One bleak weekday morning on my way to work I stopped at Pumpkin Market for some coffee and general cheer (the people who work there are just so darn friendly). I had already eaten breakfast, but a cellophane-wrapped goodie caught my eye: SWEET!'s banana chocolate chip pound cake. I left the Market $5 lighter, my bag a couple pounds heavier. And what can I say...the cake was moist and dense, chocolatey, banana-ey (so not a word), fresh and tasty. I immediately wanted to know (and eat) more.
SWEET! founder Stephanie Thaw's entry into the culinary world began in 1976 when she started a 13 year career as pastry chef at Friday, Saturday, Sunday. After a 20 year hiatus from food working for various non-profits, Stephanie has returned to her roots, creating a catering business (SWEET!), an energy bar (Motley Fuel) whose proceeds help benefit Students Run Philly Style, and Sweetie's Pie Diner - opening October 1st. What was that? An entire diner devoted to savory and sweet pies? Sign me up! Such an ingenious idea...how come no one thought of it?
Thankfully Stephanie did. I was lucky enough to spend some time with her and partner Kathy Tench in their new space at 19th and Spring Garden while they worked on renovating the dining area and bathroom, DIY-style. I left extremely inspired by these ladies, not just at their overall moxie and spirit, but also by Stephanie's caring philosophy about everything from the food she makes to the people she feeds to the employees that contribute to her business. Read on for more about her start, Sweetie's menu, and doggie t.v.
Kathy works on the main seating area in the 42-seat diner
Cream & Sugar Kitchen: So I found you at Pumpkin Market, which I just love...
Stephanie Thaw: Oh yeah you said you'd bought a banana chocolate chip pound cake.
C&SK: It's so good...(laughs)
ST: Oh good I'm so glad.
C&SK: My friend and I each bought one and we couldn't get over how delicious it was. But I wanted to know if you have a favorite product in your SWEET! line that you like to eat?
ST: I like my oatmeal cookies, I just had one not long ago. They can be breakfast for me.
C&SK: I haven't tried those yet but they have those at Pumpkin too.
ST: They do and they sell a lot of them there.
C&SK: So you're a trained pastry chef?
ST: Well, yes, I'm self-trained.
C&SK: Was Friday, Saturday, Sunday your first gig?
ST: It was. I was 19 years old when I started working there.
C&SK: Wow, that's amazing. And you worked there for 12, 13 years?
ST: 13 years, yep.
C&SK: What was that like for you?
ST: It was really great. The restaurant business in Philadelphia was very different than it is now, and I guess it probably was different everywhere, but I can only speak to Philadelphia. It was much less institutionalized; the only real cooking school in the city was the Restaurant School and it was pretty new. And it was the restaurant renaissance in Philadelphia so most of the restaurants were filled with people who were very arty, very creative, and the chef at Friday, Saturday, Sunday had been classically trained at CIA, the Culinary Institute, but didn't really adhere to that. So what you got was lots and lots of creativity in the kitchen. And so much less decorum than you would see now. It was rare for folks to be in chef whites and of course the pay was very different then too! Chefs now command a lot more money than they did. Which is a good thing.
C&SK: Did you realize at a certain point in your life, maybe earlier on, that you wanted to be pastry chef?
ST: I didn't, I fell into it. My ex-husband was the sous chef at Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And after our son was born, the pastry chef who had been there decided to move to California and he only gave two weeks notice which is really not a lot of time. So I had always baked; food has always been a very important part of our family, and celebrations, which I think is probably true for most people. They let me come in, I was trained in two weeks, and I just was reading and playing around a lot too. One of the things that's different for baking from some other food things is that there's a great deal of chemistry involved. And I'm very involved in systems and how things work. I spent time as a network administrator for awhile after I left food, which is more of systems.
C&SK: That was actually going to be my next question. So you did take a hiatus then.
ST: I left for 20 years.
C&SK: And you were in a non-profit?
ST: I worked in several non-profits. I immediately after I left the restaurant opened a catering business but I moved into doing HIV work because so many people in the restaurant business died of AIDS. And I went to work at ActionAIDS, I started as a volunteer. And within six months a position opened up and I started as an administrative assistant. When I left I was a development associate running Dining Out For Life and a couple of other events.
C&SK: So you were kind of working with food in a way.
ST: Sort of. I never lost my food connection. While I was there we published a cookbook called Philadelphia Stories, that has stories of lots of chefs who died.
C&SK: Is that still available?
ST: It is still available. And I left there to run the AIDS Walk, which I did for two and a half years. And then I went back to food and AIDS, I went and was MANNA's first development director. And that was an opportunity to really be around people who called kitchens home. Then I started a non-profit that was a computer training program for unemployed and underemployed folks. Then I went to work for Habitat for Humanity for awhile.
C&SK: So you have spanned the non-profit world.
