald. “They are always bringing the standard.” And because of their strong team and consistent service and product, MacDonald and Oosterholt are finally positioned to look at the bigger picture. “Now we’re in a place where [we] aren’t so hands-on, where we can step back and work on the growth of the business,” says Oosterholt. “We worked really hard to get here.”

Now turning their focus to marketing along with a plan for renting out the space as a private event venue more often—which works perfectly with their operating hours—the duo seem destined for even more success.

Bliss Caffeine Bar