First Appeared in the Barrie Advance
Sunday Aug 07, 2005

If the family that plays together stays together, what happens to the family that runs a small business together?!
(Guest Column by Maureen Stoeken)

“That’s easy,” say Holly Cascone and Lori McClelland, sisters and co-owners of Holly’s Sweets and Eats, “It becomes a stronger unit.”

Holly and Lori know whereof they speak as they freely acknowledge that they wouldn’t be where they are today without their family. Holly, a classically trained chef and pastry chef with such impressive employers as Deerhurst Resort and the Royal York on her résumé and Lori, a part-time school teacher, first used their family’s traditional love of food to sell cookies on a weekly basis at the Gravenhurst Farmers’ Market. This progressed to their running a catering business from their parents’ basement. Finally, their father told them that it was time for them to take the next step. He suggested that they open their own shop in which they could share their passion for food and family with the people of Barrie. It seemed like the natural progression and, again, the family was there to help both financially and physically. They chose the location at 12 Commerce Park Drive (behind Wal-Mart at the south end of Barrie) and worked together to put together a homey, cozy tearoom, luncheonette with wonderful food.

Holly and Lori naturally split the culinary chores, again, by following their passions – Holly for desserts and Lori for savories – hence the name “Sweets and Eats”. Family participation continued in the form of their mother purchasing and displaying a wonderful array of gift items and food accompaniments, which she revamps regularly and their father building the wood bread display shelves and providing ongoing maintenance/repair assistance.

During our conversation, Holly and Lori’s closeness and mutual pride was evident. Each was quick to give the other credit for specific achievements or abilities. They agreed too, that although Lori is not formally trained as a chef, she is the visionary with an innate ability to conceptualize foods that go together and menus that will complement any type of gathering. However, Lori explained that while she may possess this ability, it is maximized by the fact that she has absolute confidence in Holly’s ability to carry out her ideas. In short, she knows that when she says, “yes, we can do that” Holly really can.

Lori continued that because food has always played an important part in their family festivities it is also an important aspect in their catering in that, rather than having one universal catering menu, she meets with her customers, gets to know them and their needs then formulates the menu. In this way, Holly’s is able to fit the food to its customers and the occasion rather than the other way round.

In the spirit of importance of family, I asked Lori how her own family (husband and children) fit into the equation. Lori animatedly told me that she is very fortunate to have the support of her husband and that she makes a point of creating family time by being home nights (except Friday because the store is open until 8:00 p.m.) to tuck in her children. She also schedules family meals at the store so her children can be part of mommy’s work. Holly and Lori both told me too, that Sunday nights the entire family meets for family dinners at their parents’ home where they get together to share family experiences and maybe even hold a “Holly’s shareholders meeting”.
Both Holly and Lori openly state that theirs is a passionate family and with that passion inevitably come disagreements. However, they laughingly explained that although there may be some pretty volatile discussions, the discord is very short-lived as they refocus and reconnect to their shared passion – the business. They also added that they never let disagreements fester but discuss them, resolve them and move on.

As if the foregoing isn’t amazing enough, the Holly’s Sweets and Eats “family” extends to its employees. Being a small business, Holly and Lori have carefully chosen their employees with a view to their fitting to the business’s goals and passions. Again, they appear to have succeeded, as the personnel to whom I spoke were helpful, approachable and happy.

All in all I would have to say that Holly’s Sweets and Eats is not just a place to get great food; it is an experience. When I suggested to Lori that many business partners wish they could maintain as successful a relationship as she and Holly did, Lori looked at me quizzically and answered “Well, she is my sister” and for her, that said it all.

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