Five years ago, Lourdes Bolado, opened her first bakery shop after finding inspiration from trips, Pinterest and close friends who would ask her to bake cakes that needed to be gifted.
Now located in the North Park Plaza, Sweet Co started as a homey place for people to order coffee and individual desserts such as cupcakes, but eventually turned into one of the most known local bakery shops specializing in decorated cakes that include themes like Frida Kahlo, Friends, Wonder Woman, unicorns and many others.
“I had no idea (I would do this), I never liked being in the kitchen and it just happened by chance. The main idea I had for my first shop wasn’t so much a bakery, it was more cupcakes, muffins, brownies because I had coffee, tables and it was bigger,” she said. “Then, little by little people started asking for more and more cakes and the focus became more the cakes and less the cupcakes and the other things.”
Bolado graduated with a degree in architecture at Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) and said she never imagined she would open a bakery one day. She said her family has always supported her decisions.
“I’m an architect and I was actually on a trip with my husband and we went to a bakery, cupcake shop and I loved it and I was thinking that I should do the same thing,” she said. “So, it just happened by chance.”
Besides the cakes, the shop also offers decorated cookies, tamarindos, cajeta rolls, macaroons, brownies, among other things. They deliver oatmeal cookies and other desserts to 7th and Park.
“I would like to expand the place but try to keep it as homey as it is. To keep it looking local, and not so much like a chain.” she said. “I would like to little by little add coffee and more tables and chairs.”
The entrepreneur said even though the process to get the permits to open the shop was lengthy and frustrating, she encourages women to open their own businesses. She said everything is possible.
“The first thing I would tell them is ‘sí se puede’ if they set their mind to it, it is possible little by little and it is important because unlike men, women who own businesses have a different vision. A little more artistic and caring,” she said.
