Michael and Meredith Shadwick – Honey Bee's Biscuits

On this week’s episode of The Sauce podcast, host Lauren Healey sits down with Michael and Meredith Shadwick, the duo behind Honey Bee's Biscuits and a growing collection of beloved businesses in Kirkwood.

Michael and Meredith share how their journey started during COVID, experimenting with food and launching at local farmers markets with no expectations—only to be met with overwhelming demand, long lines, and a defining moment that confirmed they had found something special.

The conversation explores the rapid growth of Honey Bee's Biscuits, from early pop-ups to a brick-and-mortar success, and the evolution into multiple concepts across Kirkwood. They also discuss what it was like taking over the iconic Spencer’s Grill, balancing tradition with new ideas, and building a brand rooted in community.

From sleepless nights and early uncertainty to scaling a multi-business operation, this episode highlights the realities of entrepreneurship and the power of following what you love.

In this episode:

 - Starting Honey Bee's Biscuits during COVID
 - Turning a farmers market concept into a thriving business
 - The moment they knew it was going to work
 - Expanding into multiple concepts in Kirkwood
 - Taking over and evolving Spencer’s Grill
 - Building community through food and hospitality

Come for the conversation. Stay for the culture. 🌿

 ✨ Presented by SWADE Dispensary, with 12 locations across Missouri. Learn more at swadecannabis.com. Our other podcast sponsors are 4 Hands Brewing Co. and LHM.

🎧 Watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify and all major platforms.
 📅 New episodes drop every Tuesday.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We met on Bumble. We met on Bumble.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Oh, cute.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

So we that's where Honeybees kind of came from as well. We met on Bumble and we got all these like B gifts for our engagement and wedding.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Our podcast sponsor is Suede Dispensary with 11 locations across Missouri. They are debuting a new passport membership program where you'll be able to collect stamps as you explore new Delhi style strains and unlock monthly travel stipends, exclusive swag, and free flour along the way. Head to your nearest Suede location for more information or visit suedecannabis.com. Hello, welcome to the Sauce Podcast. Thanks for having us. I'm your host, Lauren, and I am here with Meredith and Mike Shadwick. And you guys have several businesses over in Kirkwood. So I'm just gonna let you fill everybody in on what those are.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah. Yeah. So we we have honey bees biscuits. So we started that as a farmer's market stand in the middle of COVID in June of 2020. And then a year later we bought Tropical Mousse, which is a shaved ice snow cone stand with two locations.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

And then we bought Spencer's Grill in 2024.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

We bought Spencer's Grill. Um, and then last year we bought Walkaway Waffles, which is a Belgian waffle food truck.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

That's so fun. You guys are prolific over there in Kirkwood.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

We've been very fortunate.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Yeah. Now kind of take us back to the beginning. Because Honeybee, was that the first one you said?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Honeybees was the first one, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

That come to launch.

unknown 1:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Honeybees is the launch was very quick, but it the roots of it really kind of go back to a lot of my childhood and upbringing. And um, but in the short, in the short phase, it was I had a couple of years of jobs I couldn't figure out exactly. I had owned a portion of an insurance agency and um and deal went south. Meredith was very encouraging through all of it and just kept trying to push me to try new things. And eventually I took a year off work. She noticed how passionate I was about food. And I mean he's all yeah, he was always cooking, especially breakfast food. Especially, yeah. I mean, I think when we first got together, I cooked breakfast every day.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

For like I know, I was like, that guy makes me bacon every morning. He's a keeper.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

I I think this might be well, because I would make a big breakfast and I'd make gravy because I've I've loved making gravy since I was 10, but I never made biscuits. So we I would always have breakfast, and like if we didn't buy biscuits, we'd have like potatoes, gravy, everything else, and no biscuits. I was not a baker at all.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

So had now you own a biscuit shop.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, so yeah. So Meredith just kept pushing me to try stuff, and then we volunteered at actually at United We Brunch was one of the things we did.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yeah, it was three starting honey bees.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

