Passing the Whisk.

Those are words I never expected to say. At least not outside of “pass the whisk so I can scramble these eggs” or something similar. But passing the whisk for our business? Yeah, I never expected that to happen, but here we are and it is going to be good.

I haven’t written much about our bakery business since I wrote Something Old, Something New over two years ago. *face palm* To be frank, the last few years have been rough, both personally and with the business, and it’s hard to sit down to write a blog article about that kind of stuff. I have a half-drafted article from our anniversary last year… Maybe I’ll actually write one to celebrate year nine this October. But with today’s announcement that The Blended Bakery & Bistro will be under new ownership effective July 1, 2023, I thought it was appropriate to write one more article before we go.

For those of you who might be newer to our restaurant business, let me give you some back story.

It’s been a little over seven years since The Blended Bakery, LLC was formed. It started as a home based bakery in 2016, with dreams to become a bakery and café in downtown Lexington (yep, we announced that dream all the way back in 2017). It was started by myself and my husband DJ, along with our six kids (yes, I said six children). We are a blended family, hence the name, and had only been “blending” for less than two years when we decided to start our small business. We mostly participated in farmer’s markets and took custom cake requests at the beginning (who remembers the days when we would set up inside Rustic Chic Interiors??), and we still have some incredible customers who have been with us since the very beginning who have witnessed our journey. (Peep this picture of us back when we were baking at home…and we thought we were tired then! HA!)

Not long after posting about that dream of opening a storefront, we realized we needed to divert our path for a bit, and decided to start with a food truck… Of course, we couldn’t do anything the normal way, so DJ found a vintage red trolley bus to call our own (y’all remember Beulah, right?). Oh the stories we could tell about Beulah!! We had a mechanic on speed dial, haha, but she was so much fun. We started by just expanding our farmer’s market reach and doing weekend events across the state, while still working full time jobs. DJ loved the experiences that we were able to have with our children, teaching them about customer service, work ethic, and teamwork. You know I wasn’t in the kitchen much…but I loved meeting all the vendors and customers at the events that we attended.

About a year after purchasing Beulah, we took another leap of faith and DJ left his full-time corporate job to run the trolley FULL TIME! That was in June 2018 and that first summer, he had so much fun being able to be more flexible with his schedule and spend more time with his kids. That was part of why he wanted to own his own business…so he could spend more time with his kiddos. Blended families are hard y’all, but I can tell you without a doubt that this man loves his kids (all six of them) with everything he has in him. DJ and Beulah started serving food at different corporate locations across the midlands during the week and continued to participate in events all over the state that whole next year, including Ag + Art Tours, several different Vintage Market Days events, and more.

Then Covid happened…except we didn’t know that’s what it was. But oddly, business was doing well there at the beginning. We were going out into the neighborhoods to bring y’all yummy food (that you didn’t have to make!) since most of the restaurants were closed or take out only. But we were struggling with the time requirements to prep all the food and support all the locations that were requesting us to come (and still sleep!). So, we started looking for a place to mostly use as our own dedicated commissary kitchen, that could also be open to the public in some capacity. After a few months of looking and praying, the opportunity to open our storefront presented itself.

By this point, we knew what Covid was, though we didn’t know how long it would affect things, but we felt like the opportunity was too good to pass up, so we signed on the dotted line and opened our storefront location in April 2020. (Thank you Rebecca for being our very FIRST customer in our storefront!) We had our amazing friend Canvases with Candace paint a mural of Beulah on the wall – that red trolley had become part of our brand! Less than two months after we opened our storefront (to take-out only), we were just getting Beulah back on the road when she hit a pot hole (have you seen our roads here??) and less than half a mile later, ended up in the parking lot at the Lexington Municipal Offices with white smoke pouring out of the engine. Ooof. That was not a good day. Needless to say, we weren’t able to make it to that event…or any others. There were lots of tears shed.

So, we pivoted and focused our efforts on growing traffic into our storefront location Frankly, it feels like we’ve spent the last three years pivoting. But that’s what you do as a small business owner – you keep trying new things until you find what works. We eventually added our four-course wine dinners to our offerings (those are always a blast, for the staff and the guests!), which are some of our favorite events to put on. You better put your (fancy) stretchy pants on when you attend these – you won’t leave hungry!

Last year, we did a bigger transformation with the help of another local restaurant owner and changed the whole look of the inside of the restaurant. The vibe is much more elegant and really makes you feel like you’re in Europe. We also added tea service to our options, which is always a delight to see! I always enjoy seeing the younger girls faces when they see the table set up and the three-tiered tray of food placed on their table. Or when it’s a multi-generational gathering with grandmas, mom, and daughters all enjoying tea together. Such great memories have been made within these walls.

