Today we’d like to introduce you to Blaire Beasley.
Hi Blaire, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
From an early age, you’ve always been able to find me in one place: the kitchen. I’ve long been obsessed with food: talking about it, reading about it, watching it being made on tv, constantly thinking about where and what I’m going to eat next. There’s nothing that brings people together quite like a delicious meal. So many of my favorite memories involve sitting around my family’s table, or gathered around the kitchen island, eating, drinking, and laughing. I’ve been cooking and baking with my mom since I was little, but it wasn’t until college that I really buckled down on improving my skill set, constantly trying new recipes and planning elaborate menus for dinner parties and holiday gatherings. A few years ago, I was walking by a bakery and on the sidewalk chalkboard menu, they listed homemade pop tarts. I thought, “I bet I could make those.” (The hubris. I had never made pie dough from scratch in my life.) But I can’t resist a challenge. I went to the grocery store, gathered the ingredients, and headed home, beginning a journey toward what would eventually become Queen Beas Bakery.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are certainly a lot of struggles to starting your own business, and I absolutely still consider myself in the formative stages of doing so. I live in a relatively small condo with little kitchen space, and a very old electrical system that makes running the oven in the summertime pretty cost-prohibitive. The huge winter storm of 2021 set business back quite a bit – not only were a lot of orders canceled during the storm itself, but my condo complex had the water shut off for a total of 12 days while pipes throughout the buildings were repaired. I had been building quite a steady stream of business up until that point and had trouble regaining momentum after being forced to take nearly a month’s hiatus. However, I’ve been super fortunate throughout this process to have a generous circle of friends and family who have constantly supported my endeavors every step of the way. From my parents who always let me take over their kitchen at a moment’s notice, to friends who’ve ordered from me for their special events and for their own businesses, to everyone who has liked or shared a post or purchased something from me – thank you. I’ve never been alone in this process and absolutely could not have gotten this far without your support.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Being a teacher will always be an integral part of who I am and one of the achievements I’m most proud of; those experiences and the impact of my students shaped my perspective of the world and how I move through it. I went K-12 in AISD, with dreams of becoming a teacher and making a difference in the lives of kids in my hometown, just like my teachers here did for me. I graduated early from UT with a degree in Education, diving into teaching at just 20 years old. I taught in Title I schools in East Austin for 5 years – fighting the broken special education system, lack of funding and support, systemic and structural racism, and endless budget cuts day in and day out. It’s frustrating that public education today seems designed to drive teachers out. These are people who choose to dedicate their lives to bettering our collective future, to laying the foundation for the next generation, and who ask for so little in return. Yet the system puts more and more weight on their shoulders every year, exploiting that selflessness and taking advantage of them until they inevitably decide to leave. I thought I would be a teacher until I retired. It wasn’t sustainable. When I finally resigned, I sobbed in my classroom alone. Yet I considered myself lucky that I had other things I was passionate about. It made me feel less guilty to leave the classroom to pursue other things that I loved.
Once I left teaching in 2019, I began the hustle of transitioning my career: particularly focusing on the world of food & wine. I previously worked in a tasting room at a winery in Dripping Springs (as many teachers know, sometimes you gotta have a second job just to pay the bills!). and talking about wine brought me so much joy. Thinking about that experience made me realize I could still educate people, just in a different way! I wanted to continue my wine study, so I got a job as a hostess at Aviary Wine + Kitchen and began learning from the incredible team there, including the former Front of House Manager, Cat Palmer, and Beverage Director Alex Bell. They were amazing mentors for me, a duo with seemingly endless wine knowledge and an incredibly unique approach to service. The service at Aviary is education-focused, where the burden of thoroughly understanding the wine list and how it interacts with the food menu is placed on the staff, not the guest. Part of the formidable training to earn a spot as a server on the floor involves passing a comprehensive written wine exam. I became a server after a few months of one-on-one mentorship from Cat and Alex and continued working on building up my wine knowledge (especially when I began running Aviary’s social media, which gave me a medium to write about what I was learning) over the next two years there. Working in a space full of passion and culinary creativity gave me the courage to explore and expand Queen Beas Bakery. Today, I’m continuing my wine studies as I work full-time in marketing for a wine distributor and importer, while running Queen Beas on the side! I look forward to carving out my space as a female entrepreneur and creative in two traditionally male-dominated industries.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
It’s important to remember when ordering from a small business, you’re directly contributing to their livelihood. As a great TikTok once said, “If you want something made at cost, make it your f****** self.” Of course, it’s meant to be humorous, but the underlying concept rings true: you’re not just paying for a product, you’re also paying for expertise, time, labor, and quality. And with the rising cost of ingredients (and existing in general), supporting small businesses isn’t always cheap. But I think knowing that you’re supporting someone trying to make a living doing what they love is worth spending a few extra dollars from time to time.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @queenbeasatx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/queenbeasbakery
Image Credits
Blaire Beasley
