Photos by L.G. Patterson
From a table at the farmers market to a storefront on Business Loop, Jowin’s Kitchen is a bakery straight from the heart. Jean Nicklas, owner of Jowin’s Kitchen, grew up with a whisk in hand and an apron hung around her neck. “My grandmother loved to bake,” she says. “She baked cookies all the time and my mom (nicknamed ‘Jowin’) loved baking, so we were always doing different things and trying new stuff.”
As she grew up, Nicklas kept that passion alive by baking and decorating cakes for friends, family, events and more. But during the pandemic, she made the choice to leave her job in the communications field and turn her passion into a profession. “My kids were grown and gone and I had the availability; the more I looked into it, the more it looked like the right time and the right thing to do,” she says. “To share and to make a business of baking has just been great because I just enjoy doing it so much.”
Being from St. Louis, the birthplace of gooey butter cake, Nicklas knew there was an unclaimed market for the dessert. “We just knew people really liked it and whenever I had it anywhere, people loved it,” she says. “People would request it from me a lot, and we didn’t see a lot of it here. I thought if we focused on that, it could be a niche market we could capture and it worked.”
Gooey butter cake was invented when a baker supposedly reversed the proportions of butter and flour while trying to make a regular cake. There are many variations of this dessert, but Nicklas uses a recipe of her own. “Even if you go to St. Louis today and get gooey butter at different bakeries, they make it a little differently everywhere,” she says. “People say ours is just what they remember. So, it’s a scratch version of the homemade version that you would’ve made at home rather than getting at the bakery.”
Jowin’s Kitchen began as a home-based bakery, selling gooey butter cakes and other pastries at the local farmers markets, makers markets and festivals. “But everybody was always asking us if we had a brick-and-mortar, so we decided to look into if we could do that,” Nicklas says. “And then it all came together.”
In August 2024, Nicklas opened Jowin’s Kitchen as a storefront at Parkade Plaza. However, the endeavor was not without its challenges. “We didn’t really know what l needed to be done,” she says. “We were very fortunate that Reinhardt Construction was able to help us with all the permitting and knew how things had to be constructed. They were incredibly helpful with that.”
At the Jowin’s Kitchen grand opening, Nicklas was surrounded by not only her husband and children but also extended family from out of town and friends. “It almost felt like a wedding because everybody was here and everybody was so excited,” she says. “That has been just so heartwarming for me. The people have been so sweet about it.”
Nicklas credits her success in building a thriving business to the unwavering support of her family and the encouragement of the Columbia community. “You hear stories about the public being unkind and complaining about things, but that has just never been the case since the day we started,” she says. “Everybody has been so helpful and so supportive. It really has been incredible. That’s how we ended up here … just out of the support of everybody lifting us up.”
Since opening, Nicklas has learned how to run a business, as opposed to baking in her own home. But like all things, all it takes is time and practice to get the swing of things. “We have learned quickly to be more efficient and to make more in less time,” she says. “We’ve got some employees now and that helps a whole lot. It still feels very new because we just keep learning how to do things better, but it just gets smoother and easier as we figure things out.”
Jowin’s Kitchen features many flavors of gooey butter cake. “Traditional is always the most popular; you can’t go wrong with that,” Nicklas says. “And then white chocolate raspberry is usually our next bestseller. Lemon is also very popular, which is funny because it was originally a seasonal flavor, but people ask for it so much that we keep it year-round.”
Other flavors include chocolate chip, turtle, chocolate mint and more. Jowin’s Kitchen is also sells gooey butter cheesecake, cookies, wraps, salads, and coffee and tea from The Grind.
While Nicklas says there are many reasons she loves what she does, her favorite thing is when people come in to say hi and chat about life. “If people say they’re from St. Louis, I always ask them where they’re from, and one time somebody was from the corner that I grew up on, which is just shocking,” she says. “It’s just so fun to see people. I’m still just so tickled that we have a bakery.”
Nicklas’ vision for Jowin’s Kitchen is to create a welcoming space where people love to spend their time. “We try to make it as comfortable and as friendly as we can, and we hope to have more people see it as a place to come and bring a friend to sit and just enjoy time here,” she says. “We hope to keep growing the products that we offer, and there are always new things to try. That’s really what we hope for: a friendly neighborhood spot where people like to go.”
Someone once asked Nicklas if opening a bakery had always been her dream. She initially responded with a no, but her husband recalled her talking about it around 25 years ago. “There are so many ‘whys’ that go into fulfilling a dream,” she says. “It has truly been a dream to say we did it … to take the chance and see where it leads us.”
Jowin’s Kitchen is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Visit jowinskitchen.com for more information, or drop in for a hot coffee, a delicious pastry and a good conversation with Nicklas.
