Sweet treats at Sweet Flour

One of the advantages of spending a lot of time on Twitter is learning about new things, including new local businesses. At least those smart enough to take advantage of connecting with people (and potential customers and ambassadors online).

I know this will sound diametrically opposed to my weight loss efforts but I’m a huge cookie fan. So, a few weeks ago when I started reading tweets about a new cookie shop called Sweet Flour Back Shop, I paid attention. Sweet Flour’s founder Kim Gans was also on Twitter and started sending me DMs (private messages) inviting me to stop by.

It took a few weeks and some convincing but today I finally got my family on board. We decided it was a perfect day to spend time strolling along Bloor West Village. The outing wouldn’t have been complete without a trip to Sweet Flour.

Why Sweet Flour? Well, in my university days, I visited Steve’s and worked at Greg’s – I learned about mixings early on. Sweet Flour is all about made-to-order fresh baked cookies, muffin tops and granola. You can even buy a “shot” of raw cookie dough. How could I resist?

How it works
• Start by choosing your cookie dough (today’s menu included original, peanut butter and oatmeal - I choose original)
• Next, choose from 20 yummy mixings – (two are included in the price and you can add more for $0.50 each - my pics: semi-sweet chocolate chunks and cherries)
• Watch a baker mix your custom cookie, pop it into a special oven and two minutes later, you’ll have a fresh cookie right out of the oven.
• Enjoy! Pure deliciousness.



My younger son ordered a hot chocolate too, it was made from scratch using chocolate chunks. Honestly, it was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. He thought it was among the best he’s ever tasted but found it too hot and after burning his tongue, had to let it cool for 15 min. Perhaps Sweet Flour should follow the coffee shops and keep the temperature lower when making hot drinks for the kiddies.

I made a point of not asking for Kim when we arrived because I didn’t want us to receive special treatment. Once we had paid for our orders, Kim recognized me and introduced herself. She is just as lovely as her baked goods asked my son about his cookie and his favourite cookies because he might become the customer of the day. Sure enough, when we got home, he received this email – it made his day and his burned tongue was quickly forgotten.

“Thanks from Sweet Flour
Thanks for visiting Sweet Flour today. We want to let you know that the picture of you and your family will be up as our customer of the day on Tuesday. We hope you had a great visit.

Regards,
The Sweet Flour Team”

We’ll be back and yes, the verdict was unanimous. It was worth the 1/2 hour drive.

There’s more to starting a new business than having a unique concept and service yummy treats. Making customers feel special is an equally important ingredient and it looks like Sweet Flour is starting off on the right track.

Check out my annotated flickr photos (same ones as in the slide show but with commentary).