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Welcome back to 21 Questions. In this article, we chatted with Tayler Book of Beechwood Doughnuts in St. Catharines, Ontario. Find out what she had to tell us about herself, her business, and her experience with Sociavore.
Where did you grow up?
In St. Catharines, I’ve lived here my whole entire life and don’t plan on leaving.
What was your first job?
I got my first two jobs within 24 hours of each other. It was a fast-food joint and a movie theater. I was 14 and did both for a while. Mainly summer work, but the movie theater paid adult wage with full time hours, so the other didn’t last long.
Top 3 ingredients in your pantry?
Let’s say chick peas, tofu, and rice.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Plants. I have too many plants. 30+ is enough, I don’t have room for all of them. They’re on my dining room table, everywhere.
What’s your favourite type of cuisine?
There’s so many, but my top one is Indian food.
Favourite food city?
For vegan food, Niagara is spoiled. Everything you could think of is ten minutes from me right now. But in Toronto, places are popping up every month. So I’ll say Toronto.
Favourite item on your menu?
Nanaimo, it’s the one flavour I suggest for everything and everyone. It’s always good.
What do you make for a lazy supper?
If I’m being lazy I’m not making anything, I’m ordering in. I was going to make something, Tofu, rice, and broccoli with chili sauce
Who’s your go-to restaurant?
The Caesar salad at The Lemon Tree. I could make a Caesar salad at home but it wouldn’t be as good.
Name 3 guests at your ideal dinner party?
Bo Burham (because he's pure genius), Rachel Reilly (because she's a Big Brother icon - duh), and Colson Baker (because I want to be the bajillionth person to ask him where he went in Bird Box)
Whats your favourite thing to do outside from work?
I love to rollerskate!
What would be your mediocre superpower
Being well rested on less sleep. It’s not cool at all but it’s a good one.
What food trend needs to go?
Unicorn everything needs to go. I still see at the grocery store, why are grown adults still doing unicorn birthday cakes? It’s the same design too.
How long have you been on Sociavore?
Since July.
What do you use Sociavore for?
We use Sociavore for all our online stuff. We switched our whole website and our online orders over.
What’s your favourite feature of your Sociavore powered website?
My favourite feature is that its super functional for bakery settings. It takes care of all the taxes, takes into account that we have limited inventory, being able to have all those options to spread out the orders. There’s lots of features, I keep finding new ones everyday.
How have you adapted through COVID?
Pre-COVID we were entirely walk in only. I had one day imagined we would do preorders but we were so busy that we couldn’t try to change things. When COVID hit we closed for a few weeks, and I plotted. We decided to just do delivery in St Catharines and Thorold in our little car. We eventually decided to invest in a van and had started doing some pickups. COVID really helped us figure out those things we didn’t have time for before.
What’s next for your bakery?
We’re working towards adding walk-ins but who knows what’s going to happen over the next few months? We’re going to keep it as COVID friendly as possible even after, so we don’t have to change our operations every other week like restaurants. For now, we’re just going to take it day by day.
What’s one thing you want to say to your customers?
Thank you for supporting us through all this and being patient and kind. We can’t wait till we can see you in person. It’ll be nice to see peoples faces one day!
What would you tell a new bakery owner?
Be ready to be resilient but don’t be quick to think somethings not working if it doesn’t work out right away. You need to stick to something for a while do see if it’ll work out. Plan, think really hard about it, if it isn’t working for a while then maybe re-evaluate, but don’t give up if it doesn’t work right away. Be patient.
Who should we interview next?
Dispatch Restaurant on St Paul st.
