Meet Casey Curley | Owner & Operator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Casey Curley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Casey, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’ve always wanted to start my own business, but never took the time to explore what venture would suit me best. I had hustled and worked my way into management roles in the hospitality industry over the last 8 years, but was starting to get burned out. Much like other small businesses owners, the pandemic and sudden shutdown really gave me the free time to get clear on my dreams and aspirations.

Baking has always been my safe place — a place where I can zone out and create something delicious for myself and loved ones. And as my go-to stress reliever, I found myself baking up a storm in Mid March 2020. When I thought about filling my days with baking and creating recipes, it seemed exciting and fitting. I’ve always been the type to hold multiple jobs at once simply because I love working and being part of something bigger than myself. This was certainly bigger than myself, but gave me the satisfaction of creating something amazing from the ground up.

In short, my thought process in starting Sugar and Grain Bake Co was simply passion driven. I loved baking and I had enough sense from business school to get things started. The risks were low and the startup funds needed were minimal. In my head, failing wasn’t an option. When you really believe in your product, believe in your work ethic and are passionate about what you’re creating, it’s easy to bet on yourself.

What should our readers know about your business?
Sugar and Grain Bake Co is a small, female-owned bakery focusing on homestyle cookies. All our cookies are small batch and made fresh on the day of market or order pickup. Our flavors are reminiscent of family favorites, but have been upgraded to create a delicious cookie with depth of flavor.

In a world of fad diets and dietary restrictions, these cookies don’t quite fit in. Our cookies are made of easy to find, pantry staples to give you that familiar home-baked taste. We take a lot of time and consideration in creating a well thought-out recipe that is an upgraded version of some of your favorites. We take pride in our process and know the final product is better because of it. Once a recipe is developed the full cookie process, from start to finish, takes 2-3 days. Cookies are baked from frozen and packaged on the day they will be delivered, sold or shipped. Without at least 24 hours for the dough to rest and hydrate, the final cookie will not taste its best.

Creating recipes, a brand and an online business has been a learning process. Sometimes things don’t go as planned or don’t sell as well as you thought. We focus our efforts on making the best product, providing excellent customer service and creating innovative ways for our customers to interact with us and our cookies. We love to take part in local markets and collaborate with other small businesses. Not all local pop-up markets are created equal, and sometimes we have product left over. We have partnered with over 8 local businesses to provide packaged cookies for their customers on a weekly basis. In the event that we don’t sell all that we have baked for the day, we are grateful to lean on our local partners to snag up the remaining cookies. We’ve learned that if we treat our customers and partners with respect and transparency, we are able to hit a lot of our goals as a company.

As a “homestyle cookie” brand, we believe in celebrating all the small and big moments in life. If eating that buttery, chocolate chip cookie reminds you of your grandma– eat it. If your bff loves peanut butter cookies, make them for their birthday! Celebrations often make up a lot of our memories, so let’s make them extra sweet. With our celebration mentality in mind, we are looking forward to the launch of our new Cookie & Coffee Cart! We plan to have plenty of options available for all of life’s’ celebrations including weddings, engagements, birthdays, graduations, corporate events, etc. We can’t wait to continue to grow and celebrate with you!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Orange County may not be the preferred destination over Los Angeles, but this county has lots to offer! My favorite cities to hang out in are Costa Mesa, Orange and Santa Ana. Costa Mesa has so many great cafes, restaurants, wine shops and shopping. Some of my favorites are Work in Progress, Semi Tropic Wines, Neat Coffee, Kitakata Ramen Ban Tai, The Camp and The Lab. This area caters to the 20-40 year old crowd, and has so many options for families and couples. If you’ve never been to OC, you have to go to Old Towne Orange! “The Circle” as it’s nicknamed, is filled with family-owned restaurants, breweries and antique shops. I love Gabbi’s Mexican Kitchen, Provisions Deli & Bottle Shop, Country Roads Antique and Chapman Crafted Beer. It’s fun to take a stroll through the plaza and window shop at all the antique shops too! Lastly, the underrated Santa Ana neighborhood is my favorite. Downtown Santa Ana has plenty of coffee shops, bars/restaurants and artists. Of all the cities in Orange County, I think Santa Ana has the best community feel. DTSA hosts night markets, concerts, artist walks and a small food hall. Some of my favorite spots are Detention, Benchmark, Black Market Bakery, Blinking Owl Distillery and Vacation Bar.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I owe my inspiration to create Sugar and Grain Bake Co to my late grandma, Mo. She was the ultimate homemaker and my first ever role model. She could do it all– bake, cookie, sew, quilt, refurbish, garden, etc. My love for traditional, homestyle baked goods comes from her and her famous Chocolate Fudge Cake!

Website: sugarandgrain.com

Instagram: sugarandgrainco