April was a rewarding month for Linda Hundt’s Sweetie-licious Pie Pantry in Dewitt.
Her dessert, called Tom’s Cherry Cherry Berry Pie won best of show at the Crisco National Pie Championship in Orlando, dropping $5,000 into her pocket and giving her a feature on the Food Network. She also won the Athena PowerLink Award given by the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Crisco money finally allows her to give bonuses to the employees of her three-year old business, and the award has already garnered huge exposure. The chamber award will give her a cadre of local experts for one year, from whom she hopes to learn how to grow her DeWitt café and bakery into several such places.
But with honors come burdens. “Now I’ve been given these blessings and the pressure is on to use them wisely,” she says.
Her downtown café is in an historic building at 108 N. Bridge St. The other-era-ambience does not stop there. Waitstaff wear vintage aprons and strings of pearls while serving breakfasts, lunches and an array of baked goods. The company grew by 20 percent last year.
Hundt says the reason for her company’s growth, particularly in a tough economy, is its adherence to comfort food and preparation harkening back to grandmothers. She uses no mixes, no preservatives, and only fresh ingredients. She buys locally as much as possible and in fact, helped start the DeWitt Farmers Market.
Her winning pie ingredients feature Michigan tart cherries and blueberries, that she was able to promote during the Food Network tapings, she says.
The business is doing well financially, she says. She employs 20 people part time, is able to take a salary and has no debts. She’s already added cooking classes, and take-out in distinctive pink boxes.
Next will come on-line orders, a cookbook or two, and then perhaps more such places serving pies with stories attached. The Cherry Cherry Berry Pie is named after Tom Hundt, her brother-in-law, who died recently. With each pie is included a story about him.
“Our mission is to serve the best food possible and to love people in the process,” she says. “And in between, have a piece of pie.”
Source: Linda Hundt, Sweetie-licious Pie Pantry
Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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