A veteran of some of Seattle’s top restaurants is opening an Indonesian-inspired bakery October 24 at 6420 24th Avenue Northwest in Ballard.
Dionne Himmelfarb, who calls her new venture Cloudy Cafe, will serve classic French pastries with a twist. The bakery fills a 2,600-square-foot space that formerly housed Watson’s Counter, a cafe that closed in December.
Himmelfarb, who is originally from Indonesia, has lived in Ballard for more than a decade and held roles at Seattle fine dining destinations such as Canlis, where she was pastry sous chef, and Poppy, which was run by James Beard Award-winning chef Jerry Traunfeld. She then joined Ethan Stowell Restaurants, where she served as executive pastry chef for nearly a decade. She was named chief culinary officer of Mt. Joy, which Stowell co-owns, in May 2022 and held the role for more than two and a half years.
“Dionne is the hidden gem of the pastry scene in Seattle,” Ethan Stowell Restaurants co-founder Angela Dunleavy stated. “She’s good at everything, from chocolate, to bread, to cakes, and she’s a wonderful human on top of that.”
Himmelfarb said she wanted to apply lessons learned from years in fine dining institutions to create her own experience that harks back to flavors of her youth.
“Seattle is my home now and that’s the sort of feeling I want to create when people come to Cloudy Cafe,” she said. “I want it to feel like a home base for people who come here from all different walks of life.”
Himmelfarb said she was looking for a space in a residential area, where commuters and neighbors alike could stroll into her bakery. So when the Watson’s Counter space became available in her neighborhood, Himmelfarb knew she wanted to grab it.
“When Watson’s had their last day of service, I came and started to feel like ‘I’m really going to miss this place,'” she said. “So when my husband and I decided we’re going to do this bakery, I knew I wanted to create something that would bring the community together, and this feels right to me.”
Himmelfarb signed the lease for the space in May and began construction in July; she said the work ended last week. The interior takes inspiration from the warm colors of Indonesia and features a “fish-bowl”-type display area where customers can watch pastries be made. She said her goal is to open the space to local chefs for monthly pop-ups by early next year.
Along with classic French pastries, Cloudy Cafe will serve items like savory croissants, quiche and sandwiches. Himmelfarb said Indonesian flavors will be incorporated throughout the menu, like flan with passionfruit or a tamarind-infused take on rum baba, a boozy French dessert.
Himmelfarb said the bakery’s name comes from her childhood nickname Cloudy, along with Seattle’s notorious weather.
The bakery, which sits at the base of Ballard Public Lofts and Market apartments, counts as neighbors Copine, a New American restaurant, and Single Hill Commons, the taproom of Yakima-based Single Hill Brewing.
Himmelfarb’s trajectory from Canlis pastry sous chef to chief culinary officer at Mt. Joy before launching her own concept represents a common Seattle restaurant industry pattern where talented chefs cut their teeth at prestigious establishments before striking out independently with personal projects.
The Indonesian-French fusion approach fills a niche in Seattle’s bakery scene, where French technique dominates but Southeast Asian flavors remain underrepresented despite the region’s significant Indonesian-American population concentrated in areas like Ballard and North Seattle.
Watson’s Counter closure in December left a gap in the 24th Avenue Northwest corridor’s cafe offerings, with the space sitting vacant for ten months before Himmelfarb secured the lease, relatively quick turnover for Seattle commercial real estate.
The 2,600-square-foot footprint provides substantially more space than typical Seattle bakeries, allowing Himmelfarb to incorporate the open kitchen “fish-bowl” viewing area and accommodate future chef pop-ups that could build community and generate additional revenue streams.
Himmelfarb’s nearly decade-long tenure at Ethan Stowell Restaurants, one of Seattle’s largest restaurant groups, provided operational experience managing production across multiple locations, skills that translate directly to launching an independent bakery requiring consistent output and quality control.
The Ballard Public Lofts and Market apartments location provides built-in foot traffic from residential tenants while 24th Avenue Northwest’s commercial corridor attracts destination diners visiting Copine and Single Hill Commons, creating potential cross-traffic among food-focused customers.
Monthly pop-ups planned for early 2026 position Cloudy Cafe as a community culinary hub rather than solely a retail bakery, following the model of successful Seattle venues like The London Plane that blend permanent operations with rotating chef collaborations.
Tamarind-infused rum baba and passionfruit flan demonstrate how Himmelfarb translates Indonesian ingredients, tamarind’s tartness, passionfruit’s tropical intensity, into familiar French pastry formats that appeal to Seattle’s adventurous but comfort-seeking food culture.
