Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurie Suriff.
Whimsy Cookie Company began in 2007, by Founder & Co-Owner, Laurie Suriff. Laurie grew up baking alongside her mother, and her secret sugar cookie recipe was always Laurie’s favorite. This helped shape Laurie’s love of baking. Laurie’s husband needed a creative Christmas gift for his clients one year, and Laurie mentioned she could make them all custom cookies. The response from these was so overwhelming that she began getting requests from friends and family. From this success, Laurie decided to start Whimsy Cookie Company out of her kitchen.
Over the next three years, the Suriff Family saw a lot of cookies. Laurie sold to everyone imaginable, including cookies for family and friends, for baby showers, weddings, birthdays, tailgating, etc. Laurie’s incredibly yummy sugar cookie recipe, along with her talented “Whimsical” decorating style, quickly began spreading throughout the Memphis, TN area. Whimsy grew quickly by word of mouth and over the next few years, Laurie accumulated several hundred clients.
In the Fall of 2011, Laurie received an email from Leigh Anne Tuohy to place an order for Baltimore Raven’s themed cookies for their tailgate event for their son, Michael Oher. Leigh Anne and Collins Tuohy had tasted Laurie’s cookies at a school event of SJ (Collins little brother) and fell in love with Whimsy! Soon after that, Collins also began ordering cookies for her events and friends.
Collins approached Laurie in winter 2012 with the idea of joining talents to make Whimsy Cookie Company even better. She and Laurie became equal business partners in Whimsy Cookie Company! About a year later, Whimsy Cookie Cookie moved to the “Whimsy House,” which is located at 4704 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38117. This is a dream location in a hundred-year-old house on the main street that runs through Memphis. This allowed them to give the retail experience their clients were really looking for. The words used to describe the experience in the Whimsy House are magical, fun, happy, welcoming, sparkly, pink, precious, and a whole lot of WHIMSY!
Laurie, a Texan at heart, resides in Memphis, TN, with her husband, Aaron, who is also the Franchise Director of WCC Franchising, her two sons and Tanner and Tyler, who are the light of her life!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely had its challenges, especially with working full time, growing a business and being a mom and wife, but if you have a great support system, it can be done. You just have to know what is of importance to you, what comes first and learn when to say no to all the requests.
We have been fortunate to stay open and keep going during the Pandemic, we have had to shift gears a bit, but if you know your product is absolutely the best and you have a staff that you have to keep going for, to support, who need their jobs, then you just adjust and get creative to get your product out there. We have done very well, and we have a wonderful team in Whimsy Memphis. We couldn’t do it without them!
Whimsy Cookie Company – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a boutique bakery based in Memphis, TN, specializing in hand-decorated sugar cookies, whimsy gooey butter cookies and other specialty cookies. We have 9 Franchise locations, one set to open this year in Knoxville, TN and next year. We are known for our beautiful custom sugar cookies that are thick, soft and oh so incredible… they are not like the typical hard sugar cookie… you will love them! We also have quickly become known for our incredible gooey butter cookies. They are a bit gooey and cakey at the same time we have eight flavors, butter, strawberry, birthday, lemon, red velvet, chocolate, butter with chocolate chips and red velvet with chocolate chips.
What sets us apart is that we make the best custom sugar cookies for any event and we are a destination location in Memphis, TN and our other locations are quickly becoming that as well… people from all over, even out of the country, make a trip to Whimsy when coming through Memphis or visiting, when you walk through our doors its all girly, glittery and a whole lot of magic and Whimsy!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Seeing my customers face when they open a box of custom sugar cookies or the sweet notes I receive on a daily basis, thanking us and how our cookies brought so much joy to their event or occasion. Also, very proud of seeing our shops open up all over the US. It’s a dream come true!!!
Contact Info:
- Address: 4704 Poplar Avenue
Memphis TN 38117 - Website: www.whimsycookieco.com
- Phone: 9013430709
- Email: orders@whimsycookieco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whimsycookiecompany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whimsycookieco/
Image Credit:
Whimsy Cookie Co.
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