What you might not have realized (because who posts this kind of stuff to social media??) is that DJ has actually been struggling with some major health issues the last couple of years, largely related to stress. We have been doing everything that we can (except yoga and meditation…I still can’t get him to try that) to get his health under control. Some of y’all might’ve been at the wine dinner where I actually had to be the host (eek!) because DJ was at the hospital having a heart cath done. (Thank you for those who were there…y’all were so understanding as I bumbled my way through.)

Owning a small business is stressful. Opening a storefront at the beginning of a years-long pandemic is stressful. Managing to keep that business open for three years is practically a miracle. In addition to the stress of running a business, we were also fielding multiple stressors at home as well… Blended families are complicated…and we will leave it at that. Unfortunately, that stress has just gotten to be too much for DJ and something had to change.

One thing that has stayed constant throughout our story is that we have prayed our way through it.  Our pastor often says, “Things happen when you pray that don’t happen when you don’t pray.” (Thank you for that constant reminder Pastor Chitty.) We have never made a major decision without lots of prayer, from deciding to open this business to deciding to hand the reins over to someone else. We prayed individually. We prayed together. We asked for friends to pray for us (often without any details). When I tell you that we feel at PEACE with this path forward, I mean it. We believe that this is right where God wants us to be, even though we didn’t expect this when we started our business seven years ago. We believe that God had a purpose for us in this journey, and that He still has a purpose in these next steps.

We were pursuing a couple different options as it relates to the business. We thought it was going to be one path. And then a different one… But this is where we have found peace. We prayed for doors to be closed when we didn’t need to pursue a path, and they were (sometimes slammed, and not just closed). We prayed for doors to open when we should take a step forward, and again, they did. We prayed for “yes to be yes” and “no to be no” and were at peace with either option.

We are pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2023, we will be handing over the reins (and the whisks) of The Blended Bakery and Bistro to our pastry chef, Heather Bruce, and it will become HER baby, much like it was ours. She will be sharing her own story over on Facebook, so  make sure you follow along and hear about what she has coming up! She shares much of the vision that we had for this business and we have confidence that she is going to take this business to a whole other level. We know that change can be scary, but change can be GOOD. We will continue to pray for this business, for the vision and the heart behind it all to stay strong, and for it to continue to grow and mature with Heather at the helm.

While she is transitioning from chef to owner, we would love for you to show her how much you support her and The Blended Bakery and Bistro by booking your high tea service, custom cakes, and private events during the month of July (and beyond) to get her started off strong. She will be closed starting July 1 to finalize the transition, but will be reopening on Tuesday July 11, so go ahead and make those reservations now so that she can feel the love and support that you all have given us over the years. You can visit theblendedbakery.net for all the details on making your reservations, or email her at info@theblendedbakery.net with any questions, including booking your own private events. It’s a big leap from chef to owner, so please show her all the love and continue to support her new business as she makes it her own. It would mean the world to us to see you all supporting her!

We would be remiss to not say THANK YOU to all of our friends and family, our SCORE mentors, and our incredible loyal customers who have supported us over the last 7+ years. Words cannot express how grateful we are to those who have continued to support us, through all the pivoting, through all of the hard days…you all made it worth it. Many of you have become like family to us, so we hope that you will stay in touch. Maybe we can even meet up for tea at The Blended Bakery! Now it’s time for DJ to focus on his health so that he can be around for years to come. We appreciate your prayers for us during this transition as well, for DJ’s health to improve and for healing and restoration within our family. (Did I mention blended families are hard??)

Before you leave, I’d love for you to leave us a comment telling us how you met us or one of your favorite experiences/stories with The Blended Bakery.

Thank you again friends. For the love, the support, the encouragement, the words of wisdom, the understanding, the grace, the hugs, the laughs, the tears… We are so blessed and so grateful for these years and we pray for Heather and her family to be doubly blessed.

~ Teresa & DJ Stone

PS Do you think we look more tired before our last Saturday brunch service (pic to the left) or in the earlier picture after a night of baking cupcakes? To be fair, this pic was BEFORE the service…it would’ve been totally different if we’d taken it at the end of the day, haha.

For more reading on The Blended Bakery’s story, check out these articles (in order from oldest to newest):

Big Announcement from The Blended Bakery

Inquiring Minds Want to Know…

Big Announcement from The Blended Bakery

The BIG Announcement

Something Old, Something New