ST: I have. You know fundraising is sales, and I'm an okay salesperson if I believe in what I'm selling. And at the end of Habitat I was working really really crazy hours and I would come home and bake like a fiend, just to sort of de-stress. And my chiropractor actually said "You don't have to do this you know. You could just change careers."
C&SK: So is that how your three brands came about?
ST: SWEET! started, I started doing some wholesaling, and then Motley Fuel. I took up running at the same time, and it allows me to do some non-profit stuff because proceeds from it benefits Students Run Philly Style. So that brand was there. And I like to make pie...every year I have a pie party and this year there were 25 different kinds of pie, and I baked 35 pies in one day. And I thought, "I like pie! And people come to my pie party so you know they like pie. Why not have a pie diner?"
C&SK: And when would you say SWEET! started?
ST: SWEET! started about a year ago. Motley Fuel happened, oh, probably about six months after that in October or November when I started selling them. By December Students Run Philly Style said they'd love to partner with us. And it's just been this progression. For awhile I was looking for just a kitchen to do my baking out of. And I thought "this is crazy - why are you going to spend all this money to fit out a kitchen and not have some retail potential?"
C&SK: Oh that makes sense.
ST: Which is what I was still looking for when I found this place. And then it was like "well, why not just do a tiny little restaurant?" I mean I was looking for someplace that might have two or three tables and room for retail and then it was like "why not?"
Sweetie's ovens, formerly of Susanna Foo
C&SK: Was there any rhyme or reason behind this specific location?
ST: It's weird kismet actually (laughs) so...in...like December or January I found a 22 quart Hobart mixer on Craigslist. And I bought it and I picked it up here in this building. And I went and looked at a property in Northern Liberties in May, and when I got there someone had just put in a written offer. And the realtor said to me we have this great property on the corner of 19th and Spring Garden. It was like "wait!" (laughs) And there was just too much sort of serendipity to it. And I came and I looked at it and I really liked the guys I had bought the mixer from. It's a great location. It's the perfect amount of space, it was affordable, so here I am.
C&SK: Now that you're in the process of opening, or "in the shit," as people might say, have there been any unforeseen problems or challenges that came up that took you by surprise?
ST: Yes, the city (laughs) every day, the city...you know there's a different permit that's required for everything and it's not written anywhere. You would think it would be in the city's best interest to post something about opening a business, like here's what you need. I don't expect you to hand-hold me through it but at least here are the permits you may need in this business. So you go and you have to physically go to do all of these things, and you wait. And everyone you talk to there has a different understanding of what you need and the order in which it must be done so it's extremely time consuming and if you're new to that part which I am, I wind up never sure if I'm getting correct information, like "could this be easier than it is?" So I leave just sort of thinking, "I don't know." That's been a real hassle, also getting permits for electric and plumbing. The number of delays - it was not anticipated. It's taken me longer. Everything takes longer!
C&SK: Do you think that there's a particular attitude or trait or work ethic you need to have in order to be a successful restaurant owner?
ST: I think to be any kind of business owner you need to be friendly (laughs).
C&SK: (laughs) Obviously.
ST: You know you would think it would be obvious but I've been to a lot of places where the people who provide service act like they're doing me a favor. You need to also know your product and know what you do well. Do that, and not try to be all things to all people. Pie is what I do; I'm not gonna get into making eggs and pasta and whatever else.
C&SK: I see that a lot with restaurants trying to do too many things at once and it just backfires.
ST: Yeah, when you try to do too many things you don't do any of them well. In restaurants and in life.
C&SK: (laughs) That's very true. So one of your mottoes, or slogans on your website says "people before profits." I mean it's obvious why that's important, but why is it really important to you?
ST: One of the things that's been the hardest part of being okay with this transition is not having a place for social justice work, which non-profit work has given me, and that's why there's Motley Fuel. And I think everything comes down to unfair distribution of resources. At this point in my life I'm not spending all of my time shaking trees and demonstrating and doing those kinds of things, but in my own simple way, when I go to work somewhere I expect to be fairly compensated for the work I do. I don't need to live high, but I want to be fairly compensated. I think healthcare is a right and until our government gets it together to do that, I feel like that's something I can do or provide. I don't need to make money off the back of somebody else and I think good food should be affordable and simple and available to everybody. I expect people to work hard; I work hard. But I expect you to give input into how the work gets done.
C&SK: That's great. Most employers don't think of things like that.
ST: No (laughs). I've worked for those people (laughs).
C&SK: So I wanna talk about food, can we talk about food? I love food.
ST: I love food too.
C&SK: I noticed that on your catering menu for SWEET! you have some pot pies and turnovers. Are those things you'll be putting on the menu at Sweetie's?
ST: They are. Those sort of fall into the realm of pie for me. We will have soups and salads, cause you can't live on pie alone.
C&SK: Unfortunately.
