ALUMNI IN THE FOOD BIZ

Rebekah
Krieger ’04

We’re scheduled to meet Rebekah Krieger on a fall morning at Two Bees Patisserie in Dover. She sits down for her interview, but nervously looks toward the kitchen of the eatery, which she opened with her husband Ross just over a year ago.

She seems a bit distracted, but justifiably so: one of her staff is out sick today, and they’ve just readjusted their hours at Two Bees, so they’re in the midst of figuring out just when the morning rush begins on a typical day. It could be any moment during the interview; she might have to pause our chat.

We offer to do the interview at another time — perhaps in the evening? No-go on that idea; that’s when she’s home with her toddler and baby.

She feels terrible, but accepts the offer to reschedule to another day.

But there’s no need to apologize: Such is the life of a busy entrepreneur, mom, chef, wife and boss.

“A typical day for me moves very fast!” she notes. She arrives each day at Two Bees at 6 a.m., where her morning baker has already been working for the past hour. “I make myself an Americano and get to work,” she says of the morning routine. The next step after the caffeine is the morning bake-off – no, not a cooking-contest show, but the proving and baking off all Two Bees’ pastries for the day, as well as the finishing touches like meringues, different creams and fruit.

You’ll find Rebekah Krieger ’04 playing many roles at Two Bees in Dover: plating sandwiches on the line, taking an order at the counter, then back to pastry prep, or placing orders, checking emails and making employee schedules.

portrait Alyssa Duncan
“We were confident that our business plan was solid and that we were going to bring something unique to Dover.”
The fresh goodies are set out on display along the long marble countertop minutes before the doors open, and with prep wrapped up and the customers trickling in, Krieger’s attention has quickly turned to tomorrow’s work. “We mix doughs, laminate pastry, make quiche” among other prep work for the next day, she said. At any moment you’ll find her playing any of the restaurant’s roles: plating sandwiches on the line, busing tables, washing dishes, taking an order at the counter, then back to prepping vinaigrette, slicing meat, or back to pastry prep, she says. In between, she’s placing orders, checking emails and making employee schedules.

But hectic makes for happy.

“My best days on the job are when we’ve had a really busy day, sold out our pastries and had a lot of happy guests,” she says. Tougher days are when staffing is short, or equipment breaks down. “When one thing is out of place, it can throw everything and everyone off.

Krieger graduated from UNH in 2004 with a degree in business administration. A few years later, she moved across the country to California — but not to work in the food biz. “My intent was to gain residency in California and go back to school for a master’s in early childhood education. But once I got there, I became immersed in the food culture and really fell in love. That’s when I started thinking about going to culinary school.”

KEY INGREDIENTS

  • Her French-inspired Two Bees Patisserie is quickly becoming a favorite hangout, not just because of its tasty and beautiful food, but for its stepped-up coffeeshop vibe and, in warmer weather, its outdoor patio on the Cocheco River in Dover.
  • The signature dish at Two Bees: the kouign amann, a delicate, perfectly flaky laminated pastry.
  • Her best memory of UNH: Freshman Camp. “I was a counselor for two years and made lifelong friends and connections from that group.”
So she enrolled in the City College of San Francisco, and in her second year, the idea for Two Bees came to mind —she began by writing the menu, and then, while she worked in restaurants in San Francisco “I was in research and development mode.”

From there she would hone her craft, working in restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, building a reputation for herself as a skilled sous chef and pastry chef. A gig at Portsmouth’s Raleigh Wine Bar + Eatery brought her back to the Seacoast, and closer to her dream of opening a café in her hometown of Dover.

That dream risked being a dream-deferred by the pandemic (it opened in late 2022). “We knew we were facing a more challenging labor market and we were met with lots of supply chain issues, rising costs and high demand for trades like plumbing and electrical,” Krieger recalls of opening a restaurant while COVID-19 was still a fear for many. “At the same time, we were confident that our business plan was solid and that we were going to bring something unique to Dover. We’ve just tried to remain optimistic and realistic with our goals by starting out small with plans to grow.”

In 2021, “I began building my clientele and getting my name and product out to the local community.” The years of hard work and skill-building worked: the café is quickly becoming a favorite stop in Dover, where on this interview day customers offered unsolicited praise: “We always come here now, you can’t beat the food and the coffee,” shared one diner.

It worked. The cafe is thriving, based off of its seasonally driven menu, where you can get a hearty breakfast or lunch, or pivot to a late afternoon dessert or shared cheese board and wine or beer.

Their house specialty, or at least a customer favorite, is the kouign-amann, a type of caramelized, laminated dough.

As Krieger told the Portsmouth Herald late last year: “We’ll keep trying to push ourselves and keep trying to do more to make the experience fresh and new and fun. As it’s developing, I think it’s definitely turning into the place I always imagined it would be.”

— Michelle Morrissey ’97
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