Today we’d like to introduce you to Sandra Daniels.
Hi Sandra, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hippos and Hashbrowns was launched in 2016, after my family and I returned from 14 years living in East Africa. I have been baking since I was a kid and growing up, food was always an important part of family life. My mom was a fabulous cook. While we were overseas, I spent a lot of time baking and perfecting different recipes. After years of friends and family saying, “you could sell these” about my whole grain crisps, biscuits, and other things, I decided to try it and set up at a farmers’ market. The reception was immediately positive and a loyal following quickly developed. After about a year, I entered into a shared commercial kitchen so I could pursue wholesale accounts. Things just keep spreading from then until now, and we just signed a lease to have our own place in Casa View Shopping Center.
We now have retail partners that allow us to be all over the state and things continue to develop.
Our mission continues to be focused on making it possible for our customers to enjoy quality, made from scratch baked goods in way that fits in with an easy lifestyle.
I like to call it ‘vintage taste for the modern kitchen’.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Launching a food business is never going to be without struggle. The biggest hurdle was the learning curve and the tendency toward self-doubt. There are so many more things to running a bakery than baking. In fact, that’s the easy part. It’s all the business tasks, administrative and financial issues, and licensing requirements. There is a lot to learn and it can be overwhelming to always be in an educational mindset to devour and gain more knowledge continually. In the beginning and during the initial stages of building things, it is a challenge to juggle the baking and the business end of things.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are proud that we offer customers the best in homemade goodness while at the same time keeping a healthful approach to enjoying baked goods. We have something for everyone at the table from our whole grain crisps and small-batch granola to heavenly sourdough biscuits. I’m happy to say that we are still offering a seasonal menu of baked goods through our farmers market booth and we will continue to do that from our storefront, once that is open later this year. I am really excited to be getting a permanent place in east Dallas where our customers will be able to get the staple baked goods from us to enjoy year-round while also being able to offer a larger variety of treats like cookies, bundt cakes, freshly-baked muffins and more.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I see the next 5 years as a time of significant growth. We plan to move into our own kitchen by the end of the summer in the courtyard of Casa View Shopping Center in east Dallas. Having a place where we can serve our customers during the week instead of just on a Saturday market day opens up big opportunities. We plan to expand into corporate gifts and we want to offer breakfast trays with biscuits and other baked goods for office catering and parties. My desire is to build Hippos and Hashbrowns into a happy little corner in the courtyard of Casa View that reaches out into the community with joy. I want to enable our customers to spread that love to their family and friends through wholesome baked goods that make them feel comforted and cherished.
It is satisfying to know that people are enjoying time together over a plate of food that I had a part in providing. That happiness is what started me baking when I was 12 or 13. “Wouldn’t some chocolate chip cookies be good right now,” my dad would ask. Into the kitchen I went. The shop at Casa View is full circle for me. I grew up in the area and used to go shopping there with my mother when I was a kid. I have fond memories of it, and it feels right to be able to have a part in making memories for other families as they bring their kids to get a favorite treat. As a fellow baker/business owner once said to me, “it’s so much more than just a biscuit.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hipposandhashbrowns.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/hipposandhashbrowns
