Odette D’Aniello 7:14
The mortar standing. Is that your first location?
Amie Smith 7:18
No, no, I opened in a very, very tiny location in a very old building. And that was in 2014. And four years later, I moved into this location. Basically, in 2012 20 2019, this building was finished, but an opportunity came up to develop this location, there was a old garage, that was basically an eyesore in the town. It just is such a beautiful area, and it was the strangest looking building as you came into town. And I used to pass it and go, that would be the perfect spot for my bakery. Honestly, I did for years and years, I had a drive by and a realtor had told me that the water department owned the building. So I thought it wasn’t even a possibility. Because it was you know, government owned, basically. So the next thing I knew years later, there was a for sale, sign out Friday. And I almost, you know, hit the brakes. And then I just started to take a look at it and review the possibilities. And that was it. So 2017 is when I found the building up for sale. And then it took till June 2019 to open the doors. And in that time was all of the engineering site testing because it was an old gas station. The American architect, yeah, to work with an architect. Just it was a very long process. And I just kind of used to joke during the process that I could have a third career in commercial development. Because I really got an education in developing a commercial spot, but it’s really a dream come true. And we have a state of the art facility. And I designed everything inside and out. And I’m very proud of it.
Odette D’Aniello 9:20
It looks amazing. So do you did you design the whole building? What was that process? Like? Did you have any environmental like, mitigation that happened?
Amie Smith 9:31
Well, fortunately, the tanks that were underground had been long since removed. So all of the engineering tests came back and it just had to figure out and you know, get recommendations, who do you hire to do the testing? That you know, where do you submit things that architect was able to drive the process with the town and file everything we needed? My builder has done other work for me built my house. He outfitted the last shop with I had gutted. And, you know, we’ve had a long term relationship in terms of projects. So I knew I wanted him to build the building. He’s really a residential builder, but I was like, you can do this, you know me, I know your style, I know it’s going to be quality. And when you go in and you see the finish work, it’s really actually higher quality than you would probably find in just a generic commercial building. But I’m very critical.
Thank you very detail oriented. So a lot of little things matter. And I hear that feedback a lot. When people come in about the amount of detail that’s been considered inside and out.
Odette D’Aniello 10:43
And I saw that on on Google Maps. Actually, I could see ever visited your bakery, because we just met, but I can’t wait to see it. I would, you know, I would love to go on a video tour and maybe post it as a
Amie Smith 10:57
forest. I can do that. I do that for you. Absolutely. Yes. So what?
Odette D’Aniello 11:03
So what’s your comms customer base? Like? Is it seasonal? I know Cape Cod is like a vacation spot, isn’t it? Or is there like resin?
Amie Smith 11:11
Well, it is definitely a tourist destination. But we’re a year round community. And we have a lot of support from the local community. There are a lot of people that are on Cape full time. And we get a lot of regulars that are here all year long. So obviously, in the offseason, it’s slower, but we offer classes. And that’s been a great draw. So in the winter time when the cape is kind of dead, you know, for the most part, you’re not going to the beach, right? So people will come to a class or come and have a latte. But in the season, which is usually like it really kicks in, even though Memorial Day is, you know, the start of summer season, we really get busy starting July 1 through Labor Day. And as the years have gone on, Cape Cod has become busier in the fall, it’s a great time of year to visit. The weather is just nice and cool and crisp, but not too cold. It’s just beautiful. So far has been a very popular time on keep. I’d say in the last, I don’t know maybe decade or so it’s really become a place to come to in the fall. As well as the summer
Odette D’Aniello 12:25
When the leaves change. It’s gorgeous. Yeah, it’s
Amie Smith 12:29
beautiful. It’s beautiful. So, you know, we’re busy year round. But obviously in the wintertime when all the tourists are gone. And it’s it’s you know, day to day, it’s a slower, but we plan for that. And in the summertime, I always put a little reserve fund so that we can get through the winter. And that’s how I manage the business in the slower time. And plus we do the classes for extra revenue.
Odette D’Aniello 12:55
I like the whole plan, the strategy of having a the strategy for four bakeries located in a tourist area that seasonal is a bit different than let’s say in the smack in the middle of Chicago or, or New York City. Because there’s walk in traffic every day. But then when it’s a bit of a me for me, in my because I’m in the wedding business, it’s like feast or famine sometimes, you know, is easier to save my during the you know when things are flush, but the lean times and one way you do it is through classes. So what kind of classes do you offer?
