By Meladi Brewer

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — When passion meets hard work, every day is filled with sweet memories.

For this young business owner, Briana Doat, baking has always been a passionate hobby, and on Jan. 17th of this year, that hobby became an earnest job. Spuds Bakehouse, 102 Birt Street, Greenville, may be new, but Doat has been in the business for years.

“I had a home business. It was called ‘Weekly Treats by Bri’ for a long time, and I would just do one or two treats a week and would deliver them to people,” Doat said.

Eventually the name upgraded to “Treats by Bri” when she began doing bigger custom cake orders. In 2020 she re-branded with the future goal of going storefront to “Spuds”.

“I have a Spuds MacKenzie dog, and he has the biggest sweet tooth. His favorite thing is Swedish Fish,” Doats said.

Doat said her dog will constantly dig in the trash to get any and all left over buttercream and cake. Due to his relentless and shared love of sweets, Doat decided the business could have a theme based off of him.

“Every business needs a unique idea and symbol, so I used my dog. We couldn’t name it Target because that is already taken, so we went with Spuds MacKenzie without the MacKenzie,” Doat said.

Spuds’ business offers custom cake orders for events, and in store she does a lot of gourmet cookies. Specializing in cookies and cupcakes, the business also offers scratch cinnamon rolls, dipped chocolates, oat bars, and more.

“I love cookie butter. Anything I can shove cookie butter inside of is my favorite,” Doat said.

She went on to explain how she loves smores because of the Graham crackers, so “Teddy Graham’ is a Graham cracker cookie, but it also has cookie butter inside.

“It’s the best duo put into one cookie,” Doat said.

Followers on Spuds Bakehouse Facebook page are able to partake in an auction of goodies on Saturdays for items that are left at the end of the week. For an itemized portfolio of cake designs and to see pictures of custom orders, Instagram is the place to go.

“We also do breakfast and lunch. We offer a breakfast sandwich in the morning, and on Saturdays we do biscuits and gravy,” Doat said. “For lunch I normally do a soup and a sandwich, I also have two salads, but occassionally the specials will change.”

For her birthday week, Doat had a special of Mac and Cheese because it is one of her favorite foods. The week of Saint Patrick’s Day, the special will be Shephard’s Pie. She says they rotate out what their weekly lunch special is, so customers will have to stop by and see what they are offering that week.

“I’m married to my high school sweetheart, I’m a mom, I’m nurse. I work at Kettering. That is why the business is closed on Sunday, Monday, Tuesdays, so I can go help take care of the community. This is my dream and passion,” Doat said.

She says she does what she needs to do when she is called to do it at the hospital ensuring the community is in good hands, but Spuds is her “one true love that she has always wanted to do.”

“I think it brings me the most joy when I can serve people and feed them,” Doat said.

She has always gotten joy out of feeding others, as it makes her happy.

“I think people really are the truest form of happiness when they find something they enjoy to eat,” Doat said. “You know you always see those people who always do those happy dances, and it is because we are meant to enjoy the things that we eat.”

Doat said we as humans need to find someone who wants to serve you and wants to put “grandma’s love” into the food you are eating.

“We all love grandma’s cooking, and it is because she makes it with love and passion, and I think that’s what makes me happy. When I see people enjoying the food saying ‘oo this is good’, and I’m over her like yes! It is because I cook with all this love,” Doat said.

For more information or to see the auction, follow Spuds Bakehouse on Facebook.

To contact Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].