New Year’s Eve was like any other business day for SweetNanaCakes when the bakery closed at noon after filling holiday wishes.
“That’s what my dad used to call my daughter,” Shannon Tinsley said of the bakery’s name. Her daughter, Ceara, is almost 30 years old.
But Monday morning, the day after New Year’s Day, Tinsley received a call from Blue Dog Grooming in the suite next door to her bakery. Water was coming into the groomer’s space from SweetNanaCakes’ side.
When Tinsley arrived at her bakery, six to eight inches of water covered the floor from the back of the store to the door. A brass fitting on the back of the sink in the back of the store had snapped.
“I’m trying to see it as an opportunity, but I don’t know what that opportunity is yet,” she said.
The bakery is closed on Mondays anyway, but cleanup from the flooding kept SweetNanaCakes closed until last Friday.
The bakery opened in its current location in March 2020, and was previously on Richmond Avenue by the railroad tracks in Staunton near downtown since September 2016.
“We have been doing well. We love it,” Tinsley said of the new location. She added that the bakery is centrally located to Valley customers now that it’s on Jefferson Highway near Waynesboro.
Water restoration companies were booked up and unable to assist the bakery, so Tinsley and her staff had to perform clean up themselves before reopening. At some point, the bakery will have to close so that the floor can be replaced, which will be paid for by insurance.
“We just wanted to get back up and open,” Tinsley said of last week.
Right now is a tough time for small business owners like Tinsley with staffing challenges, supply chain shortages and the price of food increasing. She said the price of eggs is five times what it was last year.
“There’s just things that are stacking up against us right now,” she said.
Tinsley said that when customers heard about the flooding, they offered to help clean up. The Buckhorn Inn in Churchville offered to allow Tinsley and her staff to use their kitchen.
“Our customers are so amazing,” she said.
SweetNanaCakes will be okay, according to Tinsley, but some cost will be involved in ordering and replacing items and supplies lost in the flooding.
“We just didn’t want to miss any customer orders. We love what we do.”
Tinsley said she and her staff are “amazed at how much love and support we felt.”
SweetNanaCakes offers cupcakes, cookies, cakes, cookie dough and specialty baked items, as well as gluten free and keto goods. Coffee and a breakfast menu are also available.
SweetNanaCakes is at 2406 Jefferson Highway, Suite 108 in Augusta County near the Waynesboro city limits. The bakery is open Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Rebecca Barnabi
