Local Veteran Seeks Help for Bakery

December 24, 2020 - San Antonio

The Nestle Toll House Cafe has been open for over two years and is located at 6626 W. Loop 1604 North (suite 215), near Culebra Commons in Northwest San Antonio. Photos: Valeria Torrealba

By: Valeria Torrealba - Staff Intern, San Antonio Sentinel

For Sherry Ramirez, owning a bakery and creating a safe environment for her community has propelled her to successfully own and operate San Antonio’s Nestle Toll House Cafe with the incentive to provide opportunities to those who may not have them come as easily.

Ramirez’s dream came from her own history and experiences. A retired Air Force veteran, she found her love for serving her community through the military. 

“I retired out of the Air Force and I became a Nurse Practitioner and Nurse. It was an honor to serve and I loved it, it was my dream to be able to take care of the people who put their lives on the line for our country,” Ramirez said. “I had been stationed here in San Antonio, so after I retired, I decided I would come back here and I wanted to open up a ranch for adult foster children, because they are such a large population of foster children that would not get adopted; they’d eventually fall prey to drugs, crime and sex.”

Ramirez’s project began with a need to provide a safe space for adult foster children. Within the property, she hoped to set up horse therapy that would allow for veterans and neurological adults to thrive in.  

“I wanted to open up a ranch with horses and have a home for them to come live in, and if they had siblings, they could [come as well]. Horse therapy would be for any children with autism, or anybody with autism, as well as veterans or active military with brain injury,” Ramirez said. “It would all be done for free.  I opened up the cafe to have a place and feed money into the ranch.”

With her hopes set high and determination fueling her, Ramirez opened up the bakery. Ambition from her grandmother’s own hamburger restaurant gave Ramirez the incentive and skills needed to serve the public. 

“We opened 2.5 years ago. My grandmother had a hamburger restaurant when I was young, so I always loved to serve people,” Ramirez said. “I looked around, and this was one of the best franchises I could get into. There wasn’t one here in San Antonio [yet]. Everyone loves cookies. It’s a happy business. Also, the foster kids could work here if they wanted to when they become teenagers. I could teach them entrepreneurship.”

Business for Ramirez was as smooth as possible. Within just the first two years of opening, the bakery saw itself busy serving the community. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, business began to stagger and Ramirez found herself questioning whether her bakery would survive. 

“We were doing well the first two years, and then COVID hit,” Ramirez said. “Our business initially closed when the whole city had to close, and then we opened back up for curbside and delivery, but that still wasn’t enough business. Eventually, we opened for dining, but the customers just didn’t come back. They either didn’t know we were open, or they were afraid [of COVID].”

The dream bakery saw itself in tumultuous waters, navigating a pandemic and shutdowns at the same time. The statewide lockdown put Ramirez and her employees in a rough position, one where they would have to sacrifice the business and product. 

“I was struggling, I was behind on my rent for 5 months,” Ramirez said. “I was able to pay my employees and the common area maintenance fee, but we were like two days from closing. My heart was so heavy, because I hire veterans, autistic people, people on social security — I didn’t want to lay them off because I love them.”

“I try to keep it going. I just can’t find a big enough word to thank everybody. To say thank you. It doesn’t feel like enough for all the love and support that everybody continues to show. I wish I could hug everybody. I wish I could invent a new word that could show my appreciation for everything that everyone’s done.” - Sherry Ramirez

However, Ramirez took to social media to seek help — and the community responded. 

Eventually, the video she filmed made its way to a local food blogger, David Elder. Elder is with the television news station KSAT12 and he in turn shared the video on his own instagram account. 

“I didn’t know where I was going to get the money, so I decided to put a video up on my Facebook and see if I can get my regular customers to come back. I had no idea when I put that on, on Saturday the 21 (November) — it totally changed the life of this cafe,” Ramirez said. “We’ve had constant sales, sometimes it overwhelms us, we weren’t quite ready for such an onslaught. We’re working every day as hard as we can. We love our customers, and I designed the cafe to be a comfy, cozy cabin where people could come and [socialize], so we want that environment back again but safely.” 

Having seen what the mandates can do to her business, Ramirez has set herself to stay open throughout the pandemic, holding out hope that her business will survive.

“I honestly don’t think we would survive another lockdown, so that’s why I’m being extremely careful with my employees,” Ramirez said. “We take their temperatures every day. Financially, we would probably be good through the end of this year, but if we close again — at that point, I’m not sure we would have the money to come back. When we closed, we lost a lot of food because it couldn’t be kept for 5 weeks. We had to throw [it all] away. We wouldn’t survive another shutdown. I’m still trying to pay back the backrent — I dropped off a check today to pay off for 3.5 months of that.”

Ramirez is still set in her ambition to continue to serve her community and funnel her earnings into her dream ranch. The residents of San Antonio have responded overwhelmingly well, fueling and cascading the bakery with love to keep it afloat. 

“People still keep coming, it’s still a blessing,” Ramirez said. “I try to keep it going. I just can’t find a big enough word to thank everybody. To say thank you. It doesn’t feel like enough for all the love and support  that everybody continues to show. I wish I could hug everybody. I wish I could invent a new word that could show my appreciation for everything that everyone’s done.”

With the multitude of opportunities the community has given Ramirez, she decided to give back. Ramirez is set to help out local food banks as a form of gratitude.

“I did try to give back to the food bank. They need volunteers, so I’m going to get my employees to volunteer a couple of shifts a week to help out,” Ramirez said. “We are so blessed — if we don’t pay it forward and give it back, shame on us.”

The community has shown an outpouring of love for Ramirez and her bakery. It is because of them that her dream will continue to play out. Ramirez feels gratitude and love for her community, both for sustaining her bakery and allowing her to see the strength of the bonds the San Antonio community has for one another. 

“I believe that if we didn’t have each other, there’s really not a reason to be here,” said Ramirez. 

The Nestle Toll House Cafe is located at 6626 W. Loop 1604 North (suite 215), near Culebra Commons in Northwest San Antonio.

Valeria Torrealba is an opinions columnist and public relations assistant at the University Star, a student publication of Texas State University. Email her at reporter@sasentinel.com