Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristine Trawick.
Kristine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story started 10 years ago at the old age of 48! I was working in a job (selling commercial insurance) that just didn’t suit me in any way and I was unfulfilled and unhappy. I saw a sign that asked the GREAT question “what are you going to do with your one and only life?” One of my favorite children’s books is Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” and in that book is a great message. “You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.” I’m the only one that can change my unhappiness so I began the journey of questioning exactly what did make me happy. For me, I loved hospitality, all aspects of it. Creating a great environment, providing great food and making them feel special. It was a no brainer that I was meant to have a restaurant of some sort. Knowing that 50% of all restaurants close within their first 5 years, I figured that I had better arm myself with all the knowledge I could manage. So, I took 2 years of my life and went through a culinary management course at the local college. In my last class, we had to create our restaurant, decorate it, create the menu, food cost, the whole thing. I had no idea that I was actually creating the place that I was going to have! I thought it was just a project. I’m a firm believer in vision boards from that one exercise!
After my graduation in summer of 2018, my husband’s job moved us to Texas and we landed in Granbury where I didn’t know one soul! In addition to the culinary management course I took 3 key intensive week long courses that truly gave me the knowledge that I needed to create BAKED!. This first one was “Everything you need to know about creating an artisan bakery” at King Arthur Flour in Vermont. Another was a sourdough bread and bagel class in Louisville, KY and the last one August, 2018, “Introduction to Viennoiserie” (laminated doughs) in San Fransisco! I came back to Granbury in August and began practicing what I had learned and taking boxes around to the places that I frequented. I found the building I loved, mainly because it had huge windows in the front, perfect for guests as well as the bakers. The location is not prime, but located a couple of blocks down a side road but all around is grass and trees (which I need). It was a 5000 sq ft metal building that housed a frame shop. I got it way under value and just across the street from the city limits sign (a huuuuge blessing).
I will just mention this that I am a women owned business. It was very important to me that I do this 100% on my own without any financial help from anyone. I wanted to be an example to other women that they are not too old and that they can totally follow their dream, it just might take a little time. The money that I had to do this came from a 100 year old home that I had lovingly restored back in Florida. I had $60,000 to renovate and $60,000 for equipment. That’s a small budget! I was able to get about 1200 square feet of the 5000 sq ft building done with that money which housed the bread and pastry production area. The rest of the building was pretty unfinished..limited walls, very limited sheetrock and paint.Mostly bright yellow insulation on the walls. My equipment was mostly purchased used, for pennies on the dollar, at equipment auctions and eBay.
I knew from talking with a restaurant owner during my class that I needed to have something that photographed well to help with marketing. That if I had something cool, the customers would market your business for you on social media. I had no money for marketing and still don’t! We really try to utilize free social media and it has worked so far. With that thinking, I purchased a horse trailer (no brainer in Texas) and turned it into a pastry wagon to take to farmers markets to build our name. From June 2019 until mid August, I would work during the week creating product, bake it Saturday morning about 1 am and then load it up into the trailer and take it to the farmers market on Saturday. My first outing was a huge success! I sold all the product I made with a gross revenue of $350! All the people who came, were the ones who I had taken product to while I was practicing. The very next week, I opened the window and saw a long line! There has been a long line ever since! In mid August we were pushed out of the farmers market into a field away from everyone with the reason being that we were blocking the lines of the other vendors. I was upset at first but looking back it pushed me to bring them to our building instead. By this time I had 1 or 2 people helping me as well as a couple of faithful volunteers that made our boxes for us and bagged cookies. They were WONDERFUL! I set up a couple of plastic tables and had 1 of each item lined down the tables with the racks behind me. I would take their order and someone would fill it. We would work all week, bake all night and open the doors on Saturday at 8:00 to a line, sell out by 11:00. I hired more to help as our business grew.