Amie Smith 13:37
So we do sweet and savory classes. We have a pasta class, the pasta making class, so everybody makes pasta. And then afterwards they sit down and have a pasta dinner with garlic bread salad. So it’s really fun. Everybody loves it. We have a full liquor license. So you can have wine or cocktails. And we do a chicken class so you can make chicken three different ways. It’s called Chicken trifecta. And we’re always adding savory classes yesterday I did at breakfast is served kids class. So we made a few breakfast items and that was fine. And then we do all the traditional kind of baking classes with pies, cookies, cakes, decorating. We have a turkey cupcakes every November that sells out. Everybody makes Turkey cupcakes is so cute. So we do a lot of themed things. And we have a cookie decorator that works out of our bakery, and she does cookie decorating classes. Those are phenomenal. We get a lot of those sold out. And folks leave with cookies that are professionally decorated. It’s amazing. I’m trying to think what else for classes breads, doughnuts, you know all the baking categories.
Odette D’Aniello 14:57
You have different people teaching the class are you teaching at all,
Amie Smith 15:00
it depends. I teach some I have a couple of chefs that teach some. And the cookie decorator teaches. We’re always looking for other teachers to come in. We’ve had guest chefs come from Chicago. Gail Gant has taught at my bakery. Last season and this season, Laura Briscoe out of Arizona, also founder of Laura’s Gourmet Granola, which is a phenomenal granola. Oh, well. She’s based in Tempe. Okay, I’ll have to, maybe you’ll have to talk to her. She’s quite the entrepreneur as well as she had a catering company and cooking school. And she had the granola and the granola is the her business now that she’s full on, focused on, she’s distributing nationwide. And her product is phenomenal. Not just because she’s my friend, but truly great granola, and I’m selling it at the bakery. So anyway, Laura will teach. Yeah, Chef Laura came to teach last year and this year. So you know, we have a variety of people teaching.
Odette D’Aniello 16:11
That’s great. And you also taught at Northeastern, right?
Amie Smith 16:14
Yes, I taught at Northeastern for 15 years. And I taught writing and editing classes. And my love for teaching and my love of baking kind of merged with the academy. I just love watching people have that aha moment or pick up a tip or technique. And kind of demystify baking a little bit.
Odette D’Aniello 16:37
So the your your school is called AMIE Académie. Right. I love Right. AMIE Bakery and AMIE Académie.
Amie Smith 16:47
I love it, you know, run it as a separate business. Oh, really? Isn’t? Isn’t the same the same building. But for me operationally, I keep the academy separate.
Odette D’Aniello 17:00
Oh, good to know. No, I have a question. Yeah, what keeps your customers coming back to you, because you have such good reviews.
Amie Smith 17:13
Well, I think it’s a number of things, I feel like our service is very good and very friendly, I have a great team for which you can’t be successful without the people behind you. And then of course, the quality of the food we do, I would say 98% Scratch baking, which was always my mission. And if we bring in a product, it’s usually something that’s our tastes and all somebody that’s only focusing on, you know, one product that they do things the way we do things. And you know, we’re not using any mixes. So for example, you know, all our cakes are from scratch, how you would do it in the kitchen. And I think people appreciate that. And we have really good sandwiches, we make all of our bread. So I think it’s the quality of the food and the service that we provide that keeps people coming back. Plus, I like to change things up. And I like to have our staples, and then I have a lot of specials. We try to do other kinds of event based things like we do tapas night. And we did a bourbon tasting, we’ve done a wine tasting, we try to keep things kind of unique and ever changing.
Odette D’Aniello 18:27
Oh, so it becomes more of like a center for socialization for right in Unity. So it’s a community space. Really? Yes, I think so. And it looks homey. Like it looks so cute. And it’s it looks like there’s a deck on the roof.
Amie Smith 18:45
That’s just to kind of block out the air conditioning unit on the top. But this could this This photo is from when we first opened so when I do my video, I will show you the outside we have a patio that has tables and chairs and umbrellas. And the inside is sort of like a Parisian cafe. Oh, yeah. So everybody comments on the floor as soon as they walk in. It’s really beautiful. But I had really cool lighting and I have a ton of specialty food items in our retail area. And it’s really quite fun to cut to walk in the door. Well, one
Odette D’Aniello 19:32
One of my childhood best friends is it lives in Boston, so I’m constantly singers. We will have to come out. We will have to come out. We go to every bakery.
Amie Smith 19:43
Yes. Research. Research and development.
Odette D’Aniello 19:46
She’s a lawyer so But she of course like my business is a little bit more fun.
Amie Smith 19:54
A lot a little more creative. Yeah, I get it work great. Uh,
Odette D’Aniello 20:00
so tell me like what? Speaking of fun, like what do you? What’s the most fun thing that you do?
