To Build a Bakery is an ongoing series from Craft to Crumb featuring stories of growth for bakeries of all scales. From establishing a first brick-and-mortar location to multiple shops and beyond, the series connects with bakers from across the country about how they’re scaling up their businesses. If you would like your bakery’s story to be considered for the series, please email Annie Hollon at annie@avantfoodmedia.com.
SANTA ROSA, CA — Not all bakery owners are born at the bench of a multi-generational operation. In some cases, such as for Tracy Mattson, the path to the baking industry — and eventually owning and operating a brick-and-mortar location — started later in life.
About twenty years ago, the owner of COOKIE…take a bite! (CTAB) was working in environmental regulations in the nation’s capital. Yet, while she found the work fulfilling, the craving to nourish her creative side was unsatiated. Tracy found herself in search of a creative outlet with instant gratification … and the world of baking happened to fit the bill.
“It was a time in my life that I wanted a change, and I happened to call the pastry school, and they had one spot left open for their professional program,” she said. “I figured it was meant to be.”
She took the leap and shifted to working part-time and attended L’Academie de Cuisine in Washington, DC. Eventually, Tracy fully transitioned to the craft by working at various fine dining restaurants across the East Coast.
“I wanted to do something different for me,” she shared. “It was really nice to find a career that I could express myself.”
Tracy moved to California in the late 2000s with her then-2-year-old son, and after working at several Michelin-rated restaurants, she decided it was time to strike out on her own for the sake of her health and work-life balance.
“I was like, ‘If I’m going to work this hard, I might as well do it for myself,’” she recalled.
A pivotal opportunity
While cookies are the heart of the business, they weren’t Tracy’s first choice for her own business. The original plan was ice cream sandwiches, but with challenging regulations and footing the bill for the business herself, she pivoted to cookies and rented a kitchen to get started. Thus began COOKIE…take a bite! (CTAB) in January 2010.
“I started in farmers markets so I could start small and not get over my skis financially or production-wise,” she shared.
Building the brand was a unique challenge and the hardest part of the process. Tracy crowdsourced the logo for CTAB and focused on keeping it elegant, tasteful and refined.
CTAB’s tins were initially supposed to be a brown metallic color, but as a result of supply chain issues, Tracy had to pivot. When the packaging companies offered a vibrant red as an alternative, the bakery found a way to stand apart from others in the industry, one shiny tin of cookies at a time.
In financing the operation, Tracy was intentional about her investments, taking out a loan solely for equipment when she moved into her initial storefront in 2018. Surprisingly, finding the storefront space happened, literally, on horseback.
“When I was riding horses, the landlord of where I’m at now had horses too, and she kept saying, ‘I have this space, you should look at it,’” she said.
The space in question was a tight 500 square feet, with just enough room for a refrigerator, freezer, oven and a few tables. When calculating the costs, the smaller square footage proved to be the right fit to get CTAB’s foot in the retail space.
“I think there’s two ways to go about businesses,” Tracy shared. “One is like mine, which is akin to a painfully slow tortoise, and then the other people who get money build out and hope they can fill it. We grew incrementally until we couldn’t fit anymore in this space.”
Once at capacity, the value of relationships made a big difference in the bakery’s next phase. Three years after settling in, the space next door opened, and with it, the chance to more than double the bakery’s square footage and expand with a retail counter.
Learning how to establish a business is no small feat, and with it came some distinct challenges, such as managing cash flow, establishing a solid business plan and enlisting the proper staff.
“Those three things can be weighty, but you’ve got to remember why you got into this business,” Tracy said, “and that was to bring people joy.”
Snail mail cookie delivery
The tiny but mighty space worked for CTAB since the business was primarily wholesale and shipping through the bakery’s subscription service, a hallmark of its business approach.
Establishing a subscription model came with its own set of challenges, especially in the days before this business style was in the mainstream. The initial model was very labor-intensive.
“We didn’t have the back-of-house program to make that work, so it was literally all typing it in Excel and hoping we kept track of everything,” she recalled.
The Hail Mary resource came through their web management, which informed Tracy and the team of a subscription model built into the website. It was a game-changer.
“We have it integrated into our order system, so we get all the orders all at one time, and then our system integrates into a shipping platform,” Tracy said.
This new system takes the weight off key challenges of the business, including increased insight into monthly cash flow. With all the kinks worked out, the subscription model not only spreads the word on CTAB’s offerings to a wider audience but also supports the business as a solid source of revenue.
Local, elevated flavor
While customers can still find the classics — such as chocolate chip — among CTAB’s offerings, Tracy wielded her pastry school and restaurant experience to develop singular flavors.
“I thought there was a niche there because most of the cookies where I was at were big sugar bombs in five or six flavors,” she said. “I thought I could take my restaurant experience and make those nuanced flavors and highlight flavor and texture. And ours aren’t as big as your head so I can package them easily, and the customer can try more flavors.”
With signature flavors such as Lemon Moon, Chocolate Cherry Bomb and Ginger Honey Snap, using local organic ingredients to make these distinct flavors earn their gourmet moniker is crucial.
“I have direct relationships to the butter and egg companies and ranchers that we use for citrus,” Tracy shared. “And I think that helps differentiate us.”
While sourcing from more mainstream suppliers might be more cost-effective, the value of the relationships created with local vendors is unparalleled, especially when it comes to quality.
“I know where my butter comes from in regard to the farms, and I work with the local company that pulls the eggs in,” she continued. “I think that’s important.”
Building tomorrow’s workforce
In addition to creating cookies made from local quality ingredients, a key standout of CTAB’s business is its investment in the community. The bakery donates almost 2% of its gross revenue to community organizations aimed at helping children and animals.
The primary way CTAB backs Sonoma County is through its internship program, which offers teens from a local alternative high school and the Department of Rehabilitation the opportunity to gain real-world workforce experience through the bakery.
“To make a difference in those kids’ lives is pretty cool,” Tracy said. “It’s challenging, definitely not easy and it takes a lot of time. But we get that opportunity to change the trajectory of some kids’ lives.”
Interns become fully immersed in the bakery operation, doing real work that supports CTAB. Integrating this facet of the business into the day-to-day operation comes with its own challenges – Tracy redid her schedule to ensure she was always in the bakery to work with the interns – but being able to offer this opportunity can be a rewarding experience for business owners and participants alike.
“It’s not an easy task; it’s a big commitment,” Tracy said. “I just want to make sure that we always have someone cycling through and that we can be there for both of these organizations to have a place for interns to get their first work entry and make sure it’s successful.”
Going steady
Tracy’s path to opening and operating CTAB has been filled with lessons of all sorts, with the most critical being to have a plan but not sweat the small stuff.
“To put it in perspective, I tell my staff when something happens, ‘We’re not heart surgeons, no one is going to lose a limb or anything to that effect,’” she said. “We’re supposed to be baking stuff to make people feel happy and fulfilled.”
The road ahead is at a crossroads for Tracy, with one path leading to further growth and the other keeping the operation as it is.
While what’s in store for CTAB over the next several years is being confirmed, the bakery’s future centers on maintaining its two important goals: focusing on what goes into its products and the overall emphasis on the community.
“I’m trying to meet those goals and still be able to pay rent,” she concluded. “If those two goals are met, for us, it’s a good day.”