This went on until March of 2020 when two major things happened! Covid hit us and I was diagnosed with cancer. We weren’t a sit down place so covid didn’t hurt us and actually our business grew even more during this time. We figured out quickly how to be a contactless bakery, they placed their order online, paid on line, we boxed it up and it was a drive through..they didn’t even have to get out of their car, we took it to them. We were an essential business so we never had to close. Cancer was a bit tougher but only because it slowed me down. My daughter had planned on coming to be my partner in August and was working in Panama City Florida and finishing up her Hospitality Program at FSU. Within 1 week she was in Texas to help me. She procured funding to finish the cafe area so that we could have people stay and eat; took a coffee class and learned all about that, got our website built and learned how to do the things that I was doing in the bakery. In addition, she created the environment in the cafe down to the littlest detail. I would have chemo, be out for a few days and then come back to work. As I was going through radiation, we were planning for our grand opening in late September. Of course we had to have it on “National Women in Business” Day!
We’ve been open 6 days a week ever since, with record growth every year. As we grew, we built out our kitchen space and created the menu for breakfast and lunch. Once that was going well, we ran out of space in our bread and pastry area. We kept bread up front and built out the 1500 square foot space in the very back. Once our team were very trained and I had a manager that could take the bakery department over completely, we felt like we were ready for a 2nd location and opened up 1 year ago in Glen Rose Texas.
We now have 50 team members who are incredible!!! Everyone who has come along side and worked at BAKED! over this past 7 years, has had a hand in creating something beautiful. I could never have done it without my business partner, Jenna. She has trained her front of house team to have true hospitality. To look at each individual that comes through our doors and see how we can best serve them. What are their specific needs and how can we meet them. We have more than 30 different pastries a day that we bake and they are trained to know about each one of them so that they can best answer a customers question. No matter how long the line is, you would never know it with our team. They handle each customer with patience and don’t rush them. I’m so proud of Jenna and what she has accomplished. She is incredible. And we make a great team. She’s front of house, I’m back of house and we both stay in our lanes and focus on doing our job to the best of our abilities.
Our mission from the beginning has been to create an environment for women to come and learn a skill that they could take anywhere. To be a place where she would feel accepted and loved. I know that when a woman doesn’t feel loved, her wings are clipped. When a woman is loved, she can change the world around her. I also wanted it to be a place that a single woman could support herself and her children on. We aren’t there yet but I hope someday we will be. It’s something that’s really important to me.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
it’s been tough at times for sure! One of the hardest things we have had to deal with has been interruption with our food supplies and escalating food costs since 2020. We stay ahead of this by checking pricing every time we purchase and we purchase from 5 different places. It’s not easy to do! Would be so easy to buy from one food purveyor but our food cost would either be super high or customer prices would be. At times we wouldn’t be able to find any eggs and we would have to go to 3 different stores to get enough for that day. Our butter prices have tripled and come back down. Right now, chocolate is incredibly high.
We live in a growing community and there are constantly new restaurants coming to town. Texas Food cottage laws have changed and now everyone is baking sourdough bread and pastries and selling out of their home and at farmers market. All of these are such a concern to me but I have to remind myself that it’s not just about the bread and pastries. People truly come here because of the feeling they get and it’s an experience.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I think I might be a serial entrepreneur! it’s not the easiest path to take but I think it’s the one that I feel the most comfortable in. I like to create something and I’m very goal oriented. When my children were young, I opened a preschool from the ground up, had it for 10 years and when my last started kindergarten, sold it. Thirty years later, it’s still going strong. I love projects and have restored a hundred year old home. I love to take old things and make them beautiful again. our building Glen Rose was built in the 60’s and was a tear down when I purchased it. 1 year later, it’s the most adorable little bakery cafe!
I’ve just started teaching soughdough bread and bagel classes! I plan on building all different kinds of classes though. This has been on my business plan from the beginning and 7 years later, I’m finally doing it! my baking classes can be found on my IG and FB page: IG baked_bread_bakingschool and fb BAKED Bread & Pastry Baking School
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We love to support our local economy and buy local when possible.This allows us to promote and support other small businesses who may just be starting out. Some the local places we support: a Flower Farm run by the sweetest woman. We have a space for her to sell her flower bouquets at both locations. We buy our organic small batch yogurt from the sweetest family farm in Dublin. We buy our sausage from a local butcher and our honey comes from a place nearby. And more! We are always looking for other small businesses to collaborate with.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bakedgranbury.com
- Instagram: baked_breadandpastryco
- Facebook: bakedbreadandpastryco
