Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamaica Crist.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My husband James and I met up in Oregon while he was attending the University of Oregon. After his graduation, he moved back home to LA and a few months later, I followed him down here. He ended up getting a job, through a childhood friend, working on the FOX studio lot. After doing bakery/cake research, and not finding a good fit for my style, I ended up at a regular job, not in the cake world. A little time went by and one of his coworkers needed a cake for her baby shower and I created a cute replica of her invitation for the cake. The week after the party, she came up to James and apologized to him. He was confused. She said so many people wanted to know where the cake came from that she gave our number out to a few of them. The following week, we did a couple more cakes. Then a few more the next week, so on and so forth until we would both come home from our full day of “work” just do a long night of cake work. We were working from when we got off our day jobs, to working from 6pm to 2am, to getting inquiries from people living in NY and all over. After about a year or more of this, an opportunity to buy an existing bakery presented itself to us. That opportunity fell through but it made us realize, why not go for it? Why not open our own place, doing the style I, personally, was used to from my other job in Oregon? We found our current space by a recommendation and we did just that. We went through all the work of designing the place, getting all the permits, doing the whole build out (there wasn’t even a gas line in the place)!! It was work, but we were excited. After a few delays (of course) we opened Jamaica’s Cakes in January of 2005. James is the brain behind the business. He has the keen eye for making things run smoother, how to be efficient, etc. I act as the kitchen manager. I am in charge of employees, product inventory and creating magnificent cakes. It has been 11 years and we are more motivated than ever. We recently changed our name to Top Tier Treats for a number of reasons. One had to do with the amount of inquires we got from people thinking we were a “Jamaican” style bakery. They didn’t realize I was a person, named Jamaica, who did cakes. We thought over time that thinking would die down, but it never did. We are also looking to get our stuff out into some markets and the new name has a much broader appeal to it.
Has it been a smooth road?
Nothing is ever a smooth road when opening up a shop. We were delayed a few months due to permits, grease trap requirements, things like that. Now that we’ve been open, there hasn’t been anything too challenging. We’d probably have to say the whole “Jamaican” cakes confusion has been an issue from the beginning, thus the name change. Also, the normal turnover of employees given this kind of job. It’s perfect for a student, but then they move away, or we’ve had great employees leave to go get married and have kids. When we have not had a good cake decorator, it has put more pressure on both of us to work longer hours. In the beginning, it was easy to work a 60-70 hour work week, we were motivated and had no kids. Now, we have the business plus 2 kids to juggle, so if Jamaica has to cover an extra shift or extra work is needed, that puts pressure on James to watch the kids and not get his work done as efficiently.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a custom cake shop, so that would be our specialty, but not just the looks, the flavor as well. Whether it’s for a grand wedding in the Kodak theater, or a decorative kid’s birthday cake, we do (almost) anything in the cake world. Our tag line, which my husband heard me say once is, “A beautiful cake makes a great first impression. The quality leaves a lasting one.” And it’s true, as most people who make spectacular cakes focus on the looks of the cake, but sacrifice quality and top ingredients. I mean, what’s the point if it doesn’t taste good, too?! After all, it IS dessert! We try to do a richer, less-sugary style, so even people that don’t “like cake” usually like ours. At our location, we have a full espresso/coffee bar, and I use the local roaster from my old job (Teuscher in Beverly Hills) as the supplier. Since we usually require a minimum of 1 week’s notice for most custom cakes, we always have a full bakery case as well, full of ready-to-go cakes that can have flowers and writing added at no charge, and bars, brownies, tarts, cookies, cupcakes, and more. We also specialize in vegan items, as about 1/4 of our business is dairy-free vegan desserts, which we can replicate almost all of our regular desserts and cakes with. We’ve even had a bride do the entire (red velvet) wedding cake vegan, because she was vegan, and none of the guests could tell!
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes and no. There are plusses and minuses in operating in such a large city. On one hand, you have more people who would want a specialty product, like ourselves.
However, the city itself is where we’ve run into most limiting factors. You would think the city would want to be on your side, but I don’t know one person who opens a new restaurant in the city that takes less than 6 months to open. I even tried to expand a year back, but permits, zoning, and regulations prevented us from creating more jobs and paying more taxes for the city. It seems a little backwards sometimes, as you would think they would be on your side, however the size of the departments and how little they communicate with each other really makes it tough.
Contact Info:
- Address: Top Tier Treats
11511 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064 - Website: www.TopTierTreats.com
- Phone: 310-478-1971
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @toptiertreats
- Facebook: @toptiertreatsLA
- Twitter: @toptiertreats
- Yelp: Top Tier Treats in Los Angeles
Image Credit:
James Crist
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