Meet Cristal Barnard of Crickles and Co in Cedar Springs and Oaklawn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cristal Barnard.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
We started out of our mother, Donna Barnard, kitchen doing baked goods. One day, a mutual friend suggested we start selling breakfast tacos out of his sub shop before he opens. So from 7-10 am, we started making breakfast tacos, sandwiches and baked goods. Before long, we were doing more revenue in 3 hours than the sub shop would do in 8 hours. After a year and a half, we decided to move into our own space and Crickles and Co was born. We found a spot in Denton that would be our home for the next 5 years. Crickles learned a lot in those 5 years in Denton but we were always meant for a bigger market. My brothers, Chad Barnard and Mark Mckinney, have worked in the service industry, in Dallas, their entire adult life. They started a food truck named, “Crickles Curbside”, in hopes of introducing Dallas to our brand and product. The idea was to generate some energy behind our name so when we opened our Dallas location, we would have very little down time. Life has plans of its own and we had to move sooner than expected on the Dallas location. So, we sold the truck to help finance Crickles Dallas. My brothers have has always pushed Crickles to come to Dallas because they recognized the void for a high-quality, moderately priced, casual breakfast spot and knew Crickles would be a perfect fit for Dallas. We opened our doors on June, 25 2017 and Crickles Dallas was finally a reality.

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?
We faced many challenges trying to find people who believed in our vision. When we took on our first location in Denton, we thought we had made it, little did we know that location would become a nightmare. To start the kitchen/office was 300 sq.ft. Out of that tiny space, we produced all our baked goods, breakfast, lunch and catering. We used to joke that its impossible to fall down in our old kitchen because there was no room to fall. We also had to deal with a landlord that was as incompetent as they were cheap, which is a challenging combination to say the least. The city of Denton decided to renovate the streets around our location, cutting off our location from our customers.

This went on for about a year and we were losing money. Our landlord offered to help but when it came time to actually help, we learned they were just empty promises. We had to find a new location or we would not make it another year. That is when the challenge of finding a new location began. It took us over a year and 3 different real estate brokers, before we finally found our current location. Our biggest problem to growing was finding a landlord willing to give us a chance. Most landlords required 500k in the bank and assets in the 1 mil range before they would even talk to us. We finally were introduced to our current broker, Todd Griffths, who saw our value and the marketability of our concept and took us seriously. It was his contacts that found us this location and a landlord willing to take a chance. We thought that opening was going to be the hard part but as soon as we open, someone in the neighborhood started taking offense. They would call in bogus code compliance violations, told TABC we were selling alcohol past 2 am, even though, we close at 9 pm.

We also received a hand written, anonymous post card telling us our concept was terrible, the food was bad and we would not last 6 months, so we should just go ahead and move. We have also had to endure people trying to sabotage our Yelp rating by posting obviously bogus reviews. We thought the harassment was because we are a straight owned restaurant in a predominantly LGBT community which confused us because we embrace the neighborhood and our hiring practices reflect our belief, that hard work should determine position and pay, not sexual orientation or race. Luckily, the neighborhood found out about the harassment, from a news publication and rallied behind us. We are very fortunate to be in an area that has embraced our family atmosphere.

Please tell us about Crickles and Co.
We are a family run business and we want that feeling, of family, to be reflected in the food and atmosphere. We LOVE breakfast and dessert. Our love for breakfast is why we serve breakfast all day long and we will not judge if you eat dessert first! We specialize in creating a neighborhood establishment that embraces the community and creating a comfortable place to catch up with friends or knock out some work. We are most proud of our inclusive hiring practices and the ‘Your Home” atmosphere created by the decor and food. Our commitment to fresh, nutritious ingredients prepared in a familiar way but with a “Crickles” flare. We want to be the neighborhood spot that our customers can enjoy everyday of the week, not just on special occasions.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Cooking Sunday morning breakfast with my Grandpa and family. Having to use a step stool to bake cookies with my Mom.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4000 Cedar Springs Rd. Ste. E
• Website: cricklesandco.com
• Phone: 214-306-9568
• Email: cricklesandco@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cricklesandco/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crickles-and-co-dallas-2

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