Brian Noyes had a successful career in journalism, serving as art director for The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and Preservation Magazine. Even as he was immersed in his work, his passion for baking was always in the background.
During a discussion with SPJ DC Chapter Vice President Kela Roeder, Noyes said reporting on food was always nearby during his career.
“I always watched food. It was always right there, off to the side,” he said. “[At The Post] I was working with Phyllis Richman, the food reviewer, and then Tom Sietsema, her assistant who stepped into the role. I’d go scout out all these restaurants that both of them were going to review. It was kind of a boondoggle. I could go and order at company expense, just to get an idea of what the food looked like.”
He attended the Culinary Institute of America — “The other CIA,” he noted — in New York and L’Academie de Cuisine in Washington, which closed in 2017. He then started baking on the weekends at a farm he bought in Virginia and sold his goods from a red truck at weekend markets.
Eventually, his baked goods came to the attention of the New York Times.
“That little fledgling website I had from the Red Truck Bakery went from 24 hits to 57,000 in one day when the story came out, so I knew I was onto something,” he said.
The demand for his cakes and pies led to the 2009 opening of his first shop in Warrenton, Va. Red Truck Bakery later expanded to a second site in Marshall, Va.
He said his work as art director for The Post and other publications taught him about the importance of images and imagery.
“It was all about the logo,” he said. “I mean, to find an old 1954 red truck online and use it as my logo, worked out perfect. When it turned out the anonymous owner selling it was Tommy Hilfiger. It was just like, this was just meant to be, you know, I just milked after all I could.”
Noyes referred back to his days at The Post for inspiration for some of his products.
“I really wanted a good robust, bold coffee when I opened the bakery, he said. “And I was determined to name it the Bulldog Edition.” He explained that the first edition of a newspaper’s daily run was called “the bulldog.”
Noyes then had to come up with a logo for the coffee. For that, he turned to the “boldest and most badass guy: he knew — Ben Bradleee, the late editor of The Washington Post.
In remembering Bradlee, Noyes stressed how the late editor mentored him and brought him into The Washington Post family.
“He lived a block from me in Georgetown, and he’d pick me up if he saw me walking into work. We got to chat on the way in.”
Noyes said he always enjoys it when his colleagues from The Post or Smithsonian Magazine or Preservation Magazine stop by the bakery, but he does not regret his career shift. Journalists, he noted, are generally open to new things. Making the transition to something else after a career in the news media is nothing new.
“I think maybe just don’t hold on to what you know,” he said. “Be open to new things.”
Watch the full interview: