By Patricia Beech-
It’s 7:30 a.m. and Timothy Smalley, the owner of the Toot’s Sweets Bakery in Peebles, is pulling a fresh batch of fudge brownies from the oven in his tiny commercial kitchen.
The smell of warm chocolate wafts through the kitchen door into the small bakery’s store front.
“Chocolate fudge brownies are one of our best sellers,” he says. “We go through a lot of them.”
He’s waiting for the early crowd that shows up daily for their morning donuts, apple fritters, and cinnamon rolls.
“We sell a lot of donuts,” says Smalley. “We make sure we have them fresh every day, from glazed to chocolate covered and cream filled, as well as donut holes and apple fritters.”
His day is broken down into a series of customer rushes – the 10 a.m. crowd, the local teachers at noon, the after-school rush, and the right-before-closing rush, which usually consist of just one person with a sweet tooth that needs satisfying.
With his Dec. 1 grand opening only three weeks behind him, Smalley says he’s still learning what his customers like and want.
He fills his retro display cases daily with an assortment of freshly-baked sweets like cookies and brownies, but occasionally likes to throw in something a little different.
“We’re kind of sporadically offering different menu items to determine what people want, ” he says. “Occasionally, I’ll make something like chocolate cupcakes with cherry filling and peanut butter frosting to pique customer’s appetites and wake up their taste buds.”
In addition to cookies and candy treats, Toot Sweets offers cakes, pies, homemade breads, and gluten-free products prepared by a local baker.
Smalley also provides a nice variety of unique gift shop items such as a chocolate chip cookie mix in decorative mason jars, shortbread in decorative tins, candy cane ornaments, and decorated window frame wreaths.
“They’ve sold like hot cakes,” he says. “They’re really great Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers.”
A self-described “people person”, Smalley says he wants to keep his entrepreneurial endeavor small, intimate, and inviting.
“I want to keep it simple and sweet,” he says. “Customers can come in, get what they’re going to get, enjoy their sweets, and know they’ll always be welcome here,” he says. “If the display case is empty at the end of the day, that means everyone was satisfied, and they had a little bit sweeter day than they had the day before.”
Located at 110 Main Street in Peebles, the bakery is housed in one of the village’s oldest buildings.
“The town’s first post office and its first library were both located here at different times,” says Smalley. “There’s a lot of history in this building we wanted to preserve, that’s why around the walls we kept the wide plank boards where the library’s shelves stood.”
Smalley shopped flea markets and auctions to find unique and eclectic display cases for his menu of sweets and gift shop items.
“We wanted a homey feeling,” he says. “We didn’t want to look like just another franchise.”
Notwithstanding the lack of ample square footage in the building, Smalley has definite plans for growing his new business.
“We don’t have a lot of room, but we plan on adding a cake decorator if I can’t get the hang of it myself,” he says. “Plus, Christmas Eve on Facebook we did a “Like, Comment, and Share Special” to generate interest and business after the holidays have ended.”
Meanwhile, Smalley will be spending his days filling 33 pre-Christmas orders for pies, pumpkin rolls, cakes, hard tack candy, fudge and an assortment of other sweets.
The 22-year-old, 2015 graduate of Peebles High School is definitely no stranger to work.
At age nine he began working at Smalley’s Lake, a recreational facility owned by his late grandfather, William Smalley.
“He started me out at $5 an hour doing odd-and-end jobs,” says Smalley, now part owner of the lake. “I worked 13 years for him, and I still love being a part of the lake, but I also believe my Papaw is telling me from above that I need to establish my own legacy.”
A trained hair dresser, Smalley also keeps an appointment-only stylist chair at the Studio B Salon & Spa next door. Studio B owner Bonnie Burke leases the bakery space to Smalley.
Toot Sweets is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m.- 6 p.m. The shop is closed on Sunday while Smalley bakes for the coming week, but he says he’ll gladly open the door if someone stops by.
“It’s very fulfilling to start a business,” he says. “It’s also a little uncertain because we’re “small town USA” around here. I’m just hoping that my little spot can help bring life to the town and show others that a small business can succeed and maybe give people hope they can start their own businesses.”
For more information or to place an order with Toot Sweets, call Timothy Smalley at (937) 798-1269.
