Tia: I am Tia Devette and you are in Newberry, South Carolina at Laila's Place.

Laila's Place is a bakery and cafe in the heart of downtown Newberry.

We got started actually as a home based business.

We started our company back in 2018.

I believe that's correct.

And at the time, I was a full time nurse and COVID happened.

And you know how the healthcare world kind of took a hit.

Things shifted.

I found myself relying on baking full time.

And from there we were able to come into this wonderful brick and mortar.

And we've been here since August 1 of 2020.

Just churning out old fashion made from scratch desserts.

Laila is a real person.

She is our 13 year old daughter.

And so she's in the middle of her two brothers, Xavier and Benjamin.

We all, all love to bake, all love to cook.

Our kitchen is the heart of our home.

It's where our family typically gathers.

And so you know, because we all love baking.

She's the only girl.

She got the name, it's just a beautiful thing to be able to be able to share that passion, not only with my mother, and my husband and our children, but with my husband's family as well.

We only use family recipes.

My husband and I we were very blessed to be able to inherit his grandma's cookbooks After she passed away, and then so it's, it's beautiful to be able to go through her boxes upon boxes of cookbooks.

And just see the little notes that she's made in the margins where she's adjusted the recipe.

And even with my mother in law, you know, if she loves to go through magazines, and, and she'll, she'll try something and she'll say, Well, I tried this and but we're going to tweak it a little bit here, or we sit and come up with our own recipes.

And I mean, it's just a beautiful thing to be able to share that passion, not only with my mother, and my husband and our children, but with my husband's family as well.

If South Carolina was a dish at Laila's Place, it would have to be a poundcake.

And I choose that because most often when a pound cake is served, is served to a family, typically, after church on a Sunday, or at some sort of a family function.

So because family is at the heart of Laila's Place, I would have to say that it would be that that pound cake, it was the first cake that I ever made from scratch.

And my granddaddy put us blessing on that pound cake.

And it's just, it's very near and dear to my heart.

And I'm so thankful that our customers love that pound cake too.

The customers favorite would hands down would have to be the chicken salad, followed by the red velvet cupcakes, and then probably followed by the chocolate chip cookie.

And we make probably about 160 pounds of chicken salad a week.

And we probably make about 80 petals of pimento cheese a week.

And again, all of that's made from scratch, small businesses, the heartbeat of a community.

You know, whether it's just being a place where the community can come after a ball practice or after a ball game.

Whether you're just out on a Saturday, just spending time with your family.

It's really important to keep small businesses open.

They add life in value to communities.

And when you when you support small businesses, you're supporting moms and dads for just trying to take care of their children.

You know, Newberry is dubbed the city of friendly folks, we can definitely lay claim to that as well here at Laila's Place and it's just the love that we have for baking.

That we're blessed to be able to share that with our customers every single day.