Today we’d like to introduce you to Kanya Michelle.
Hi Kanya, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I started my business in fall of 2020 after a layoff during COVID. I was a senior in college and finishing up my degrees. It started out as Shreveport Cottage Homestead, and I was selling scones and mini pies. Before Christmas, I started making biscuits (originally to be served with my partner Paul’s Bloody Marys at a popup event) and kept going with the biscuits through the holidays and into the New Year, Mardi Gras, and Easter seasons.
I did weekly lunch delivery on Fridays with lunchbox meals and a drink delivered to your work or home. I did popups at the antique shops with fresh baked biscuits and introduced myself to the owner of a woman-owned tattoo parlor on Youree (a busy Shreveport Road) so that I could do fruit-themed biscuit popups. Eventually, we became friends, and we will occasionally throw curated vendor-driven art&craft popup events. Eventually I sold frozen biscuits online for pickup and applied for the Shreveport Farmers Market. At the farmers market, I made biscuit sandwiches and sold out well over 100 biscuits every Saturday in two or three hours. After the summer, I started doing breakfast catering events and began selling my frozen biscuits in retail stores that fall. We sell in retail markets from Shreveport to Metairie in Southern Louisiana.
After my second farmers market season, and after lots of exciting catering opportunities (including returns to Chimp Haven) as well as many Sunday popups from our commissary kitchen at The Highland Center, we rented a storefront space on Line Ave in a neighborhood strip end capped by two of the finest antique shops in Shreveport and began building a kitchen for biscuit production.
In late November, we opened our storefront Local Market on Line Ave, where we sell lots of frozen ready-to-bake biscuits as well as local Louisiana-grown produce, meat, eggs, dairy, and other value-added goods. We also sell seasonings, coffees, teas, gifts, canned goods, sauces, and a multitude of other yummy ingredients, snacks, beverages, and kitchen gifts. I call the Market a bodega-style neighborhood grocery market.
On Friday & Saturday mornings, I serve hot, ready-to-eat biscuits from our warm sandwich case, like fancy gas station biscuits. We often also serve locally made empanadas during lunchtime out of the warm case.
Most Saturday mornings, we host vendors who popup inside the store, and with the nice weather, we’ve added an outdoor element with food vendors popping up on Saturdays and occasional collaboration pop-up markets with our neighbors from Timeline Antiques, where we host artists and gourmet vendors as well as vintage vendors for a big fun Saturday!
Since we’ve opened, we’ve also started working with Current Farms out of Union Parish in North Louisiana and they have vegetable box share pickups at our store. These have been very exciting for the community. We also have beef subscription pickups from Scarborough Farms, pickups for Chef Mel’s weekly meal prep services, and often offer cake pickups from Kat’s Cakery. Last week was our first week of weekly flower subscription pickups where local flower farm Scratch House Flower drops off bouquets for their flower subscribers. We’ve helped bring a bagel company to market, we’ve brought Bougie Bologna to Northwest Louisiana, and the Market help countless folks in North Louisiana begin to connect with seasonal and local foods for the first time. And in the meantime, we’ve sold a lot of biscuits.
Our kitchen will finally be completed this week, and we will be able to ramp up biscuit production and distribute more biscuits. In addition to biscuit production, we plan to create a simple rotating menu of seasonal cafe style meals and grab & go foods which utilize locally produced ingredients. An up-and-coming Shreveport baker has joined our team and will be adding unique baked goods to the menu to pair along with our coffee & house-made drinks for morning treats or afternoon pick-me-ups.
I’m always looking for new vendors who produce local foods and are ready to either sell their goods in-store or pop up at one of our Saturday markets to sell directly to consumers.
I love that folks often run into people they know when they’re shopping with us. I’ve started a monthly book club which had an overwhelmingly good response. We’ve joined Good Granoly as one of the businesses participating in the “We ❤️ Shreveport” initiative. The Market has quickly become a place where people can grab a biscuit, share time with their neighbors, and grocery shop from a selection of locally grown foods and carefully crafted goods. Unlike most grocery stores, we do not have much food waste; nearly all of our foods are donated to local organizations, like Shreveport Green, who have existing distribution systems to make sure that all of the food is utilized before it is expired. Everything locally grown, from fresh bread to locally grown veggies and dairy, finds its way into a belly in the Shreveport area.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Our kitchen took a lot longer than we expected. That made December extremely difficult because I’d have to work in the store all day and then go and make biscuits all night and then package them before going in and opening the Market in the morning. Plus, restocking stores. It’s been difficult to stock retail stores and my own store without having a kitchen in the building where my Market is. Now that our kitchen is nearly complete and now that we have new, reliable team members to help cover the front of the store and help with biscuit production, things will be much easier to manage and grow.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
“Shreveport Biscuit Company” makes handmade buttermilk biscuits from scratch using locally produced ingredients as often as possible. We sell frozen ready-to-bake biscuits in retail stores across the state, including our own storefront, “Local Market on Line Ave.” In Shreveport, we have biscuit sandwich popups, including at the Shreveport Farmers Market and at our own storefront on the Second Sunday of each month. We also sell hot grab-and-go style biscuit sandwiches on Friday and Saturday mornings. In addition to biscuits at our storefront, you find a multitude of locally produced ingredients fit to create a meal for any time of day!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ShreveportBiscuitCompany.com
- Instagram: @shreveportbiscuitcompany @marketonlineave
Image Credits
Christina Ogea
