The Night Kitchen Bakery & Cafe, a Chestnut Hill mainstay, spent the last 25 of its 44 years under the watchful eyes of owners Amy Beth Edelman and John Millard. The couple invites the public to a celebration of the bakery’s long history of toothsome, from-scratch cakes, cookies, sandwiches, salads, brownies, sticky buns, and an endless array of other goodies.

The party starts at 6:30 p.m. at 7723-25 Germantown Ave. on Friday, June 27, and ends at 8:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy food, drinks, and of course, dessert.

“We are excited to invite the community to celebrate this milestone with us,” Edelman told the Local. “We want to show how much we love our community of Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown, and Philadelphia in general, as well as how much we appreciate and love our staff of 20. Many of our employees have been with us for 10 to 24 years, and they make our Night Kitchen world go 'round.”

Decades of excitement

Edelman recalled the many milestones she’s celebrated and fought through along the way. She said, “We have been through so many events with our customers, staff, and friends, like 9/11, the election of [former President Barack] Obama, the pandemic, and bringing home our adopted daughter from Guatemala. Our community has been so supportive in so many ways. I cannot express how important and dear they are to us.”

She is also probably known almost as much for her progressive politics as for her sublime cakes. “I wear the badge of progressive proudly,” she said. “I offer two-week paid vacations and maternity leave to our workers. Very difficult to do in a small business. And we have a Pride cookie fundraiser in June for Weavers Way, which we've been doing for years. We donate to Black Lives Matter causes, Planned Parenthood, and environmental causes. We did 'Green on Chestnut Hill' for 10 years and electronic waste events. We donated $15,000 to the Chestnut Hill Green [Space] Initiative and to rehab the park next to Mermaid Inn.”

However, in 2016 an online boycott of The Night Kitchen, claimed the bakery supported then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The store had conducted a “cookie straw poll,” asking people to vote on cookies with either Trump's or Hillary Clinton's likenesses. “The entire community came to our defense,” Edelman said. “And carrot cake sales went through the roof. Last year, we did Kamala Harris cookies, but no Trump cookies.”

Changing the “Yes, chef” narrative

Edelman, a native New Yorker and 1986 graduate of the elite Culinary Institute of America, previously perfected her craft at the five-star Boca Raton resort, the Intercontinental Hotel in New York City, and EuroDisney in France, the last of which was far from a vacation.

“It was very intense at EuroDisney,” Edelman said. “I was the only woman in the kitchen. There was lots of testosterone, so I moved into baking. It is slower, calmer, with more females. Kitchens are not what they used to be. It used to be that screaming at people and throwing things were acceptable. Not so much anymore.”

She’s happy to report that cooks have to contend with far less heat in the kitchen nowadays. “There are many more trained chefs now and many more culinary schools,” she said. “There are more options for people. You don't have to stay in a toxic environment anymore. Because of that experience, I have worked at being a better boss myself.”

After returning to Philadelphia from France, Edelman was hired at the Chestnut Hill Hotel restaurant Pollo Rosso from 1992 to 1995 and then operated a catering business at Crefeld School in Chestnut Hill for five years. She bought The Night Kitchen in 2000 from owner Sandy Soley, who purchased it from its first owner, Marie Tramontina.

Edelman met Millard, who was a chef at the 16th Street Bar & Grill in Center City, through a personal ad. They started dating shortly after she bought the bakery. Since then, Edelman has managed the business while Millard splits his time between baking and delivering. They also call their 17-year-old daughter Izzy into service as a part-time helper.

Millard, a native of Summit, New Jersey, studied engineering and psychology in college but then fell in love with cooking. “I started out working for a caterer from 5 a.m.,” he said. 

“John does stuff I don't love to do,” Edelman said. “For example, he likes doing the bookkeeping, and I like decorating cakes. We do 125 wedding cakes in a typical year and several hundred tiered cakes for graduations, christenings, and anniversaries. … Sometimes it feels like yesterday when we opened, and sometimes it feels like 50 years.”

The Night Kitchen Bakery & Cafe’s upcoming celebration is open to the public on Friday, June 27, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. For more information, call 215-248-9235 or visit nightkitchenbakery.com. 

Len Lear can be reached at LenLear@chestnuthilllocal.com.