Add one part gourmet cookie shop with a loyal fanbase, add a dash of famous artisan cakes, mix in one tough cookie of a female entrepreneur, and you get gourmet cookie and cake shop That’s So Sweet! Sweet Treats & Gifts.
Having recently exited her role as CEO of Aviatra Accelerators, the successful Cincinnati-based nonprofit accelerator devoted to empowering women-owned startups and small businesses, Nancy Aichholz had a hankering for something sweet to chew on for her next entrepreneurial endeavor.
But to find her next act, she didn’t have to look far from her time spent at the helm of Aviatra.
Two years ago, the second owner of Donna’s Gourmet Cookies came through the startup accelerator program with Aviatra. Working with Aichholz one-on-one to build the gourmet cookie store on Montgomery Road in Cincinnati, they brainstormed the potential for selling the sweets packaged as gifts, wholesale, and online.
Meanwhile, Aichholz was also at the helm of her own successful NanCakes bakery inside Nordstrom’s EBar, and she saw the value in the brick-and-mortar space as well as the potential for growth for Donna’s Gourmet Cookies.
Fast forward a year after the launch accelerator ended, Aichholz received a call from the owner of Donna’s Gourmet Cookies asking about selling the over-30-year-old brand.
“Well, do you have something to sell? Or do you need do you need to liquidate, because I can help you with both.” Aichholz said, and it turned out there was quite a sweet deal at hand. Aichholz told the owner that “I’d love to bring my cakes back. And I also really see the potential for a national brand and shipping and the gift or gift-giving aspect of this. And so we worked it out. And so I bought it last November, so almost a year ago, almost ready to have an anniversary, which I can’t believe.”
With Aichholz taking over operations this year, she began the process of rebranding the store and integrating her line of NanCakes into the menu while keeping the same customer-loved cookies on the shelf. The interior was remodeled to a bright, cheery, and welcoming space, and the staff known for their wildly popular recipes and designs are on hand to continue the sweet succession of the menu.
Aichholz knew the moment the brand was born.
“When we talked about this brand, we kept going coming back to it had to have sweet in it,” Aichholz said. “And then one day, Christie (Potter, also of Aviatra Accelerators and now on board at That’s So Sweet!) said, ‘I think it needs to be That’s So Sweet.’ And I’m like, it just literally gave me chills, that’s exactly it. When somebody does something for you or gives you a gift, you say, ‘Oh, that’s so sweet’ and that was perfect.”
The staff is equally excited, with a growing menu to add to the legacy items known and loved by customers. The team has grown together in a way they haven’t before under Aichholz’s new leadership.
She described the charge in the air with the bakers, decorators, and packagers all excited for the coming Holiday season.
“We’re really starting to feel like the atmosphere in here has changed and is much more of a sweet, but strong environment,” Aichholz said. “It’s about supporting each other about connecting through gifts. And I love making people happy with food, which is kind of the background of all of this, you know, that’s how NanCakes really started, with this carrot cake that I just took everywhere I went because everybody always asked for it. And I just really enjoyed watching how much other people enjoyed it.”
Aichholz said she has always seen herself getting back into the food buisness.
“And so when the opportunity came up, to buy Donna’s and buy what’s already established as a really strong, really popular line of cookies that I think are the best in town, I jumped on it,” Aichholz said. “This has been the perfect marriage of all that I have done before.”
This holiday season, That’s So Sweet! will be taking orders for nationwide shipping, corporate gifts, and traditional family gathering spreads. Aichholz is confident in the staff to bake up a successful season.
“We’re ready, we had last year to kind of work out the logistics of shipping and packaging, but I feel were ready.” When asked if someone ordered a hundred boxes of custom cookies she replies “Now that would be a good problem to have.”
A sweet situation, indeed.
You can place orders here on their website, or stop by the shop at 10796 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, OH 45242. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”22″ gal_title=”Thats So Sweet!”]
