Uppercrust’s baking and service relies upon the coordinated effort of over twenty team members daily. We are so grateful for their commitment, and their care for each other and you.
Alejandro – Service Shift Lead
Alejandro is an empath. The first thing Alejandro did when he became one of our kitchen leads is ask team members what motivates them, and how they like to be positively reinforced. Brilliant. Alejandro is currently a service shift lead as well as assists with office work on Megan’s days off. After work, Alejandro cooks, plays video games, and continues being his adorable self.
Ben – Owner
Ben is excited to build upon Uppercrust’s legacy and place in the community. He thanks Alton Brown for initiating him into the world of feeding people. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mr. Rogers and Josh Ozersky are personal heroes. When not at the bakery (this is rare), Ben likes to watch documentaries, listen to fantasy football podcasts, and golf with his dad.
Cody – Kitchen Shift Lead
Cody is a thoughtful and excellent worker. Uppercrust is grateful to have someone with such breadth and depth of hospitality experiences, and such true feeling for great service and product. Cody cares about details like evenly applied croissant fillings, and passes along those nuances during training with and feedback for kitchen team members. When not at Uppercrust, Cody writes and plays Kendama, the Japanese skill game.
Emily – Service Manager
Emily is an artist and color enthusiast. An MFA from UC Davis, and recent transplant to Gainesville with her husband, Emily has a colorful, complex artistic style that feeds on positivity and the exuberance of life, while (if I may) simultaneously jabs at the powers that be. Emily models her charisma, amiability, and deeply hard working nature for and with our service team. In her free time, when not making, Emily runs marathons.
Jef – Maître d’Croissant
Jef is our croissantiere extraordinaire. This position requires discipline, attention to detail and, above all, an all-consuming desire to get a teensy bit better at the same task every day (and every action, as is often the case). Jef possesses these qualities, and executes his work with enviable nimbleness and efficiency. Jef is also a vegan who made 11,000 calls for Bernie. He would have told you those two things before mentioning anything about his Yoda-like croissant-making, and it would be irresponsible not to mention them here.
Liz – Service Shift Lead
Liz has a sandpaper dry sense of humor. It is truly delightful. If you have the great good fortune to be on its receiving end, a) you might not know immediately, so disarmingly deadpan is its nature; and b) congratulations, you’ve made it to a kind of Uppercrust inner circle. Liz is also an extremely talented graphic designer and artist, who has humored Ben’s requests for menu and logo formatting. Liz is an avid runner.
Megan – Office Manager
During the height of the COVID pandemic, most of our service team was quarantined from a possible contact for 10 days. It was also Valentine’s Week. Megan was our MVP, working 8 days straight, and *rough* hours. Megan was a force for positivity. Her delegation of work during an attenuated time was also truly stunning. Performance like that doesn’t just happen. It is the product of someone who has decided to make a life of serving others, and takes work home with them because they want to; memorizing service standards and workflow prioritization because being hospitable just matters. As our service lead Liz says, “Megan’s the sh*t.
Mike – Kitchen Shift Lead
Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to become truly expert at a task. Mike would fool you, though, so nimble are his hands, and quick is his mind. It took him, like, a week to make show-stopping cakes. Truly awe-inspiring. Mike is also spectacularly *nice,* extremely hard working, and fun to work with. Mike enjoys gardening, and hanging with his partner and dogs on his days off.
Natalie – Kitchen Shift Lead
Natalie is a heck of a worker. Clean, fast, responsive. She has that quick-twitch. It’s hard to estimate the value of having managers who model what efficiency and an energy for work-work-work do for a team. Natalie provides it. In her free time, Natalie, in addition to DIY-crafting and interior decorating, does a lot of cooking and baking.
Sam – Kitchen Shift Lead
Sam is a mensch. Sam puts on a master class daily in managing by empowering others. Sam has an unflappable and resolute sense in his co-workers’ goodness, and assigns/delegates/assists with tasks that encourages their growth and preferences. As you might imagine, he signs himself up for a lot of bathroom and dish area cleaning. When not at Uppercrust, Sam plays soccer.
Tirsit – Service Shift Lead
Tirsit’s graciousness and steadiness are an example for all. Tirsit has been at the bakery for six years of good, great, and grueling services, and has not seen a coffee mishap or register malfunction that she cannot fix. Tirsit has finished physical therapy school, and spends her free time baking, doing aerial silks, and hanging out with her fiancé and cat.
Terry – Service Shift Lead
Terry is a completion-ist and geeks out on organizing. Both, as you might imagine, are very helpful for service closing. Our paper, plastic, and coffee storage situations have improved exponentially with Terry’s assistance and incisive eye. Terry jumps in unhesitatingly for shift coverage on her days off, except when it’s “grandkids day.” We have good sense not to ask her on those days anyway.
Trip – Kitchen Manager
Trip is a Gainesville native. He earned his undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Central Florida, and is currently pursuing his master’s degree in statistics. Trip is an avid soccer fan and a lover of books, and can often be found reading. He also enjoys cooking, and joined our team initially to learn more about the art of baking. He’s gotten (and earned) significantly more than that in the bargain. Trip has a methodical, clear-minded approach to work and organization, and a profound sense of personal responsibility when something is entrusted to him. If something can be converted to a spreadsheet, Trip will do it.