Today we’d like to introduce you to Nanette Wessels.
Nanette, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was 18 when I learned to decorate cakes, working in a grocery store bakery. I was in college and needed to work full-time to pay the tuition. After college, I got married and started a family. Upon leaving the bakery, I started working for Mrs. Fields managing a cookie store. I did really well and moved up in the company to multi-unit management and eventually became Director of Operations, which is why I moved from California to Utah. Mrs. Fields corporate office was in Park City, UT. I was still in my 20’s and benefited greatly being mentored by Debbi Fields. During this time, I would have a recurring dream where I owned my own cake shop, so I always had it in my goals to make that happen. I worked for a few more big corporations, growing and developing my business skills. After beating Breast cancer in my 40s and about to turn 50, I decided to open the cake shop I had always dreamed about. My sons were a big influence in the process. Neil, my oldest was Vegan and told me I had to offer professionally decorated vegan cakes since you could not find them at that time. Daniel, my youngest, challenged me to make sure vegan cakes tasted just as good as traditional cakes. I did so and offered both at the beginning and opened City Cakes & Cafe on 1/1/2010. The bakery was quickly the talk of the town for the Vegan community and our sales grew very quickly. Eventually only making Vegan products I ended up making some of the vegan products Gluten Free as requested by some of my customers. The local Whole Foods locations asked if I would make cakes for their bakeries and with the help of my husband David, 12 years later, we are in 3 different Grocery chain stores and 16 small local coffee shops as well as 2 of our own retail locations.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I struggled being a Mom and having a career. I would pride myself in doing it all which eventually, you get to a point you can’t. My husband was great with the boys making sure everything was taken care of when I had to travel.
During their middle and high school years, I decided to take a position with a different company so I did not have to travel and that took away a ton of stress. And it gave me the ability to be at every one of their football and soccer games. They were grown when I started City Cakes. Of course, starting a business is never easy. It was very challenging at times because when you’re growing, you need a bigger space and more equipment and more employees. Doing this while you still need to produce products to fill orders can be stressful. I always tell myself just take one day at a time.
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?
City Cakes is a Vegan and Gluten Free bakery and café. Which is rare. Most Vegan bakeries do little to no Gluten free products. And Gluten Free Bakeries do not usually have any vegan products. I believe this is why we were successful. Many people who cannot have gluten can not have dairy either. We had so many people tell us that they could not take their child into a bakery to pick out a treat until City Cakes opened. So many children are allergic to Dairy and eggs. I was very excited when we started our online business and can ship to all those little towns where people do not have access to delicious Vegan and Gluten Free baked goods.
Owner of City Cakes & Cafe Inc.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I learned to stay calm and informed. Help your team to do the same and to take it one day at a time. Things changed drastically and you had to adjust. From staffing to running customers’ orders out to their cars. We were more fortunate because we provide to grocery stores and they stayed busy. Things are still tough because of the cost of ingredients going up so much, as well as not being able to find supplies and packaging. So far, we are making it through and feel very fortunate every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: citycakescafe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citycakesslc/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/citycakescafe