It was really I still remember, it's very funny. We were there, and there was like a gal who worked in the industry, and they asked if anybody wanted to volunteer at a food stand or do t-shirts, and she like jumped on the food thing. I was like, Oh, I wish I had jumped up there. So we did it was really fun. We did t-shirts, but yeah, we did that.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

We did classes at yeah, we did like different cooking classes, like anything. He was so interested in food. So, like anything that was food related that we could do and do together, I signed us up.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

That's fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah, and a job at emos kind of fell in my lap, and I was like, Well, why not try? And so I went, worked at emo's, I loved it. It was I was like passionate about delivering pizza. I love emotion. That's so fun. Yeah, I was sprinting in and out of deliveries, like hustling, yeah, having fun with customers. I used to drop off like mistake pizzas at apartments that wouldn't order from us. So I'd like to walk in and be like, You guys don't order what you guys should order from us. And uh loved it. And so had a really good time there. Loved working at Winslow's table for three weeks. I got a job there for three weeks, and COVID hit. And then it was like, I I wanted to cook brunch. Yeah, I really wanted to make breakfast food, loved emos, but after Winslow's table and being in that environment, that was more of what we were what I was looking for. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

And he was he was hooked. He loved, he loved that job. Yeah, I love Winslow's.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

It's great. It's so good. We just had it's awesome. A couple weeks ago, actually. We got what was it that we got that was new? I can't remember, but it was really good. It was delicious. Yeah, the cookies are good.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, so COVID, yeah, COVID hit, which totally changed everything, especially in the restaurant industry.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

I know, and we felt that and it sauce.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah, I'm sure you did. Oh, yeah. So we were trying to figure out what could we do? Because now Mike again doesn't have a job. Not again. Okay, what we just found our passion. Now, now what do we do since it got taken away again? So we had a few different ideas of things that we could do.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, early COVID, it was like everybody wanted to do weekend trips because we didn't know what else to do. So we do like, and we always had time to get together with friends. So from like March until early June, we brought biscuits and gravy everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, tried different, not different gravies, but different biscuits. I wanted squares. She started making circles, they were too short. I wanted them tall. I was just every time I'd give her notes. And then and we led to Honeybees biscuits.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Yeah. So we yeah, we signed up for the cooker farmers market. So we started in June of 2020. Okay. I think the yeah, sometime in the middle of June was our first like market weekend. We stayed up. June 20th. We stayed up all night getting ready, making sure we were good to go. Um, yeah, and had our first market and it it went great. And people loved the biscuits and gravy. So we kept going.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah. Well, I feel like when we broke the news that you were opening the brick and mortar, I mean, it blew up. Everyone was that was a big article, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

It was a big article, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

So, and when was that? Remind me the timeline.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

That would have been so it's October of 22. Okay. So, yeah, so we we did our um stand at the Kirkwood Farmers Market June of 2020. We launched our food truck in February of 21, and then and then the restaurant October of 22.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Okay, that's so awesome. And how's it going over there?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Great.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah, it's great.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

We bought, well, we bought the building at Honeybees in Kirkwood.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Uh almost two years ago, or two years ago exactly now in January. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Yeah, we found out that we were pregnant. Oh, and we're closing the next day. Holy cow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, we cle we did actually.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

It was the next day.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah, you're right. They had brought wine to the closing, and I was like, we don't want to tell anybody yet. We got lucky. Yeah, we're gonna get it. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, okay. And so walk us through the menu over there.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Honeybee. So at um at the Kirkwood location, well, that's our only location. We have our honey glaze biscuits. We pretty much always have blueberry, unless we have too many sweet specials, then we'll rotate that. Right now we've got strawberry biscuits. Um we also have sandwiches. We've got uh five different types of gravies that go on the biscuits. We have a classic, a spicy, um, a mushroom, which we do brown butter shiitake. And then we've also got compote, um, sweet cream gravy and chocolate gravy.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Um, so lots of different options. We do red hot riplets and green onion toppings, um, so biscuits and gravy sandwiches, and then we have um we have a lot of fun sweet specials, and then our like our French toast biscuit is really unique. Oh our sweet cream gravy. I've it's something I've not really seen before anywhere. It's super unique. Um, people love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Yeah, so we do a berries and cream. So it's the blueberry biscuit, the mixed berry compote, and then the sweet cream gravy. It's making me so hungry. It's really, it is really, really good. And our um our French toast biscuits, so we take leftover biscuits and just cut off the very, very, very top and dredge them in French toast, dredge, and then re rebake them.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

We dredge them usually overnight, but for at least 30 to 45 minutes or so, and they get really soaked up and then the inside of it's custardy. It's very good.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

It's like a it's like a cross between a French toast and a bread pudding. Yeah, it's amazing. It's what it is my favorite thing. My I like to have it with the gravy on top.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Oh, okay. It's good.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

This is savory.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Everything you're saying right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

We do a lot of sweet savory.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, and then we do yeah, it's good. Yeah, scratch make everything. So everything we do is scratch made. I mean, not our sausage and our bacon. We're not we're not making those, but we're coffee syrups. So we house make all of our coffee syrups. So we do vanilla, salted caramel, mocha. Yeah, and then we'll have like a peach, strawberry, blueberry. So you can do like a peach iced tea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Um, so yeah, so everything we do is flavored milks are really scratch made.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah. Fruit flavored milk.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Blueberry, strawberry milk.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

People get vanilla milk.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

I would drink that. It's good, it's really good.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Yeah. That sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

All of our syrups we make with just sugar, water, and flavor.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Love that.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So it's either real fruit or um or vanilla extract, you know, stuff like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Okay. Now I feel like when you took over Spencer's Grill, that was a pretty big deal. So tell us about like uh their long-standing, you know, presence in the community over there and how you came to take that on.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah, it was it was my my childhood dream was to own Spencer's Grill.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Wow. Yeah. Your dreams have come too.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Marath grew up in Kirkwood and worked at Tropical Moose as a manager.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

I was the stand manager. That's right. Nice. Um, so I've always loved Spencer's. It was like where we just that's where we went to get breakfast. It was like always my favorite place.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

It was the first place we ate in Kirkwood together.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

And what year did that open?

SPEAKER_02 10:10

1947. Wow, yeah. So that is a landmark.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, so it's a landmark and it interiors have changed a little bit, um, but it's really pretty much the same that it's always been, which is fun. So yeah, we I've always loved it and I've always wanted it. And we did notice they were they were closing a little bit. So we'd reached out um to the former owner and just threw out, hey, if you're ever you're ever thinking about it, I don't want to assume anything, but we are definitely interested. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

And then Well, we had we had we had kind of noticed they were closing. And so it I kinda I drive by all the time and I'd say to Meredith, I'm like, I I just wonder if if they're and then they actually listed it for sale before they contacted us. And they did, you know, they put it out to the public, they closed, listed it for sale. Um, and we were super excited when they actually chose to work with us out of all the bids that came in. I think there was uh we heard 40. There was a bunch of different proposals and bids. A lot of people really wanted it.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Yeah, so we really feel honored that they picked us to carry on the torch. Um why do you think they chose you?

unknown 11:25

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Well, I don't know. That's a good question. Meredith did know um one of the former owners growing up, Alex. Um they went to uh high school together and uh grew up in Kirkwood together. So there's probably some of that. Maybe what they saw we were doing with honeybees and and tropical moose, so like to think that they liked what we were doing and and and I know in our in our pro forma it was really focused on just curating what Spencer's was and then and then just maximizing what it could be, but not not changing it too much, you know, not adding like alcohol and a bunch of different stuff and new genres and things like that, because the they knew what the community wanted out of the place.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Okay. So have you changed much at all? Like what's the same, what's different?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

We have um we have the the core menus very similar. So we what we kept was like the one through twelve. Like if you talk to somebody about Spencer's, they know they get a number four with French toast or pancakes, and a couple of things they used to have uh in the numbers we changed, but we we changed most of what was uh newer stuff that wasn't like iconic to Spencer's. Like we took away the special French toast and just had it as a swap for the pancakes because it's a mostly pancake-focused place.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Then yeah, but like we kept the scrapple, the we the slinger, the slammer.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

We kept the scrapple, we changed the recipe a little bit. Like we use a local grit, um, a bloody butcher grit instead of like an instant grit to make our scrapple. So we source we source the a little bit more local. The bread we get from Union Loafers. So we have uh a light and miles so good. That's so good. That's one of the biggest changes that people have really loved from day one was the bread that they really like. One thing that was funny is our locals we had local sausage, which we really liked, but people were furious. They wanted the old swaggerties diner sausage.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Um, that was one change that people really weren't interested in was we switched to back. You gave it a shot.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

We gave it a shot.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

We have local eggs and they are delicious. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

All of our protein except for our sausage is now local. Our ground sausage is local, but our but our patties are swaggerties. That's that's well, yeah. So we have people what they want. We have fun. We felt like we just fine-tuned it to be um more simple and more streamlined and then more focused so that we could build it back up. And over the last year, we've added a lot of different stuff back to the menu.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

We when we first reopened, we really had the one through 12 plus pancakes, and that was kind of it. We took off all the lunch except for one burger. So we've added on, so we've got four burgers now, four sandwiches. So we're adding on things that kind of make sense, and we'll do specials and see how they how they sell. So, like we had a turkey turkey club special, people loved it. Put it on the menu. Okay, we add that back on.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Um, yeah, it gave us a it gave us a chance to really break down the menu, and then we we literally added stuff one thing at a time just to see how well it would sell through and if the inventory would sit, or you know, because the thing at Spencer's that's so tough is is you can't, I mean, you can't waste any food product. Yeah, it's it's very tight margins there.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

It is a small space. I mean, every you walk in and there's like you're in the kitchen. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Watching the girls go.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Well, that's cool. I'm glad you guys were able to keep that alive.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Us too.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah. We're really happy to. Our podcast sponsor is Four Hands Brewing Company, which is celebrating 10 years of citywide here in St. Louis. The 10th anniversary celebration will feature collaborations with fellow iconic St. Louis companies, including Sauce on the Side, High Point Drive-In, Sugar Fire Smokehouse, Gus's Pretzel Shop, Fritz's Root Beer, Blue City Deli, STL Toasted, Strange Donuts, Peacemaker, Lobster and Crab Company, Clementine's Ice Cream, Strange Donuts, and more. Let's go into um your other two businesses in a little more detail where you want to start.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah. So we, yeah, like we said earlier, um, I worked at Tropical Moose as a high schooler and then into college, and I just love it. It's shaved ice, so it's the big blocks of ice, and you put it in the machine, and then it's shaved, fine-shaped.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

You chop them in half. And it's such a carnival business, but in the most positive and and good way, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

And it's um, I just I just loved it. And the former owner is an incredible person. Um, and so when he was ready to sell, he'd reached out asking if we knew anybody that would be interested. And we're like, well, hang on a second. We we are interested. Yeah, we were the same.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

It's so funny. We're at the farm, we're at the farmer's market, remember? And he called her dad and asked if he knew anybody they thought might buy it. Because when somehow your parents met Jack way back in the day before they were in Kirkwood, and Meredith's parents were like, You gotta bring tropical moose to Kirkwood. And didn't I not that they set him up there, but they kind of introduced him to the originally was in the city, so it was in the city, and this was a mill, right? Or is that wrong?

SPEAKER_01 16:41

So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Somewhere a little south, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

It definitely was South City, but I I'm not I don't remember where because this would have been in like '99. Gotcha. Um, because it moved to Kirkwood in 2001. And yeah, my parents had met them, I don't know where, somewhere. And they were like, We need we need a snow gone stand in Kirkwood. The kids will love it, it'll be such a great hangout. And there's a Kirkwood Farmers Market, and there's this perfect little spot that's open. You've got to put a stand there. So they helped them get the stand um where it is today. So it's been open. We're this year it'll be 25 years um that it'll be open. Yeah. So we're cool. We're excited about that. Yeah, and we do um real cane sugar in the syrups, which really makes a difference.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

We make the syrups fresh every day.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah, the um a lot high fructose corn syrup is used a lot in stuff and syrups, but yeah, so in preservatives, which we don't use any of that, and we use the real corn or the real um sugar, which it does make a difference. It just the flavor tastes brighter. Yeah, it's a lot cleaner, tasty. Processed, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Yeah, it helps.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah, exactly. So it's summers are kind of wild because it's open seven days a week until 10 p.m. Wow. Which is late for us. Yeah, it's late for me.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

Um, so that that's always kind of interesting. But it's May through September. Okay. Gotcha. Um, so it's quick and busy.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Okay. And then what's the other one you had?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Walkaway Waffles. Yeah. Which yeah, Walkaway Waffles, the it's an old international harvester metro, kind of looks like a Scooby-Doo truck.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Really?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Uh van. I don't know if you call it a van or truck technically, but uh also the owner of Tropical Moose had founded Walkaway Waffles. Started in 2010.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

And um, they run at the Kirkwood Farmers Market and all over the city and events and stuff. And we we we kind of talked about it when we first bought Tropical Moose. And Jack sort of joked, he was like, Yeah, maybe you'll buy the waffle truck one day. And I was like, I'm sure he's not gonna also sell us the waffle truck. And here, you know, here we are a few years later. He calls me and he says, I think I'm kind of ready to sell the waffle truck. And um it happened faster than we were ready for too. It did, true, yeah, and a crazy year. Because last year, when all that tornado stuff happened, oh yeah, in May, I from the Sunday, like May 17th until the middle of August, I was down in the city about 12 hours every day. Sometimes 15. I mean, I sometimes I got home at like eight, nine o'clock at night. And so we were slammed. We we kept pushing back the takeover of the waffle truck because I was too busy. We missed like the whole first first part of first half of the summer. And it it we took it over and it went kind of okay the first day. We had a little long ticket times. Um but we had the equipment issues.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

When you get a food truck, it's just you never know.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

You gotta you gotta get your bearings up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yeah, trucks, it's like you're mobile, right? Yeah, so like if something isn't working or the like or the electricity something was going on.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

We had iron, we had like the first day. Currently, the truck is broken down, so we're gonna we're gonna get it running. It'll it'll be okay, but it's it's it's a really great product, and we love the truck. Our goal is one day to like fully restore it, but really we want to do more like wholesale and local distribution. There's no one that does like fresh waffle deliveries like bread as a bread product. It is a brioche, it's a it's a it's a brioche product, it's got a little bit of a it's got yeast in it, so it's got a bit of a fermented taste when you when you eat them. And and um yeah, there's not really anyone that does fresh waffles. So we're we're playing around with some different stuff with it right now, seeing where we'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Okay. And so is there a moment where you two like knew, like, oh, this is where we finally found what we want to do?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I know I'm not gonna lie, I think it was the first market at Honeybees for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

That first market was really cool. Especially remember driving home.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

What happened driving home? It was just oh it was just like it was like amazing. Okay, because we had a lot of emotion. Yeah, there was just a lot of emotion into it. So it was something that we're really passionate about starting, and we had no idea if people were gonna like it, if people were gonna show up, if they keep showing up. We just didn't know what would happen, and we were we just had no idea what we were doing either. Um, but we show up at the market after yeah, we stayed up all night making the biscuits, getting everything ready. We do the market.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

We stayed in the kitchen until 4 a.m. and then we went back at like 5 30. Well, so we didn't stay at all. True.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

We had a true, we had a quick hour there at home. Plenty. We were renting kitchen space in Fenton and we live in Kirkwood. Oh you know, it was convenient, yeah. Yeah, it was convenient. We did have a little hour there. Thank you for reminding me. Um, but so anyway, so we show up and I I was so nervous. To do this, that I just didn't know what was gonna happen. And people loved it. Like people were coming up, telling us how much they loved it. And it was so fun interacting. You know, it was COVID too. So it was like this was like a social opportunity. Yeah. Um, to see people and meet new people, and they just loved it. And the feedback was incredible. And we both cried on the way home. That's yeah, because it just was, I don't know, it was just really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Good. Yeah. Well, that's so cool. Your first market, you're like, okay, we're restaurant people now.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I it I know it happened. Well, and and I think at the time I wasn't sure the gravity of it because I honestly I was still working at emos.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

And this was supposed to just be a weekend job, and I was gonna keep working at emos. I wanted to like own an emo's one day. And so I I really like was I got lucky working at the emos I was at. There's family was there. Some of the emos actually ran it at the Central SN location. So, you know, it was cool working with them directly and seeing how they do things. But within a month, we bought the food truck at uh in July. Yeah, we found for honeybees.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Really old trailer on Craigslist that was like it in the middle of nowhere in Illinois that we so I don't know how my car drove it back, but we drove, yeah, we drove it back from like her band. Yeah, nice. This is funny. And we realized we need to get a truck. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

But then yeah, flipped it and then um I mean we patched it with like metal, like we we riveted metal to I have a friend who we fixed it up, but I should say friend, a mentor who's a very close family friend of ours now, who we met at the farmer's market, and he he uh um he did like the electrical and plumbing for for us just for free for cost of the materials. Wow. We got really lucky with who we interacted with and people that helped us out because you know, we didn't really know how to build a food truck out either. But we knew with honeybees that was really good for us is we knew we could cook the food and then travel it. So we did everything catering style. We really leaned into our strengths and what we were good at and focused on innovating the back end of our food so that it fit our model so that when we showed up, it was on brand, it was consistent, and the the not everyone fits the product how it is. Some people don't like it. Most most people we got lucky and loved it. Um, but it worked well, and so we were able to adapt and move pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Yeah, we really were. And it's yeah, the food our food truck launch, I think it was five degrees outside in February.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

At the market at the Kirkwood.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And we did it at the Kirkwood Farmers Market and we had a line that went from Kirkwood Road, actually. If you're familiar with the market, it's there's that Taylor and then Argon and then Kirkwood Road. And our line almost hit the Kirkwood Road from Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Um we sold like 750 biscuits that day just out of the trailer. It's a lot of biscuits. Yeah, it was it was crazy. It was crazy. And then the next weekend we did that drive-thru.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

That was my favorite, that was my favorite event that we ever did. What was that? It was the very next weekend. So it's fourth of or not fourth of July, it was um Shrewsbury. Valentine's Day weekend. Yeah, no, Shrewsbury. Um, yeah, at the park. I can't remember the name of that park, but it was supposed to snow. So we're like, oh, what do we do? We always, if we were gonna go, we wanted to make sure we went. We never wanted to cancel anything. Yeah, so we're like, okay, Mike goes, Well, let's just do a drive-through just to have people drive through. Oh, that yeah, that's a great idea. It was awesome. So we parked at the edge of the parking lot and had cars like circle around and pull up. Wow. And then we would serve them there.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

I don't know how our marketing reach worked. We think a lot of this, like, people were looking for stuff to do because talking February 2021, it was yeah, people still learn tough time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have a photo, it was like literally wrapped around the parking lot of the park, and then like six blocks down the street, there was like a hundred cars lined up.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

Amazing. And it was and we're luckily our steam wells stayed strong, but like our water lines are freezing, sanitizers buckets are freezing.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

I couldn't the generator is like frozen to the truck bed. Yeah, it would just start or it was too slick or something. So we just started it right in the truck bed and left it there. Yeah, it was a lot of grit.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we made it work.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yeah, made it.

SPEAKER_01 26:48

We made it work.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Okay, yeah, that was fun. Now, how did you two meet?

SPEAKER_00 26:53

We met on Bumble. We met on Bumble.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

Oh, cute.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

So we uh that's where honeybees kind of came from is when we we met on Bumble and we got all these like B gifts for our engagement and and weddings.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

That's cute.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

And uh uh and then we just always had B things around.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

It's perfect, it's very fitting. Okay. What do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_01 27:16

So I like to, yeah, we're like, what is that? No, I enjoy playing tennis. Oh fun. I've been on the same, I played um volleyball in college. Oh, cool. Um, so that's I love I love it. And I've been playing with the same girls since 2015. Nice. We're on our 11th season and we play there's an awesome women's league at the Kirkwood Community Center. Okay. So every Wednesday night that's where I am, is playing playing volleyball. So that helped I love I love it.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Yeah, that's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

I uh I used to golf a little a little bit. Now I I like video games actually. I do still get some video gaming time in. Um try every day. And uh I just I don't know what what else do I do for fun? I'm like obsessed with business and like reading books and studying. Like I I kind of I like look at like different business startups like playing cards in a way sometimes. I just love seeing what other people do and how successful people are with like different products and like how are they making money or like such interesting, unique businesses you find that are even in Kirkwood, you know, just there's like a there's like a really random like that Clark property we we uh warehouse out of. There's in that industrial area, and you find such interesting things going on. So I think a lot of my hobbies are reading and like sounds weird, but research and then video games and stuff like that. Hanging out with Rosie, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Oh how old is she?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

That's like favorite thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Oh, you got your hands full.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yeah, she is the best.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

Uh that's she was born what, a month before we opened Spencer's, two months before?

SPEAKER_01 29:05

She was born like a month and a half.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Month and a half for yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

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unknown 29:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

And where do you like to eat around town when you're not at your own spots?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

A lot of places.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Yeah, okay. So if we're going, if we need something fast, we really love pirano.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

The noodles are amazing. Yeah. Yeah, it's delicious. And it's quick, and you get huge portions, and it's not expensive.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Oh, I eat there like once a week. That's another good one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Drink the broth. I know. I just need so many. We get Didi Mao a lot.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Oh, they're so good too. So good.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah, that yeah, we do love Didi Mao.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

We also love PJs in Kirkwood. PJs is awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Oh, that's great. It's just a pub.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah, great pub food. Put it on my list. Thicker burgers, you know. Yeah. Um, good, yeah, good staff. Um we eat a lot at Spencer's. I love Spencer's. I mean, we love honeybees too. But yeah, um I think my top three are probably pirano, Didi, Mao, and tiger soup dumplings right now.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

We just don't have much time to do like a full, especially with Rosie, a full sit-down dinner.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

We went to, we did go to Sado last year. Oh my god. For my birthday. Yeah. We got like the chef special and all the Did you do the omakase? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Is that we had that plus oh, we got so much.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Can I eat all of this? Like there was like the decoration. I was like, I don't know what I'm not supposed to eat. I'm just so like eat that.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

Okay, cool. And then the uh the crab raon.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Oh, so good. The cigar things, yes.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Oh, I haven't had that. You know what? I have a reservation. I'm going back there in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

And it comes with like with a almost kind of a honey dip type. Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

I dream about Antonino's, love Antonino's. Okay. I could probably go on if we keep thinking of places. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

We'll keep coming up.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

We are going to Sando Shack after this. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Conveniently located in Maplewood. Okay, cool. Was there anything else you want people to know?

SPEAKER_00 31:58

About us?

