Today we’d like to introduce you to Tarit Tanjasiri.
Hi Tarit, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started Crema Cafe in Seal Beach in 2005, after having 4 other restaurants in Downtown LA for starting since 1993. Some of them were wonderfully successful and some were not. Typical of being in this business.
Crema cafe in Seal Beach was a spot that had intrigued me for many years before deciding to take over the location we are in today. I saw an opportunity to start a European-style cafe serving breakfast and lunch. It is to be a gathering place for friends, family, business meetings, and all other long-lost friendships to come together in our courtyard.
The business grew organically over the years, serving our community and slowly adding customers who were willing to drive to our little beach town. It has grown each and every year till today after 17 years with exception of 2020, 2021 for pandemic reasons.
Our artisan bakery was opened in 2012 next to our cafe. The idea was born out of necessity and passion to find and make the best possible artisan breads and French pastries. Because of this idea, I went back to school at the French Pastry school in Chicago to learn bread baking from the master bread baker Didier Rosada. My love of baking became a true reality after meeting him and continued to learn to be a better baker over the years.
After 4 years of retail bakery at Seal Beach, there were such a demand for our product be sold wholesale. It became impossible to produce enough quantity in 900 sq.ft. next to the restaurant so our baking facility had to be moved to a larger baking commissary in Irvine 2016. There we started a new wholesale brand called Crema Artisan Bakers, LLC
Our cafe was renovated once again in 2017 to create a more open space for retail and restaurant seating. It was a beautiful transformation.
Our wholesale business grew to many wholesale customers who gets delivery from us daily. We are so proud to supply many of the best restaurants, cafes, hotels, and theme parks. This was my dream to do so from the start.
In the past couple of years, we have also collaborated with an amazing partner in 7 leaves Cafe. Crema Cafe and 7 Leaves opened our first restaurant/cafe together in Fountain Valley, CA called Artisan, it is a blend of our two philosophies of elevated food and drinks for the local neighborhood. There we serve Crema Cafe and bakery goods with some exclusive items that is only available at Artisan and a few other 7 leaves cafe. Our food is also an elevated menu item grown from our Seal Beach to our new location that includes some specular brunch menu and artisan pizzas.
Overall, I am blessed to be working in a tough industry but found many like-minded friends that has helped each other grow. Baking has become the best job I have ever been involved with. Overall the failures and successes, my most fulfilling takeaway from being in this industry for over 20 years are the relationships I have and call so many as close friends.
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?
No one in this hospitality industry ever finds a smooth roads. Many struggles come from lack of proper funding, hard-to-find good employees, working with unreasonable landlords, etc.
Our economy and marketplace has never been my excuse for upturn or downturn of our business. It has always been a catalyst to be flexible and adapt to changing climates and changing taste or habits.
Through my experience of failing in a couple of business, I have always found flaws in how I went about decision-making then. Take them as valuable lessons not to be repeated. There are no shortcuts to this industry.
We’ve been impressed with Crema Cafe, Crema Artisan Bakers, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
For Crema Cafe, we have been around in Seal Beach for over 17 years. We are proud to be a part of the community for such a long time and plan to be there as long as they will love and have us. We have managed to be there through our philosophy of customer service, best possible product, and unique setting close to the ocean.
Our wholesale bakery in Irvine, I’m especially proud of our growth during some of the toughest times in our business life. During the pandemic, we were able to keep all of our staff minimally employed. We provided every staff family a weekly provisions of chicken, eggs, milk, rice, beans, lentils, and breads at no cost. We turned our large commissary into a catering kitchen to make and provide meals for first responders, single parents, and elderly.
Due to the fact that we kept both businesses open and providing provisions to our community when restrictions eased, we were able to hit the ground running and get our businesses back to our pre-pandemic levels quickly.
Crema Artisan Bakers, provide wholesale baked product to cafes, restaurants, hotels, and theme park with the highest quality French-style artisan breads, pastries, desserts, cookies. We use only the highest quality ingredients and artisan processes to bring highest quality product to our wholesale customers. We provide delivery 7 days a week to ensure absolute freshness.
Contact Info:
- Website: cremacafe.com , Cremaartisan.com
- Instagram: Cremacafe, CremaArtisan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCremaCafe/
- Twitter: @Cremacafe
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crema-cafe-seal-beach-4
