Rising Stars: Meet Sarah Niebler of Glenwood Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Niebler.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My mom was a home economics teacher, a food stylist and a recipe tester for the electric company in Wisconsin. At the age of 2, I would demand a knife to help my mom in the kitchen. I loved cooking & baking with her. My passion in the kitchen continued throughout high school where I was focused on healthy eating. We have diabetes in our family, so I was always determine to change recipes to be lower fat, lower sugar and focused on healthy eating choices. My junior year of high school, I had an inspirational home economics teacher who saw my abilities to change every recipe to make them healthier. She encouraged me to go into Dietetics. I enrolled at UW Madison to pursue a degree in Dietetics. I graduated with a BS in Dietetics. I then had to complete a year internship at Mount Mary College which gave me graduate classes toward a higher degree in Dietetics in May 1998 This internship opened up my mind to the world of Dietetics: Food Service Management, Hospital Dietetics, & community dietetics. I again found my passion in the food service & community dietetics. I enjoyed my hospital rotations, but my passion was definitely in helping create healthier food options. I was able to work with celiac patients in outpatient therapy and help them change their recipes into something that really tasted good as opposed to the cardboard options back in 1999. I also really enjoyed my food service management rotations. My last rotation was a 3 week elective with Sysco Foodservice in Bend, WI. Within this 3 week period of time, the Healthcare department manager realized the opportunity to create a position for an inhouse Dietician. I stayed there for a year and a half. I then went to seek out a restaurant management position with the Waterstreet Brewery group. What I enjoyed most was my 1st 3 months of training back in the kitchen so I could always jump on the line to help out during the rushes. I was the closing queen at their restaurants for 3 years. I then decided that I would go back to school for culinary arts and baking/pastry. So, in 2003, I moved out of the country and headed up to Vancouver, BC to finish diploma programs as the top chef in both Culinary arts program and Baking/ Pastry Program 2004.
From there I stayed in Vancouver to explore my passion in baking/ pastry arts working for the Rugby Beach Club and starting up Sunshine & Moons as a bakery consultant, food stylist for the film industry and personal chef.
I could only stay in Vancouver till March 2006 as the government of Canada would not renew my work permit. I was forced to move back to the states to survive and make a living. I was wrecked as my heart was shattered. I needed to start over again after thinking I’d stay in Vancouver the rest of my life. I didn’t know where I would go. I didn’t want to go back to Wisconsin. My parents had always taken my brother & I to Colorado for ski trips. The mountains were calling me. I took a trip back in January 2006 to Denver, CO. I brought a pant suit with me and walked through the streets of Denver and applied in person for restaurant management positions. I found the Keg Steakhouse, which is originally a Canadian chain. They were starting to open a new restaurant in Golden, CO and happened to be looking for new managers to run that new location in fall 2006. I passed my 1st interview and went back to Vancouver to complete 2 more intense interviews & a 4 hour test. My last interview was planned back in Colorado a week after selling off and moving all my things to Denver. The last interview was the most exhausting. I left feeling that I failed and I just moved my life to this new place for no reason at all. I went back to my place and cried myself to sleep. My friend, Eric told me some great advice. He said write the Director of Operations thanking him for the opportunity to interview with his company and tell him why you are the best candidate for the position. Well, that advice landed a steady management position for me until the Great Recession happened and the Keg had to laid off 1 key employee at the end of January 2009. I was forced to do something different. My future husband got out of the late night restaurant jobs and started a job a Whole Foods to have some better hours. He recommended that I apply. I landed the Team Leader position of 3 teams (Bakery/ Coffee Bar, Prepared Foods, & Cheese depts) at the Golden, CO Location 4 weeks later. After 3 years, positions we opening up at a brand new Basalt, CO. My future husband, John wanted to move back to his home town, Glenwood Springs, CO which was only about a 25 min drive to Basalt. We ended up landing our positions and got to be relocated to Glenwood Springs in June 2012. John proposed to me on Christmas Day 2012. It was a crazy busy opening…I started off managing 32 employees for 1/3 of the store and within 2 months, I had 99 team members I was in charge of. Needless to say…I was burnt out in a year and a half and decided to leave in fall of 2013 and get my hands back into my baking passion and worked for a year for Upper Crust Bakery. Throughout my years at whole Foods, I would go home to bake for 4 hours after a 10-12 hr day at work and started developing lots of recipes that are available from my bakery today!
On January 5, 2014, my hours at the Upper Crust were cut from full-time to 2 days/week because business in January at a bakery is slow. So, I had time on my hands and re-formed Sunshine & Moons Bakery in the US by registering with the secretary of State. John & I got married 3/22/2014 and signed a lease on a space for the bakery a week prior. We started building out after our honeymoon in May 2014. We opened the bakery Nov. 15, 2014 as a wholesale and retail bakery. For the 1st 6 months, I gained 5 wholesale accounts by Feb 2015 by holding open house tasting events, 1 each month to show the town of Glenwood Springs what I could do. I was a one woman business with the support of my husband coming daily to the bakery to help me do the dishes and close out the day. We were open 7 days/ week due to wholesale. I originally built my business to just do weddings cakes, specialty cake and wholesale….. but it turned into an animal with how much is produced out of that kitchen. Within the 1st 8 months, I turned a profit so I was able to hire 1 FT and 1 PT team members. From here we’ve grown to having 3-4 FT & 3-5 PT team members helping to bake and service Retail business & 20 wholesale accounts.
Our bakery is located on the edge of town at the Glenwood Commercial Center, so it harder to get to especially in traffic on Hwy 82. Breakfast/ Brunch items has to be pre-ordered as well as cakes, pies, specialty desserts. We have an open kitchen concept with smaller retail area at Sunshine & Moons. We wanted our breakfast offerings to be more present downtown Glenwood. So, in July 2021, my husband and I took over a local coffee shop and re-named it Deja Brew & Sunshine Too since its a combination of both businesses! We supply all of our baked goods from Sunshine & Moons and my husband is the Manager/ Head Barista over there. I’m at the bakery over Full-time as well as doing the books/ payroll for both businesses.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a smooth road at all. I thought getting over the 1st, 3 years of opening was a crazy hump to hurdle, and the growing pains of increased business, adding more staff, but not working any less than 6 days/ week, 12-14 hrs/day. The biggest one yet was when the pandemic hit in 2020. We were a production facility and deemed to be an essential business so we never had to close 1 day. This came with many challenges as we lost 20 wholesale account sales Day 1 which was March 17,2020. I had to go to work to not only create new business but keep my employees on staff without any sales. My business is location at the Glenwood Commercial Center which is on our major HWY 82 and literally the last building within city limits. It is not the most accessible. Our daily offerings were more on the sweet side. Breakfast items were by pre-order only along with cakes, pies, cupcakes, etc. You can walk into my shop and create a dessert table on the spot. We have a dessert bar case and a cookie/ confection case as well as some pre-packages caramels and cookies.

