Sweet and savory. That balance is what makes the newly reborn Foxtail Bakeshop & Kitchen a success.

The sweet is owner Nickol Hayden-Cady, who has built a career as an executive pastry chef. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York, she worked at Bend-area restaurants before opening her own small bakery, Foxtail, on Northwest Columbia Street in 2014. That shop morphed into a wholesale business that specialized in custom wedding cakes.

The savory is chef Dave Bodi, who operated the Bangarang Haute Cuisine mobile kitchen. Frequently parked right across Arizona Avenue from Foxtail’s new Box Factory digs, he became known for teaming with local breweries and wineries in catered dinners.

The pair went into business together in April, when Hayden-Cady and her mother, Laura Hayden, leased the newly opened space on the Arizona Avenue side of the Box Factory and recruited Bodi to create foods that complement her desserts.

Foxy ambience

With its north-facing garage door open to a patio area that welcomes sun and breezes during summer heat, the new Foxtail Bakeshop serves breakfast and lunch every day but Monday. It has just added a Friday and Saturday evening “dessert bar” served with coffee drinks, wines and specialty cocktails.

A large red fox, the cafe’s namesake, is the focal point of an original two-story mural that dominates the inner south wall. The fanciful, colorful mural depicts the canine in a meadow among wildflowers and butterflies, bees and, yes, a flying fox (bat). It seems to be keeping an eye on every patron in the light-and-breezy dining room.

Diners order from friendly, informed servers at the tiled counter, where they’re given numbers adorned with cute pictures of foxes. Diners choose their own seats, and drinks and meals are delivered to tables kept clean by efficient bussers.

Morning mood setters

Foxtail’s version of a breakfast sandwich is the All Butter Biscuit Sando ($10.50). Served for lunch as well as breakfast, it made a good brunch option for my companion on our first visit to the cafe.

Apricot-tarragon jam and chevre (goat) cheese are not-so-secret ingredients in the Sando. They accent the golden, house-baked biscuit, topped by a fried egg with two strips of crispy cured bacon and a few leaves of peppery arugula.

My Spores & Scapes breakfast ($13) was a little more adventurous. Mushrooms (sauteed shiitake and oyster mushrooms) and mild, green garlic scapes (in bacon jus) gave the dish its name. They were served with “pain perdu” (literally, “lost bread”), a custard-like version of French toast dredged in egg batter and pan-fried in butter and herbs. A fried egg, microgreens and shaved Romano cheese finished the dish.

Also on the morning menu are two waffle dishes, one of them a Belgian waffle with pistachio panna cotta; a French omelet, and a breakfast “salad” with sweet potatoes and hazelnuts.

Afternoon delights

Our midday meals were superb.

A fish lover, my friend ordered Foxtail’s Smoked Trout Tartine ($14). Several generous cuts of the freshwater fish were presented on marbled rye toast with pickled red onions, fried capers and a house blend of herbed cream cheese. She found the bread, credited to Jackson’s Corner, to be too heavy and crusty, but otherwise loved the entree.

It was accompanied by a potato dish that the cafe called “smashed potatoes.” To me, they were baby potatoes, halved and roasted, sprinkled with Chinese parsley and grated Parmesan, and served with an aioli made with yuzu, an East Asian relative of the lemon.

My meal was the Summer Bounty ($13), surely a vegetarian’s delight — although, as full of flavor as I found the dish, it didn’t completely satisfy my hearty appetite. Built around sliced heirloom and plum tomatoes from Bend’s farmers’ market, it incorporated charred onions and an unusual aioli made with caramelized black garlic.

Puffed quinoa, preserved lemons and diced apricot (peaches may have worked just as well) gave additional dimension. The Bounty was offered with several slices of thin, crispy and perfectly toasted crostini.

On my next visit, I’m already looking forward to the Cascadia ($13.50), a Mideast-influenced medley of wild rice with beet hummus, fried Halloumi cheese, golden raisins and almonds.

Dessert bar

The new evening hours will showcase Hayden-Cady’s superb baking skills, whether she’s making from-scratch cakes, cookies, a lemon-curd tart or a New York-style cheesecake.

I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but I have fallen hard for Foxtail’s meadow roll. Fans of the Sparrow Bakery’s signature sparrow roll owe it to themselves to sample this violet croissant.

I was initially nervous that I might be assaulted by a flavor like that of lavender, a taste that I don’t care for. I need not have worried. Rather than a floral essence, I was left with a perception of blackberry or raspberry, wrapped in a buttery pastry.

—John Gottberg Anderson can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.