On its one-year anniversary in an Old Town storefront on Aug. 22, SAVAGE BEE-CHES celebrated alongside baking extraordinaire Chan Buie as she returned to retail with a new counter of sweets sold in the honey boutique. Buie’s company Hey Sugar! previously operated out of East Village until rising rents had her turn to wholesale orders of her Southern-inspired desserts. For Buie, an effusive people person, this meant losing contact with some of her faithful costumers— whom she hopes to reconnect with now that she joined SAVAGE BEE-CHES founder Kemi Pavlocak in her Juan St. store.
Pavlocak and Buie have known each other for years and Buie has even used Pavlocak’s honey in some of her creations like honey cake in a jar. Rather than competing, the entrepreneurs had each other’s backs. “We’ve always supported each other, but I was always out in the high desert while Chan is doing her thing here in the city,” Pavlocak said.
Pavlocak founded SAVAGE BEE-CHES seven years ago with 120 acres in the high desert she hoped to turn into an eco-tourism destination. The most successful aspect of the endeavor was the beekeeping. With her husband, she bought the town general store near their desert home which was a popular destination for hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail. They had a wall of honey alongside other outdoor supplies. However, it burned down – making them dependent on honey sales at festivals and pop-ups for income.
A year ago, the location in Old Town opened and Pavlocak leased it to sell honey on a more regular basis. An entire honey boutique seemed like a challenge, so some of the outdoor gear is available too. While Old Town is a popular tourist destination, the store is outside of the typical foot traffic and her audience is mostly loyal locals who enjoy her wide range of bee-based products that go far beyond just honey. Months into the lease, Pavlocak shared some of her struggles with the store to Buie, who suggested a collaboration to bring more people in. After all, honey and desserts have a similar sweet theme.
The pair have other things in common as well. Both are Black, female and veterans who turned to entrepreneurship after retiring from the military. They credit the adaptability, flexibility and problem solving skills they perfected in the military as what makes them thrive as business owners despite setbacks like COVID-19, fires, and rising rents. “The thing with the military, like with small business, is it’s so unpredictable,” Pavlocak said.
In temperament though, the pair differ sharply. Pavlocak is a reserved agriculturalist who loves nature and would rather spend time with insects than people. “I’m actually just a beekeeper. I love beekeeping. Adding retail and all that, makes it a little more difficult,” she said.
Buie on the other hand enjoys retail for the connections she forges with customers (although she would probably give all her desserts away for free if she could). Before she founded Hey Sugar! in 2020, she cooked frequently for others, hosting big dinners and baking cakes for retirement parties. “I love feeding people. Food is my love language,” Buie said. She knew she did not want a regular job after leaving the Navy, so followed the advice people had been telling her for years: that she should sell her baked goods. First with a cottage license letting her bake in her home then in East Village, she crafted desserts with love.
“There’s a science to baking. Cooking, I can mess something up and turn it into something else. When it comes to baking, no, you have to get it right,” Buie said. “With baking, you know that someone’s putting their all into it, their heart into it, to give you a good product.”
With her promise of baking with love, she made close connections with people in East Village. When she met a young man the age of her oldest son who told her he was sleeping on a bench after a falling out with his parents, she gave him a sandwich, water and free desserts. Buie also “spoke to him like a mom,” urging him to call his mom and reassuring him his family would always have a bed for him. Two weeks later, he came in to tell her he followed her advice and had a Greyhound ticket back to Ohio.
“That’s what I love about this. I get to connect with people and be an extension of their parent, their grandparent, their aunt,” Buie said.
From her new counter of sweets at SAVAGE BEE-CHES, Buie hopes to meet customers once again while also bringing new faces to Pavlocak’s unique honey boutique. SAVAGE BEE-CHES is open Wednesday through Sunday from 3 to 7 p.m. at 2802 Juan St., Unit 19.
