Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean & Samantha Penner
Sean & Samantha, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My husband and I have both had a love of baking our whole lives, and grew up baking with our families. Being from different parts of the world, and growing up in slightly different cultures gave us different experiences with baking that have broadened both of our perspectives. I (Samantha) was fresh out of college, and Sean had just moved down to Texas from Canada when we visited a farmer’s market and decided to try selling baked goods as a side gig to earn some extra money. We started out at the Cibolo Grange Farmer’s Market with one small table and about 8-10 different pastries. It didn’t take long before we were attending 3-4 markets ever week, with a large variety of pastries, breads, and cookies. The community was hugely supportive of us, and we found ourselves struggling to produce the volume of pastries that we wanted to out of our home kitchen, so we began looking for a brick and mortar store. In 2019 we bought an old house in downtown Cibolo, and began renovations to turn it into a bakery. It took several years, and many setbacks, during which we were still selling at farmer’s markets full time, but finally in September of 2022 we opened our doors for the first time. We’ve continued growing, going from only being open 3 days a week, and trying to run the place by ourselves, to now being open 5 days a week with multiple employees.
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?
We faced many struggles during the renovation process before we had even opened our doors. First and foremost was the Covid-19 pandemic that began only a few months after we closed on the property-the prices of everything related to construction skyrocketed, and materials became difficult, if not impossible to find. There were restaurant equipment delays, permitting and inspection delays, and trouble with contractors that all resulted in an almost three year renovation.
After we finally opened our doors, we realized from day one that we would not be able to run the place by ourselves, and had to quickly start looking for help. It took us about a month to find someone to alleviate some of the pressure from us, as the community had shown up in a much bigger way than we had ever dreamed, and we had a line out the door almost as soon as we opened, which we were incredibly grateful for, and also shocked by.
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?
The Pastry Corner specializes in small batch, European-style pastries and breads, with a Texas/Canadian twist. We have staples like fruit danishes, croissants, pain au chocolat, sourdough, chocolate chip cookies, and scones, mixed with some offshoot specialties like our Texas croissant (filled with brisket, cheddar, and barbecue sauce), nanaimo bars, and tomato basil danish. Our cheesecake and macaron flavors change weekly. We also serve fresh, locally roasted coffee drinks, as well as tea and hot chocolate.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Our success is defined by all of our positive reviews and feedback from our customers, as well as our growing number of regulars that visit us every week – sometimes multiple times a week. One of the best feelings is seeing someone walk back through our doors again, because that means that whatever they experienced here was worth coming back for again.
We also see our success as tied to our growth as a business. When we started, we were open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9am-3pm, with no staff, and now we have several employees, are open Wednesday – Sunday, from 8-3, and are anticipating opening up for another day, and possibly expanding our hours into the evenings on some days.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thepastrycornertx.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepastrycornertx/#
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepastrycornertx/#
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-pastry-corner-cibolo
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepastrycornertx
