At Blairfield Realty, we happen to think we’re pretty lucky to be making a living doing what we love, so it makes us extra happy to hear stories about other entrepreneurs who have followed their dreams and found success.
That’s why we had such a great time chatting recently with Julie Albertson, the Chef/Owner at the Texas Pie Company in Kyle, Texas. Since 2000, she and co-owner Spencer Thomas—who also happens to be her husband—have been delighting sweet tooths from their retail location in the heart of downtown Kyle.
But Julie’s love affair with baking began much earlier, in her grandmother’s East Texas kitchen. She grew up on a 50-acre farm just north of Houston, living a true farm-to-table lifestyle, even before there was a name for it. “There was a farm-to-market in the back of my grandmother’s house,” she recalls. “My grandmother was the farmer’s market.”
Julie won her first baking award at age 11: a 4-H award for the best cream puff at the Montgomery County Fair. In her early 20s, out-of-work and needing money for the holidays, she opened her first wholesale bakery with a “rolling pin and a plan.” She built her business by shopping her delicious pies to Austin and Houston-area restaurants. In 2000, she moved to Kyle and opened a retail store in two 118-year-old buildings. “We started baking before we opened the doors,” she said. “People could smell the pie before they drove down the street.”
The Texas Pie Company’s business is a mix of wholesale and retail. Today, you can find Julie’s pies at around 40 Austin restaurants, including Trudy’s, Landry’s Inc. establishments, Magnolia Cafe and Green Mesquite, to name a few. And if you travel down to Lockhart for some of that town’s famous smoked meat, chances are you won’t be able to resist trying one of her petite pies, served at several of the local BBQ establishments.
Or you can visit Texas Pie Company’s retail location in Kyle; just look for the iconic sign—you won’t miss it. As Julie puts it, “People come because they see the sign, and they stay because of the pie.” And these days, they come for even more than that. The bakery has expanded to a café with 14 employees, in addition to Julie and Spencer. Customers include everyone from judges and politicians, to commuters who grab one of the café’s delicious casseroles to take home for dinner, to locals and tourists alike. And don’t forget catering; Texas Pie Company is the go-to for galas for the Texas Legislature and TX Disposal Systems, among other groups. Julie’s one rule for those events? “They’re all based around pie. You have to choose your dessert first.”
The icing on the cake (pun intended)—and a real game-changer for the Texas Pie Company—was winning H-E-B’s “Quest for Texas Best” grand champion award last August. The grocery chain now distributes the company’s pies and assists with its marketing and branding efforts.
So what’s next? Expansion is one possibility, says Julie: “We have gotten such a response for retail walk-ins that we’re looking around at additional outlets in Austin and San Marcos.” Whatever’s around the corner, she believes the secret to her success is that “If you have a true passion [for baking], it comes out in your food. Being in the kitchen for 30 years, I love creating new things to play with, new things to present to our customers.
“Believe in yourself and believe in your heart and that voice in your head that says try it … do it,” she says. “Your passion could turn in to a lifelong pursuit. Your true love might be something artistic. If you do something you love, you never work a day in your life.”
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