At 3 a.m., while most of Iowa City is asleep, Colleen Brennan stands at her kitchen counter cutting coffee cake, with trays of croissants cooling behind her. The ovens have been running since noon the day before, and the house smells endlessly of butter and sugar.
By 6 a.m., Brennan and her partner, Erick Dole, will load their car and head to the Iowa City Farmers Market. By 7:30 a.m., they’ll be serving chocolate and almond croissants from behind an antique glass display case. By noon, they’ll be sold out.
Roughly 24 hours after they first turned on the ovens, they will finally go to bed…