Shannon Marsden Shares Her Plans as the New Owner of Julie’s

Shannon Marsden has been in the food industry for over a decade, working every position from dishwasher to general manager. For the most part, she’s self-taught , although right before the pandemic she attended culinary classes at Laney Culinary Arts. Marsden started working part-time at Julie’s Coffee & Tea Garden as a bookkeeper in 2017—and this fall, she’s going to take over as the new owner of the beloved Alameda establishment that has been a mainstay of Park Street since 2005.

Marsden originally joined the Julie’s team as a way to make ends meet after she launched her own business venture, Shannon Cooks , in September 2017.

“I was very nervous about how I was going to support myself in this early stage, and put word out with some friends that I was looking for some super part-time work,” she told the Alameda Post . “One of them said Julie was looking for someone to do bookkeeping six to eight hours a week, so I reached out. I remember being nervous and chugging a Red Bull before my interview. I was sure I had totally bombed, but she took a chance on me anyway.”

After a few months of working part-time as a bookkeeper, Marsden’s duties expanded. In addition to her bookkeeping, she acted as the head baker’s assistant at the Oakland location. Then the baker at the Alameda location had to take a few weeks off due to an injury, so Marsden began opening up the kitchen there. It became a pattern that whenever someone was out, Marsden would fill in. She had a wide range of skills and was happy to step in and fill whatever shoes needed to be filled.

“Eventually, after witnessing a couple of attempts at filling the position for a general manager who didn’t exactly work out, I approached Julie and let her know that I was ready, willing, and actively interested in taking on that role and those responsibilities,” said Marsden. “By 2019, I was the kitchen manager in Alameda and had several of my own recipes on the menu. By the time we reopened the Alameda location in 2020, I was the general manager.”

Marsden has had a front row seat to the evolution of Julie’s through the years. She’s been party to countless menu changes, redecorating the cafe’s cozy and eclectic design, and the growth of the business’s online presence. She did all this while working closely with owner Julie Baron.

“Julie has been doing this for 20 years,” Marsden said of her longtime boss and partner. “She turns 60 this week. The woman is ready to retire and it is so well deserved. She has created this special space for this community and it’s only natural that she would want to have it live on, even after she’s ready for her next chapter. That’s what legacy is all about. She could have sold it to anyone, but she sees me as someone with a shared vision, who can carry this on in her stead. It’s an honor and a privilege to be given this opportunity.”

Marsden says she has a few surprises up her sleeve for when she takes over, but the biggest change she hopes to make is upgrading the cafe’s tiny kitchen. “There is no real kitchen up those stairs,” she said. “We have two little convection ovens, a soup warmer, and a little egg cooker. And yet somehow we are able to put out everything we do. When the holidays come around, we have to work around the clock to make approximately 200 pies. No joke, last year I worked 35 hours straight.”

But the new owner knows it won’t be an easy update to make.

“There’s a reason that it hasn’t been done in the past 20 years,” she said. “Commercial kitchen remodels are not cheap. But I can’t wait to get someone in there to give me some quotes and see what exactly is possible with the space we have, and begin making some plans.”

The very thing that excites Marsden about being the new owner of Julie’s is the same thing that terrifies her—the freedom. “It’ll ultimately be up to me to do whatever I choose and whatever happens is my responsibility,” she said. “It’s a wide open road and I am in the driver’s seat, ready to take the wheel.”

Marsden is currently raising funds to help with the purchase of the business. “As anyone in this industry knows, these jobs don’t make you incredibly wealthy, and this is a big undertaking for someone in my position. On our special order menu, I am featuring a previously unreleased pie each month, and those proceeds will go to my fundraiser. July’s pie of the month is a blackberry key lime pie . Over the course of this summer I also hope to host some tea parties, dinner events, and other creative ways for the community to support in fun and flavorful ways.”

Kelsey Goeres is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post . Contact her via kelsey@alamedapost.com . Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Kelsey-Goeres .

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