Adel’s popular Brick Street Books and Cafe now has a sister store across the square in the Brick Street Bakery, which started selling sweets earlier this month in the former home of Al Dente Toffee at 109 N. Ninth St.
The bakery is the latest project of Optimae Lifeservices Inc. and follows the recent move of Optimae’s corporate offices to Adel’s west side at 401 Visions Parkway. The company provides health and human services to people with disabilities and mental illnesses across 36 counties in Iowa.
The Brick Street Cafe opened in 2011 at 803 Main St., on the south side of the Dallas County Courthouse square. The cafe serves breakfast and lunch along with fair-trade organic coffees, espresso drinks and a variety of baked goods that are now produced across the square.
The Brick Street Bakery — selling donuts, muffins, bread, pies and other goodies — operates on the same lines as the cafe, as a sheltered workplace for individuals with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities.
Sarah Jones, senior job coach with Optimae Lifeservices and a baker at Brick Street, said once the bakery staff got the hang of the new machinery, the bakery opened for retail trade.
Peggy Rager Deloriea, manager of Brick Street Books and Cafe, said the new retail bakery offers new opportunities for Optimae’s developmentally disabled clients and also satisfies the sweet tooth of county workers and others who frequent the courthouse.
Free-range eggs and produce used at the cafe are brought in from Optimae’s organic farm near Redfield, the eight-acre Raccoon Forks Farm, managed by Beth Buscher.
“This is a little different environment from what most of our workers are used to,” Buscher said, “and also what most of our clients are used to.” She said the farm currently has four dogs, one cat, 1,100 layer hens and about 400 broilers.
“It’s hard to find people who want to farm and do social work,” said Gillian Anderson Claycamp, an Optimae team leader and assistant farm manager. Anderson Claycamp said said 16 Optimae clients and nine job coaches work on the Raccoon Forks Farm. A smaller, five-acre farm near Runnels serves seven clients, she said.
Optimae also runs a number of other microbusinesses, such as a food processing facility in Ames, a Des Moines coffeehouse, a retail furniture store and others.
Kristi Fuller, president of the Adel Partners Chamber of Commerce, congratulated Optimae on their new corporate offices at a ribbon cutting ceremony Nov. 4.
“Optimae Lifeservices is a strong partner in Adel’s commercial community,” Fuller said, “and the Adel Partners celebrate your growth and continued success both here on Visions Parkway and on the courthouse square with the cafe and bakery.”
Optimae Lifeservices’ motto is “At Your Side, On Your Side.” More information about the company and its services can be found on the Optimae Lifeservices website.
