A popular vegan baker is back in action after hanging up his apron last year.
"This opportunity kind of popped up out of nowhere," Jeff Funston, the owner of King of Tarts, said about his new location in the back alley of 10334 82 Avenue NW. "I get this email saying, 'Hey, this space is about to go on the market. Do you want to see it?'"
Funston opened the first King of Tarts store at Revolution Square on Stony Plain Road in mid-2023. About six months later, a flood displaced the business. Between that setback, medical problems for his family, and the sudden death of Funston's father, the uphill battle to run King of Tarts just wasn't worth it anymore, he said.
"(My father's death) was the final straw. It made us take a step back and just look at what's worth it, in the end, to try and bring this thing back to life," Funston told Taproot. "I ended up taking the summer off and really did some soul-searching."
And yet, a few months after announcing he was folding the business in April, Funston was baking pastries for Felice Cafe and getting back onto the market circuit, he said. All the while, a 14-foot sign for the business was beating in his garage like a telltale tart.
"I was about ready to hack up the sign and throw it out, because it was taking up space, and I was going to take a job elsewhere," Funston remembered. But after about six weeks of negotiating with the new shop's landlord, he was all in. King of Tarts soft-opened in December and began operating from Thursday to Sunday in early January.
"I like to consider this kind of our bit of redemption," Funston said. "We didn't really get the full opportunity to push our business concept in the last place, because by the time we hit the six-month mark, we were flooded and scrambling."
Funston said part of his decision was due to the location. The bakery just off Whyte Avenue has better foot traffic than at Revolution Square, it was already built out for his exact needs as a baker, and the signage is visible from the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market, where Funston has been a vendor. Plus, he has history with Sugared & Spiced, which shut down at the location in 2025 after operating since 2017. Jeff Nachtigall of Sugared & Spiced had twice offered to share the space with Funston in the past.
King of Tarts owner Jeff Funston at the business's new location in the back alley of 10334 82 Avenue NW. (Colin Gallant)
Old Strathcona is also closer to many King of Tarts customers than Stony Plain Road is, Funston added.
"The part that makes me fairly optimistic about this space, versus where we were before, is it puts us a lot closer to the majority of our customers," he said. "We're within walking distance of a lot of people who would normally go out of their way to come see us."
Still, operating in a back alley has some challenges, Funston said. He and neighbouring business owners did much of the snow clearing in the alley after a massive snowfall. Foot traffic is a challenge during the winter in any location, he added, noting he is using weekday hours to concentrate on custom orders and wholesale, with more emphasis on retail during the weekend.
King of Tarts owner Jeff Funston at the business's new location in the back alley of 10334 82 Avenue NW. (Colin Gallant)
Funston said most of his customers park at the city-owned lot at 83 Avenue and Gateway Boulevard NW, and plans to gradually transform the lot into a park could make it harder for customers to ante up for a trip to King of Tarts.
"I feel like that'll present a pretty large challenge, because you're then very much limiting the amount of people who might be willing to come down to Whyte Avenue," Funston said. "I feel like Edmonton is still very much a driving city. Everyone has cars, so if you eliminate even the possibility to park, I think it might be more damaging than not at this point, especially in the winter."
But looking ahead to non-parking matters, Funston said he'll experiment with his hours of operation and continue to roll out new pastries to keep people coming back. For example, he said he is working on an alternative to the typical plant-based cheesecake, which is most often made cold using cashews. His recipe will be nut-free and go in the oven as a traditional cheesecake would, he said.