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Anything.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

I mean, you know, I think one thing that's really uh been a hot topic for us lately is uh that we've been talking about is we're starting to get into like a lot of different stuff, you know, where um we own both of our buildings and me and a couple people in Kirkwood are starting this uh this mail sorting business where it's it's kind of like a UPS store with a mailbox business aspect of it as the front and then a lot of business business services on the back end.

unknown 32:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Um I've been getting really into like I love coding. So I've been getting into like agentic coding and AI stuff and the new programs and setting up ecosystems. And one of our goals is to help other businesses operate lean and do what we've been able to do. Cause with us, it's just Meredith and I. You know, we now have we've this just this year, we have a h a project manager that works for us four days a week. And then an executive assistant, one of our servers, we're we're she's working it for us as an executive assistant right now, four days a week. Um but before then it's just been us two. So we're we're very efficient with what we do. Bootstrap, yeah, bootstrapped everything.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah, bootstrapped everything. Yeah, we it was really important, like on the real estate for us. We had the we knew we had the opportunity at the honeybees building. The landlord told us I'm selling this in two years. I really hope you're the buyer, but I am selling it no matter what. And we're like, Yeah, it'll be us.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

We we definitely have the money.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

We can figure it. We can figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

We sold everything cool that we owned.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Yeah, okay. The inside of Honeybees, other than the walls, literally everything is on wheels because we weren't sure if we'd be able to make it with plenty of furniture inside for the first shooting. Yeah, we did a package.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

We just redid the lobby last year.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yes, we redid the lobby. We got we have real tables now, but we really bootstrapped our opening and everything is on wheels, so that if it didn't go well, we were just gonna wheel everything to the next spot and figure figure out, figure out what to do. Um, but so we spent we did not spend very much money on our build out instead save that so that in the two it was two years and a month that we bought the months to work up the money to buy the building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

I remember close to the end, Steve, who we bought it from, who just he's done a lot for us.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Yeah, he's really become a good mentor, mentor of ours.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Definitely. Um, but uh I remember him being like, You guys are good, right? Like we got this. We were not quite good yet.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Yeah, fake it till you make it.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Yeah, fake it till you make it.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Yes, we're gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

We ended up getting, so we got lucky because I kind of like I was saying before, one of my hobbies that sounds so funny, is like I like to study business. So with my acumen, Meredith and I are really good at like maneuvering financials. And so we've been able to like roll if we took on like debt for tropical moose or like a revenue generating asset, we've been able to roll those into like long-term assets with equity, like the buildings and stuff. Yeah. So we were able to work a deal out to where we um um basically moved some debt over, rolled into the building, got a bank that really trusted us and believed in us, and then we were able to use the equity from the honeybees building. Now we own the we purchased the Spencer's building in December, and then we just finished renovating the offices upstairs last week.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Yeah, so now we're we're trying to now we're working on doing some new stuff, getting into some different things and um expanding our our reach. And we want to do wholesale. We just got bags today we're looking at for biscuit mixes, and um, yeah, we got a bunch of different opportunities. Yeah, I'm I'm always working on like 10 different avenues at once because only one usually ends up landing. And um yeah, I think a lot of it too for us with like we talked about it on the phone uh with my childhood, yeah, being so chaotic. It's I I grew up in a very loving and and nice home and and I was very blessed to have a great family and and we were set up well, but we my family lost everything. My sister grew up living in the hospital. We had like process servers knocking on the door every day. We were like hiding from debt collectors and losing assets, and I saw my mom just you know, struggle, really struggle to get through. We would go collect rent, and tenants would like swing mop buckets at her and yell at her, and they'd uh basically call us rich, and then we're using the rent to go get groceries right afterwards. So you know, we get to the get to the front of the store and you start putting groceries back, it gives you some perspective on life.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Yeah, that's tough.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

But it's you know, for me I see it as advantages. And uh it's given us a lot of grit. A lot of uh grit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Well, you guys are killing it. I love to see it. Thanks. Oh, thank you. Thank you for stopping by. Yeah, yeah, thank you for having us.