Amie Smith 20:07
Do you mean in my life or do you mean at the bakery? What’s that? Oh? Okay, so this is gonna sound ridiculous. But baking? Oh, yes. So
Odette D’Aniello 20:26
Oh, yes. So, you love it so much.
Amie Smith 20:28
I love it so much. Yeah, I love it so much that I can’t ever I can never get enough of it. I’m obsessed. I literally am looking at food 24 hours a day online, having brainstorms about what can we do next? What can I make, tagging things with marking things? I love to travel. It’s been tough, you know, with COVID for everybody. But I used to travel a lot more and do food experiences and take classes all over the place. And I’m really excited, I have a trip coming up. And I’ll take some cooking classes. So I’m always trying to further my education, I do some online classes, which I’m not a big fan of the online classes per se, because I really like being in person hands on. But I have found a few platforms that are really great teaching resources. So even if I’m not actually making the product and watching how it’s done, and taking a lot of notes and getting a lot of tips, so that continuous learning is something that’s always been a thrill for me. And I’m very curious about a lot of things. And I like to learn about new types of pastry and see how I can incorporate either a flavor or an aspect of that, or recreate it and put it my twist on something. So I’m always very happy as long as I’m creating. And I do like running a business. It’s very difficult. It’s very time consuming. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I like it. I like it enough to be consumed by it. I totally get it.
Odette D’Aniello 22:08
Yeah, I totally resonate. Because I I know, it seems like I a lot of work. Like I started this podcast, amongst other thing that I’m doing. I love it. And it’s like, I love learning about the industry. I love going to places and looking at what people do I love, like, you know, it’s like, oh, wow, that’s a good flavor. You know, it’s, it becomes more of a hobby work, right? I mean, there’s the research, I’m like, what are the hard parts that you don’t like about your business? Because you can’t like every single thing? What’s the thing now,
Amie Smith 22:45
I can tell you, I absolutely cannot stand the amount of things that break that need repair and addressing, there’s a lot of administrative stuff that has to get done, which, you know, every business requires that but I used to say, I still say that this business like I’m a very detail oriented person I ran my other business easy. This business has like, it’s like a hub and spoke kind of system to me where if you have a spoke off of each spoke, there are like 10 details. So this detail has 10 details. This detail has 10 More details, like every detail has a web of details. And I’m able to juggle and multitask and manage them. But it can get overwhelming and it’s a lot to manage. And I never knew how hard it was going to be. And I think that’s one of the things that people kind of get caught off guard because I certainly was I you know, as a seasoned business person, but I still did not anticipate how much work and how hard it is to run a food business. There’s so much to manage. And then you’re managing a staff. This is certainly more people than I ever had at my other job. I have about 30 people on my payroll and that obviously goes down during the offseason but that eight full timers
Odette D’Aniello 24:26
so just all year long, or do you have family that helps you
Amie Smith 24:31
No, I don’t have any family to help.
Odette D’Aniello 24:33
So you’re the main go to person your role is CEO?
Amie Smith 24:39
Right, right?
Odette D’Aniello 24:43
That go to person who are everything like just
Amie Smith 24:49
Yeah, I tried to delegate you know, every good leader tries to delegate but I’m on top of everything and I’m always making sure I’m not an absentee owner on there. Virtually every day, and I’m always available by text, and I’m very in touch with my team. And I’m always watching around the kitchen, even from my office, I can see and what’s going on, just not as a micromanager. But just making sure that the processes are happening efficiently. And, you know, maybe sparking a couple of ideas to change something, maybe a flavor for five, just jump up and say, Hey, why don’t we try using X, Y, or Z with this or it just because I’m there and I see what’s going on, I might have an idea sparked in the moment, or I can just make sure that everything is happening the way it should be. So I like to be there. And I like the people I work with. So that’s obviously helpful. It’s fun to be there. We all get along. We’re like a good, good family. And I enjoy it.
Odette D’Aniello 25:55
So how is like, I totally love it that because it makes work life, especially complicated work life easier. You like the people, you know, and problem solve with them. So when you’re talking about the management of details, which completely understand, do you have a system do you have like a software that you manage with you have like a, like a business system that you use consultants that you use?
