Batter and Dough celebrates one year of business

MT. PLEASANT - When Mary Garmoe, co-owner of Batter and Dough, signed the lease for her shop early last year, she had no idea if her bakery would make it.

'I was terrified. You don't know, you just don't know,” she said.

What started as an online business out of her home has grown into a bakery that also serves lunch sandwiches and does custom cakes. Garmoe runs the shop with her mother and sister.

'It's been crazy and stressful, but it's all been worth it,” Garmoe said, 'We've made a ton of new friendships, we've met so many new people. I think god kind of had this plan for us because he brought so many wonderful people into our lives through this.”

In their first year, Garmoe said the bakery has sold up to 300 cookies a week.

'We go through 180 eggs a week and 100 to 150 lbs. of flour. Same with sugar,” she added.

The bakery celebrated a year of business last Friday. Garmoe said in just a year, her business has faced some rough moments, but has also grown beyond what she imagined possible. The owner noted that one of the toughest periods for Batter and Dough was street renovations the city did last summer, which affected the flow of customers.

'How could you forget the street project. That was a hard point but we got through that and a lot of that street crew still come in and buy stuff,” she said.

The co-owner added starting her storefront has led to opportunities and partnerships she would not have had otherwise.

'I never imagined when we started that we would partner with Sanity Coffee House, to do all their baking. We've also catered some really big breakfasts and things around town,” Garmoe explained.

Looking forward, Garmoe said she doesn't have any specific plans other than to 'just keep growing.”

'We still get people everyday coming in that don't realize that we're not the doughnut shop or they'll find us on Facebook,” she said. Garmoe revealed that with social media and technology, the bakery has also reached people in different states and that the business plans to look into shipping goods to customers outside of the area.

'It's all been worth it. I never imagined we'd be looking into shipping or grow to that,” she said.