Mayte:
Yes, my name is Mayte Chavez, but now I’m Mayte Rueda because I was married to his father. So, Mayte Chavez.
Edwin:
Edwin Rueda.
What is the name of your business and how long have you been open?
Mayte Sweets since August 18, 2021 at 901 Broad Street, New Bern.
So why did you open this place and why in Downtown New Bern?
Mayte:
I guess it was because of Covid. Because I knew from the beginning, when I went to culinary school, that it was a nightmare to have a business. So, it was like one of those ideas that I had, but I really didn’t want it to be 24/7. So, when covid came, I started making macarons. And then Edwin is like, ah, let’s do it. And we came to this building, and Jonathan was super nice, and he talked to us, and everything came together at one time. We were not planning. He had no idea how to make coffee. I was making macarons. I was a pastry chef, but I was not working because we were living overseas for 20 years. So, I was like, “Okay, let’s do it.” And yeah, he had nightmares about making coffee. And we had, I think, I think that New Bern was our place. We had the house. And every time my ex would go on deployment, we’d stay here. So, with covid, we were just kind of, what do we do?
Edwin:
What happened was, I mean, she was bored. Obviously, we were all incredibly bored, and she had never really made macarons, so she tried out a bunch of recipes, none of them really worked. And then she said, “All right, you know what? I’m gonna do it myself.” She picked out what works and a bunch of different things, and she made her own recipe. So these macarons, that’s her secret formula.
Mayte:
Yeah, it was a Covid kind of recipe.
Edwin:
And we originally wanted to open just macarons, but I also couldn’t find a good place to have coffee. I lived in Northern Italy for a few years, and I wanted Lavazza. So, you know, we played around with the idea for a little while. Then eventually, one day, we said, “You know what, let’s just do it. What’s The Harm, what’s the foul?” You needed something to do. I needed something to do. And, you know, we started looking around for business buildings in the area. Wrote our business plan. We ran into this building, kind of not knowing what it was, and it was destroyed, almost like the outskirts, like nothing in here. And yeah, Jonathan and Becky were looking for people to put in. We spoke to them, we told them our idea, and they were like, “Yeah, this is awesome. Let’s go through with it.” They renovated the whole building, everything. They asked us what colors we wanted, the walls, and the floor. We wanted to open in the spring and then got pushed back with contractors and the City with their papers and the inspections. But yeah, we eventually opened on a Saturday. They came in on Friday and inspected and said, “All right, you can open tomorrow.” We didn’t have any fridges. We didn’t really have a real oven. I barely knew how to use the machine yet.
And we said, All right, we’re gonna open on the 18th. What’s the worst thing to happen? I’m sure not that many people are excited to come in. We had a line out the door. I couldn’t figure out how to make the coffees. We kept running out of pastries. People got angry that they couldn’t get stuff. We’re like “Guys, we’re making this from scratch every day.
Then eventually we got the hang of it. We stopped running out of things, extended our hours, hired people.
From there we just kept going. And, you know, I perfected my craft for coffee, Mayte perfected her craft for pastries, and she no longer has to stay here 12 hours a day. She gets to leave at one or two because we’ve got our groove going. Yes, that’s damaged,
Mayte:
But it helped a lot that Becky’s father, he loved macaroons. So when we went to talk to them, he was like, Oh, I like them. I think that the macarons were the thing we originally wanted to do it. And then he said you do have to do all your pastries. And people came for the macarons and stayed for the pastries. Yeah, things you can’t get anywhere else.
And it’s crazy, because we were like making, like, the count, how many cups do we need to sell a day, pastries a day? And it was nothing.
Edwin:
I mean, if we could do it over again, we would do it slightly differently with what we’ve learned. I had no experience in any kind of business. I had never opened a business. I had never made coffee before. I’d never done barista before. I’d never done payroll before; I’d never done insurance or any of that earlier. You just figure it out.
So what is your favorite part about owning this business?
Mayte:
It’s been an experience, but it’s been cool. I like it. I love my job. I love to talk to people. But yeah, there’s a lot of expats that come here just for the coffee and for the European desserts that they cannot find. Because, yeah, but the coffee is the main thing. When they look in New Bern, they look for espresso. I think that talking with people, and then meeting people, and we have the regulars that have been coming for four years, every day we know what they want. I think it’s just a social place.
Edwin:
Yeah, a third home.
Mayte:
And then we have salsa classes, we have baking glasses. We have social stuff. We have a social salsa class once a month or twice a month, and then my boyfriend plays with one of the Latin bands.
What’s your favorite thing to make?
Mayte:
Macarons, even though I hate them sometimes, but yeah, they are my babies because they are so difficult and so easy. It’s very strange.
What is your favorite thing to make?
Edwin: Probably a latte, or some kind of Spanish latte, because I can make them look really nice. I drink just espresso, but I love the way my lattes look. I take a lot of pride in that. Took me a long time to make my latte.
Mayte:
To tell you the truth, I’m surprised that he learned because he was freaking out.
Edwin:
Still do freak out.
Mayte:
All of us, when we started, when we opened, we had nightmares. Like everybody had nightmares that we burned the stuff or the coffee was not ready. My helpers had no experience. They were like, 17 and 20 and one of my neighbors, and the other one was his girlfriend, and they had no experience, so I had to teach them, and then we had to all jump. It was just a mess, but it was fun. It was fun. We made it. We learned.
What do you think the future is for your business?
Edwin:
I think we’re in a great spot at the moment, so honestly, we’re excited to be here. We might have a few little projects in downtown, but we do want to keep in this area.
Mayte:
Just to make more macaroons. I think that macarons is the way to go.
Edwin:
I feel like having opened this place really allowed us to be more involved with the community. I mean, from here I went, you know, I helped them open Kuma, and then I ended up going to Baxter’s. That led me to the Swiss bear. I love being part of that, to help with the growth of New Brrn, because I think it’s so important to make sure that this little town grows into what it could be. I really do think it can be a lot. I love to be part of that. I think that’s probably the most important thing for me, is our involvement with the town. How about you?
Mayte:
I think that it’s fantastic that New Bern is growing, and we can be part of it in our own little way. And that’s what we try to do, yeah, we don’t try to be pretentious or anything. We just let everyone come on in. Come enjoy us.