Before he was running “the gayest bakery in Western PA,” the owner of Evanly Bakes was training elephants.
Evan Morgan-Newphis studied zoology in college and spent ten years training elephants at a zoo. Baking wasn’t part of his career plan — that was, until The Great British Bake Off came along.
“I think I could do that,” he remembers thinking while watching the show.
Morgan-Newphis also credits the film Julie & Julia, in which the main character challenges herself to prepare all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s cookbook, as inspiration for starting his own baking journey. Prior, his experience amounted to little more than making boxed brownies.
“I was awful at it,” he said.
He kept practicing though, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, he had more time to bake than ever. As his hobby grew into something more serious, and he landed a spot on the CW’s reality competition Great Chocolate Showdown, where he made it to the finale against nine other bakers from all over North America.
Even then, he insisted he would never open a bakery.
“I constantly told them, ‘Nope, I’ll never start a bakery,’” he said. “That’s not going to be me. That’s got the worst return on investment.”
Yet, just one year later, after a decade working at the zoo, Morgan-Newphis left that career behind and started Evanly Bakes, which today specializes in cake jars, brownies and blondies.
The business launched in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2023. Just seven months later, he and his husband, Jared, moved to Pittsburgh, bringing the fledgling home bakery with them.
“Pittsburgh rallied really hard behind us very early on,” he said.
One of the first things Evan discovered about Western Pennsylvania was its farmers market and outdoor market culture.
He started selling at the Plum Borough Farmers Market, followed by the Verona Farmers Market, the Greensburg Night Market and Neighborhood Flea in Pittsburgh’s South Side.
Each market offered another opportunity to meet customers, build relationships and introduce people to Evanly Bakes.
For a small business owner, that network proved invaluable.
“I don’t feel like any other city does it as well as Pittsburgh,” he said of the region’s support for shopping small and local. “They actually stand behind that when they say that they’re going to support local businesses.”
That support eventually helped Evanly Bakes make another leap: opening a brick-and-mortar storefront in New Kensington in 2024 at 945 Fifth Avenue.
The couple learned of New Kensington’s troubles and severe economic decline following manufacturing closures in the 1970s, and as a queer business owner, Morgan-Newphis knew there might be questions about how a visibly LGBTQ+-owned business would be received.
“If I was going to tell people that this was the safe community for our business to be in, then I was going to prove a point with it,” he said. “We live here, too.”
More than a bakery
Evanly Bakes has since become more than a place to pick up a gourmet cake jar or brownie.
The business has embraced its identity as a queer-owned bakery and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community.
Early customers frequently told Morgan-Newphis they wanted to bring their queer child, sibling or friend to the bakery. That’s when he began to understand what Evanly Bakes could represent within the Rust Belt community north of Pittsburgh.
New Kensington and surrounding communities are outside Pittsburgh’s traditional LGBTQ+ hubs, says Morgan-Newphis, and for many locals, finding a queer-friendly gathering place often means traveling into the city.
As such, Evanly Bakes has become something of a queer third space closer to home.
“We’ve started to realize how beneficial that is,” he said. “How important that is for our business.”
The bakery is designed to feel less like a traditional storefront and more like someone’s living room. Visitors will find couches, colorful art, and a full back patio where they can relax and be themselves.
“When you go to Evanly Bakes, you can expect to be just welcomed like you walked into someone’s house,” he says, adding that the space has “this ease and this comfortableness.”
Evanly Bakes is also connected to Pittsburgh’s broader queer small-business community.
Evan says the Queer Craft Market helped him meet other LGBTQ+-owned and operated businesses, as well as local businesses that have made supporting the LGBTQ+ community part of their mission, such as Trace Brewing and Vellum Fermentation.
“There are so many [local businesses] in Pittsburgh that are not afraid to talk about it … They do a ton for the queer community.”
For Morgan-Newphis, one of the most rewarding parts has been watching people walk into a business that is visibly queer and immediately relax because they know they are welcome.
“There’s always a lot of joy and laughter happening in Evanly Bakes. We like to say ‘It’s cake. It’s not that serious.’”
Evanly Bakes is open Fridays 12 to 6 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays 12 to 6 p.m. at their retail location, plus appearances markets and pop-ups. The bakery offers online ordering, shipping and catering for cake jars, brownies and blondies. Gluten-free and vegan options are available.
Visit evanlybakes.com for more info or to place an order.
Photos by Ava Grace.
