Today we’d like to introduce you to Lance Phillips.
Hi Lance , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I worked with college students for 20 years before starting Teal House. Hospitality was always a huge part of my gamikies life, having young people in my home and around my family. We would often make cinnamon rolls, pies and brisket when we would host. Many of our recipes came from these days.
In 2016 we started inviting our neighbors in Mueller into our love for cinnamon rolls. We would see then out of our home every Saturday morning. My older kids would help me bake and my younger kids would welcome people to our home and give them their orders.
Our next step in 2018 was a food truck in south east Austin. It was a huge step for us and this is where my love for coffee was added. Great pastries and craft coffee were hard to find together. That was the dream. This is were old favorites like sweet and savories kolaches came in. One of my neighbors inspired me to try to make
Croissants. This began a 2 year journey/ obsession. Which included hours and hours of master class and youtube croissant classes and many broken butter croissants…
In 2020, we began our search for our first brick and mortar. It took over a year and many disappointing moments to finally find a land lord that would take a risk on us. A month agterwe signed out life away to get our dream spot, the world came to a stop due to the Covid pandemic. What a scary time. Fortunately, the workdwas opening back up the month we had our grand opening.
Its been a wild ride with many up and downs. In 2024 we openedd our second brick and mortar location in Buda. Which has been a big success for us! 2025 has been out best year by far! And we renewed our lease for three more years. We still have so much to learn on our way to our third location!
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?
Definitely NOT smooth. Scaling from our food truck days was very hard. Just figuring everything out was crazy. I would
Work 60-70 a week for the first 3 years in our first brick and mortar just to pay the bills. I would say our biggest challenge has been staffing. We have had some great people over the years for sure but finding people to learn and grow with us has been very challanging. It is a very transient work force.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I would say our hospitality and our cinnamon rolls are what we are known for. Early in, I had a young employee tell me how important it is to be kind to people. I will never die get that. Today, kindness is one of our cornerstone principles.
I am very proud to be known for serving one of the best cinnamon rolls in a great food city!
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success to me is to be able help
People provide for a life they love through amazing products and exceptional
Hospitality. If people don’t feel
Cared for when they come to Teal House, we fail.
Pricing:
- Cinnamon rolls- $5
- Brisket kolache $5.50
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Tealhouse.co
- Instagram: Tealhousecoffeeandbakery