Amie Smith 26:25
Well, the first thing that came to my mind was my office looks like an explosion. And everybody always rubs me about it. But it’s kind of funny, because I can put my finger on anything in a heartbeat. And a funny story is that like the other day, there’s stuff everywhere, especially during the season. And somebody asked if I had a lighter because somebody out front one until they bought a candle, they wanted to light it, we’ve got the big blowtorch for our Merengues. So I was like, Oh, I think there’s a lighter because we used to light the blowtorch before we had the automatic thing with a lighter and I was like, oh, it’s in that top, top metal drawer. I mean, it hadn’t been Access for like three years, but I knew it was there. So like, there’s a lot going on, in my brain and around me. And I’m very aware. So that’s my own internal system, kind of like the like a wacky professor, kind of like I just can manage that way. I’ve just learned that’s something I’m good at having all this stuff looking chaotic, but I know where everything is. And that’s my own system. Then you have the tools that support the creation of things like you know, Constant Contact Canva toasts, which is our point of sale, using Excel. using Adobe InDesign, I keep a lot of files in there from my publishing days, if I want to make a brochure or something like that, and then I keep spreadsheets on this system, I developed myself because the food industry is very paper based. And I was shocked by that coming from high tech, I was like, You gotta be kidding me. I can’t pay a bill online. There’s no online invoicing like I was. In the beginning, it was, Wow, I can’t believe how paper based this is, it’s gotten better. But I decided right at the start, I was going to have all of my orders trapped in an Excel sheet. So I could look in my Excel file master purchasing from all my vendors, like every time an invoice comes in, I have somebody input, what the order is. So if I’m getting dairy, and it’s in from this company, and I’m getting dairy from somebody else from that company, all of it goes in. But at any given moment, I can sort and look at milk, see how much I’ve paid by date, and who I bought it from. And then that way you can see how your pricing has changed. Who’s more competitive pricing wise? That’s something I just that made sense to me common sense, because I was like, I can’t be looking through all these different binders of paper trying to compare what I’m paying for dairy just as an example. Yes, I need to look up, you know, when did I last buy something, I could just go to the spreadsheet. So I have somebody keeping that. And then for our customer orders, we take a paper based order when people come in and want to order a cake or whatever. And I have somebody loud, all of those orders not just for cakes, but any pastries, any catering, all those orders get logged and then a customer will call and say, oh, you know, I ordered something a couple of years ago and you know, I want to order the same thing. You remember the size, just look it up. I have that logged in a spreadsheet. You just look it up. So those kinds of systems I built myself.
Odette D’Aniello 29:52
That’s what happens when you were in the tech industry is you could just have the confidence.
Amie Smith 29:56
Yes. That is the advantage right. So My art and branding background has helped me drive my marketing efforts and my writing background. It’s helped me craft things. Yeah. So there’s a lot of things from my background that have helped me develop these kinds of systems that that work.
Odette D’Aniello 30:15
It’s awesome. That’s great. Thank you.
Amie Smith 30:19
Thanks for that
Odette D’Aniello 30:20
Us mortals use Trello. Man, I have a trillion apps that we use. And it seems. So now, for my last question me. If you were to, like, talk to your younger self, like knowing what you know, now, which is sad.
Amie Smith 30:48
That’s a tough question. What would I say to my younger self? Well, I think that I would say you can do anything you set your mind to. I think when I was younger, I didn’t have a lot of confidence, or as much as I do now, which has been built over time. But I do remember coming into the industry, obviously, I wasn’t in food. So I was very shaky. In my confidence, I knew what I wanted to do. And my gut was like, this is the right thing to do. And to trust your gut, always. And just keep your head down and stay focused. But I think just overcoming some of the fear and doubt, if I have to tell my younger self, oh, you got this.
Odette D’Aniello 31:42
You got this girl who got this? Yeah, love it. Well, Amie, thank you so much for being on this podcast and the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast. I’m so excited to know you. And I looking at visiting you. And when you’re in Tacoma, please come and visit my store. Absolutely. I look forward to that. Where I think you could probably find Dragonfly Cakes in your local markets. Like Whole Foods. So we can support each other that way. You could just say, Hey, Odette, I found your stuff. And then I will be on the lookout. That’d be amazing. And I hope to see you in the next industry event.
Amie Smith 32:22
I hope so.
Odette D’Aniello 32:23
Yes, I’ll be Did you? Maybe we’ll see. Tom Hanks together. Did we not see B? Do we see Tom Hanks. Did you see Tom Hanks?
Amie Smith 32:33
He was that the last show? Yes.
Odette D’Aniello 32:38
I sat next to Patti. While we were watching. That’s how fun industry shows get.
Amie Smith 32:44
I know I was just with her in Pittsburgh.
Odette D’Aniello 32:47
Oh, yeah. The for the tour. That must have been. Yeah. That was very interesting. Such a fun industry.
Amie Smith 32:56
It is a fun industry. And the people are so generous and so giving and inspiring.
Odette D’Aniello 33:02
Yes, absolutely. We just help each other. Absolutely. Well, Amie, thank you so much. I’ll talk to you soon.
Amie Smith 33:10
Okay, thank you. Appreciate the time.
Outro 33:16
Thanks for listening to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.