Community Entrepreneur/Activist Profile
Profile on Chelsea Tart
by Lauren Raveret
What if the secret to baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie was not baking it at all? Chelsea Tart, owner, founder, and baker of Tart Sweets bakery in Winston-Salem made dreams come true this March when she opened her bakery’s newest feature: an edible raw cookie dough bar.
Now on Friday afternoons and for six hours on Saturday, Tart Sweets features its Dolci Dough cookie dough bar—a selection of cookie dough flavors made with pasteurized egg and heat-treated flour to ensure safe consumption. Until now, the West End’s popular bakery and café was best known for its French macarons.
“It was the best decision we’ve made here,” Tart said. “If you don’t like raw cookie dough there’s something wrong with you.”
With her homemade edible dough, Tart, 26, is again showing a keen sense for the latest trends. She got the idea for her first hit—French macarons—from the T.V. show Gossip Girl. “I was watching Gossip Girl one night, and Blair had macarons—Chuck had given them to her,” Tart said. “I was like I’m going to learn how to make those.”
After selling baked goods out of her house for three years while attending UNC Greensboro, Tart initially opened her first commercial space on Hawthorne Road before moving to her current location on West 5th Street. For her, it’s a dream spot for her bakery: an old historic home to make her own.
In addition to moving downtown, Tart also brought her mother, Lynn Tart, into the business as a 50% owner. Tart’s mother is the reason she discovered her passion for baking.
“I started baking profusely when I was in high school when my mom was diagnosed with cancer,” Tart sad. “It was very therapeutic.”
Tart’s decision to expand with her mother was not difficult. “She was just always there.” Tart said. “She’s able to pick up the pieces when something shatters.”
And shatter it did, when Tart came home after her first year of studying pharmaceutical engineering at Virginia Tech “screaming and kicking and crying” because she hated it so much.
Tart ended up registering late for business classes at Forsyth Tech because those were the only classes available—and to her surprise, loved them. She later transferred to UNCG and earned a degree in entrepreneurship.
Tart opened her first Tart Sweets location about eight months after graduating. “The hardest part was convincing somebody that I was worth the risk at 22,” Tart said.
But Tart has no problem with taking risks. In fact, moving Tart Sweets to its current location was the biggest risk she has ever taken. “I can’t tell you how many people told me not to do it,” Tart said. “People tell me I’m crazy because I don’t get scared.”
Now, even with her considerable success, she is still often dismissed. A lot of the judgment, she says, has to do with her small physical size. “It’s not uncommon for me to work at the counter and people to stand here and have whole conversations with me about the owner,” Tart said. “And I’m thinking I am the owner!”
“People don’t expect to find someone 25, 26, 27 running this company—and running it successfully,” Tart said. “The look on people’s faces when I introduce myself most of the time is priceless.”
Tart often finds herself doing business with people who do not expect her to know what she’s talking about. “It’s just a matter of standing up for yourself and knowing what you’re talking about,” Tart said. “Because if someone asks you a question and you can give them an educated response back quickly, their whole perception may change in that 30 seconds.”
One of Tart’s strategies to success is framing failures as learning experiences. “I was raised under the theory that the only time you fail is if you don’t do it at all.”
Not only does Tart live by this mindset, but she teaches it to her employees as well. “I’ve had a few spills,” Tart Sweets barista Hunter Beck said about some mishaps in the kitchen. “She just tells me that it’s a learning experience—trial and error. She always boosts my confidence.”
Tart’s positive outlook has been a force in her personal life as well as her business life. When Tart Sweets opened its new location, Tart started to butt heads with one of her new baristas. “I snapped,” Tart said. “I mean total mental breakdown. Ended up being diagnosed bipolar II.”
Tart was formally diagnosed in early 2016, but it took time for her doctors to find the right medication.
“If I didn’t have a mom I wouldn’t even be in business anymore because I spent from June to October crying in the corner,” Tart said. By early this year, she is finally feeling like herself again.
Tart’s condition is no secret, especially to her employees. In fact, one of the earliest conversations Tart had with her employee, Alexine Carr, was about her bipolar disorder.
“She called me into the kitchen one day to let me know that because of her bipolar disorder there are certain days when she might not be acting like herself,” Carr said. “She made the comment, which is kind of funny, ‘If I ever snap at you please just look at me and tell me to stop.’ So it’s pretty cool to know she’s open about it.”
Despite her experience, Tart does not regret anything. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve learned so much about myself.”
Along with the new diagnosis has come a new cause for Tart. “The stigmas have to go,” Tart said. “Anybody can be anything they want to. Nobody should be put in a box. Look at me. I mean I’m running a business—and successfully—and I’m bipolar. It can be done.”
And she wants to do more. “One day, I would like to figure out how to advocate for mental health” Tart said.
It looks like she already has.
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