Five Daughters Bakery Coming to 12 South, The Factory at Franklin

Pastry fiends should have reason to rejoice later this fall, as local startup Five Daughters Bakery is set to open two brick and mortar locations, one in 12 South and another in The Factory at Franklin. Launched earlier this year by owner/operators Isaac and Stephanie Meek and named after their family of five daughters, the 12 South storefront will be located at 1110 Caruthers Avenue, formerly home to Corrieri's Formaggeria. The 2,100 square foot Franklin location will include their primary bakery operations along with a retail shop.

Known for their '100 Layer Donut,' a take on Dominique Ansel's famous Cronut, their pastries can currently be found at Barista Parlor, Honest Coffee Roasters, Ugly Mugs and other local coffee shops. But co-owner and baker Isaac Meek tells Eater that getting to this point in such a short amount of time has been anything but conventional:

I went to school for accounting and was CFO at a design firm in Nashville for 10 years. But towards the end of last year, I was burned out crunching numbers and my wife and I realized it was more important to us to be doing something together that we truly loved. One day she asked me 'What do you really want to do?' I prayed about it, and came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a baker.

Meek himself has no background in the restaurant or retail business, but it certainly runs in the family, with his great great grandfather having owned a grocery store, his great grandfather owning a cake shop and his grandfather owning and operating a pizzeria. Meek says that he has been an avid home baker for about 12 years, and that after he and Stephanie started having children, it became a real creative outlet for him.

On New Year's Eve last year, Stephanie and I were out at dinner with friends and they asked if we had any big plans in store for 2015. I said 'We might open a bakery,' and Stephanie looked at me and said 'Let's do that.' And that's how it started. I made the first '100 Layer Donut' the first weekend of January, we decided to start the business on Valentine's Day, I gave notice to my work in March and my last day in the office was April 15.

Meek says that right now about 80 percent of their current demand is for doughnuts, including '100 Layer,' stuffed and 'paleo crushers.' But they also offer options such as kouign amaan (a crispy, caramelized croissant), cupcakes, custom cakes, biscuits, cinammon rolls and more, utilizing primarily local and organic ingredients. All pastries will be baked fresh daily (with a 3-day lead time on the '100 Layer Donuts') at their Franklin location and delivered each morning to the 12 South shop.

Follow the progress on both stores on Instagram and Facebook, and be sure to check back for future updates.