ST: True. But we won't get into sandwiches and that kind of stuff, which I do have on my catering menu because when people do box lunches, they want the sandwich. Which is okay, I can accommodate them. My catering menu also has some meat items, but here we won't have that.
C&SK: So this is a straight vegetarian outfit.
ST: It is. And there will be options for vegans and gluten free items on the menu. I'm amazed at the number of people who are requesting gluten free these days. Someone emailed me to ask if I would have gluten free options and she has since stopped by. I make a peanut butter cookie that's gluten free, not because I was looking to feed gluten free folks, it just happens to be a really excellent cookie. She was telling me that she has to grind peanut butter fresh, even buying jarred peanut butter affects her.
C&SK: It's a real shame. I have family members who can't eat fresh fruit and it's really upsetting.
ST: Really? That is definitely a shame.
C&SK: Can you tell me about some of the specialties that will be on the menu? Or is that kind of a secret.
ST: No, it's not a secret (laughs). So one thing that'll be on the menu, when I had my pie party this year I wanted to make my bananas foster pie. And it's like upside down bananas, think tarte tatin, but with bananas and puff pastry. And I didn't get to make that one. And a friend of mine who came was like "where is that pie!" And I whipped it up, cause it really only takes 10 minutes if you have the puff pastry. That one we'll make to order. I have a friend who has just a really kick-ass rice pudding recipe. And that will be on the menu. How can you have a diner without rice pudding on the menu? And then my favorite pie that I make is an heirloom tomato pie. Now obviously once heirloom tomatoes are out of season it won't be around anymore. I make a version with different squashes and some other vegetables and it's just really yummy so they'll be pretty regular. And then I make one that has a polenta crust and a ricotta filling with roasted vegetables - that's a good gluten free one.
C&SK: Are there any major items on your to do list for the upcoming opening of Sweetie's? What's pressing right now?
ST: The plumbing and the electric. Once the electrical inspection is finished, I can close up these walls and we'll be able to really move forward. We've got most of the equipment, which is why it's so cluttered in here. But then it's all just little odds and ends. I'd like to be in here a week with staff so that we can play around. I know what I think will work in terms of turnout, but it may not work for them. So I'd like to play with that and spend some time with the ovens once they're installed.
C&SK: What are you most excited about with the opening?
ST: One of the things that makes me most happy that we're going to have here is I have one of those pastry cases where the shelves revolve. And a friend of mine who grew up in Brazil refers to that as "doggy t.v." because in Rio those are out on the sidewalks in all the cafés and the street dogs just sit and stare and so they call it "doggy t.v." So I've got doggy t.v. sitting out there and Hillary that owns Pumpkin bought me a plastic dog which we've named Elvis who's going to sit on the counter and watch doggy t.v. And I'm just excited to meet people and one of the hard parts of wholesaling is you don't really see folks. It's lonely. And I've been baking all over the place. Hillary lets me use their restaurant kitchen on Mondays because they're closed which is really really nice but I've been schlepping all over the place (laughs). So I'm looking forward to having my 22 quart mixer back here and an oven there and just sort of centralizing things and you know, I'm a chef, I like to feed people. So I'm looking forward to feeding people on a larger scale.
doggy t.v., still in the box
C&SK: Top five favorite pies, savory or sweet, whether you make them or someone else makes them. Go.
ST: Well I have to say I can't go into a diner that has coconut custard pie and not order it, it's just way too yummy. Favorite pie that I make, there are two, one is a blackberry crumble pie, because I just adore blackberries. And then the other is a takeoff on a Julia Child recipe; it's a lemon walnut tart that's really really a simple lemon custard just sprinkled with granulated sugar and chopped walnuts at the very last minute. It's just really light and simple.
C&SK: Sounds delicious. I'm hungry (laughs).
ST: Okay, that's three right? Two more. Well that heirloom tomato pie is really up there. And I really am the queen of just throwing food together. So that polenta pie that I make, sometimes I forgo the ricotta and just do the polenta and put on top of that grilled portobello mushrooms and some roasted peppers. I could just live on mushrooms and peppers and olives.
C&SK: Alright, just one more question. Have you ever seen the movie Waitress?
ST: I have seen the movie. And I know it's a pie diner but I really didn't care for it...I mean I guess it's okay!
C&SK: That's why I wanted to ask you because some of her pies didn't seem that good to me or that they wouldn't work if you actually made them. So who would you think would win a pie bake-off - you or the main character?
ST: I think I make a kick-ass crust and it would be hard to beat, so no matter what, I think I would win in that department!
I can't wait to try out everything! Sweetie's is slated for an October 1st opening.
Sweetie's Pie Diner
1822 Spring Garden (entrance on 19th)
Philadelphia, PA 19130
215.988.0230
Rotating pastry shelf case! Can this place get any more awesome without even opening yet?
Posted by: dynowright | 09/23/2009 at 10:15 AM