So, I applied for the PP loan which was a lot of work to do while trying to stay afloat, but we did land it! I created a online website so people could order ahead and pick up curbside because we were all in masks. I posted new items daily and offered delivery for the 1st time. In order to give my employees, 8 hours/ day guaranteed, I offered delivery to 4 different areas in our Roaring Fork Valley and it was based on each employees commute home (ie.. down to Rifle, Carbondale, Basalt and Glenwood Springs). All of the sudden, our wholesale accounts started opening up and by end of summer 2020, we could no longer commit to delivery as I needed all my employees in the kitchen baking away. Then then we started becoming busy with micro-weddings as the group numbers to be in one spot was still limited. By 2022, we were running in full force but then we were really hit with an egg crisis and felt the blows of the rising costs of every to run a business properly (increases in product costs, shipping cost, taxes, wages, etc). We needed to raise prices so we did on the retail side but not on wholesale till 2023. Our valley has gotten so expensive to live that employee are living in Rifle and as far as Battlement mesa to commute to work because no one can afford to live in Glenwood Springs anymore.
We’ve since decreased our wholesale accounts to 10 in January 2025. Currently, we are now making a decision to cut our wholesale department completely by Jan 2026 with the exception of keeping our products at Deja Brew. The continue rising cost of everything has been rough to sell our high quality products at wholesale prices. We are making an effort to focus on retail business, weddings & events. Wholesale business ties us to the business 6 days/ week and requires a lot of staff for very little to no profit. We will be able to change our focus to be more exclusive and most likely be open 4 days/ week starting in 2026. This will allow us to operate with a smaller staff as well.

My husband and I took over a local coffee shop in July 2021 and re-named it Deja Brew & Sunshine Too since its a combinationof both businesses! We supply all of our baked goods from Sunshine & Moons and my husband is the Manager/ Head Barista there. I’m at the bakery Full-time. I do the books/ payroll for both businesses.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My passion is baking! My reward is seeing the smile on a clients face when they take their first bites. We are known for our high quality organic baked goods and confections along with a special focus on alternative diet options such as gluten free and vegan items. We specialize in weddings & specialty cakes, dessert tables and confections. I can make regular organic items or I’ve done complete gluten free and vegan focused weddings and events.
Sunshine & Moons is focused on using only organic ingredients, with a special focus 3 days/ week on dietary restricted production. From day 1, I’ve had a double stacked oven of which one has been dedicated to gluten free items only. We have had a cleaning process from Day 1 that we go in every Tuesday morning to accomplish…it’s about a 5 hour cleaning process with 3-4 team members.
One of the things I love about baking is it is a science. When one of my employees messes up a recipe, I can in almost every instance figure out how to fix it. Most chefs can fix a recipes, because you can always add something to fix it, but in baking once it goes in the oven….you’re done. If we cannot fix it, and then it gets donated to the food bank.
We often get comments from our clients that say “Oh, I don’t care if you’re out of the regular version of a product… I’ll take the gluten free one! Your stuff is the best” These are the comments that make me smile. I take passion in every item we produce and want to make sure it always comes out top notch. If it doesn’t I donate or give to staff. If it doesn’t meet my high standards, it’s not sold.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
The best thing about Denver is the diversity and food options. The worst thing is the traffic…. getting from A to B. Back in 2003…I could get to Wash park from Denver in no time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sunshineandmoons.com
• Instagram: @sunshinemoons
• Facebook: @sunshinemoons

Image Credits
Grey Fox Aperture ( only profile picture)…rest were taken with my camera