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Bakery
they offered me the part. I told them no,
I didn’t have time. Because I really didn’t
have time. I had the bakery. They asked
again. And again. And then I said yes.”
DOUGH DROP IN
“I grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward
and everyone I knew, I mean everybody,
worked at Risings Baking Company.”
Henry started in maintenance — “I swept
the floor” — but he watched the bakers
and learned. “Eventually they made me a
baker.” After Risings, Henry worked at
Tastee Donuts, Alois J. Binder, a few local
grocery stores, and the New Orleans chain,
McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes. “Back in the
day, there were McKenzie’s everywhere,
I mean in every neighborhood. Then one
day, BOOM, they close 60 stores. I told
myself, it’s time to open a bakery.”
Opening was easier said than done. Henry
couldn’t get a loan —“banks wouldn’t touch
me” — so for two years, he worked two
jobs. The first paycheck went to take care
of his wife and children; the second to buy
used display cases, mixers and bakery racks.
He stored the equipment he found in the
Classified ads in his grandmother’s garage
until he had enough money and a spot on
St. Claude. “When I finally opened, that’s
when the real work began. I went door to
door promoting that business.”
Henry eventually moved his business to
Dorgenois, and changed the name from
Henry’s Bakery & Deli to the Buttermilk
Drop Bakery & Café. “Buttermilks are my
calling card.”
At the movie’s Sundance premiere, Henry
handed out 1,200 buttermilk drops. “I
would have brought them to France, too, if
I could have gotten them through customs.”
YOU’LL TASTE THEDIFFERENCE
McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes was a New
Orleans institution for nearly 70 years
whose passing is still mourned by people
who remember their jellyrolls, turtles and
blackout cakes. McKenzie’s buttermilks
were mmmm, mmmm good, and the
standard most locals go by.
“Oh, yes, I worked at McKenzie’s, I worked
at Tastee Donuts, I worked at all these
neighborhood places, and I picked up a bit
of this and a bit of that. It was like I was
adding to my own mental gumbo. When I
decided to open my own bakeshop, I knew
I needed buttermilks. I worked on that
buttermilk drop recipe for a year and a half
before I knew I had it right.”
Henry’s buttermilk drops are mmmm,
mmmm great. His recipe is secret, but think
cake donut meets glazed.
SWEET REWARDS
After
Beasts
, Henry appeared in
12 Years A
Slave
, and two other films. “I play Marvin
Gaye’s dad in my latest.” He’s also opening
two other Wink’s locations, one in the New
Orleans Riverwalk; the other in Harlem —
“I’m taking New Orleans to New York.”
In between film rolls, running his bakeries, and
working with Rouses, Dwight Henry is busy
perfecting his next donut, a smaller version of the
buttermilk drop called, appropriately, Hushpuppy.
Actor-Baker Dwight Henry with a fresh batch of his famous Buttermilk Drops.
He’s also partnered with Rouses to bring
his famous buttermilk drops to 12 New
Orleans-area stores. I love Rouses. I love,
love, love, love, love, love, love Rouses.”
Rouses Bakery Director, Chaya, loves
Winks, too, and Henry’s buttermilk drops.
“If you loved McKenzie’s, you’ll love Wink’s
buttermilks.”
DROP INTO ROUSES
Get Wink’s Buttermilk Drops at our Rouses
Markets in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes.
