Conversations with Dan Stringfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Stringfield.

Hi Dan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was a computer science major in college (University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill) and worked at IBM for nine years in the Washington, DC area. In 1990 my first partner died quite suddenly from a massive heart attack due to an unknown congenital defect. His death really made me realize how short life can be and how quickly it can be taken away. I decided to give up a career I had chosen for its financial security and pursue a career in a field that I loved — cooking. I quit IBM, left DC and moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the California Culinary Academy (CCA). I thought I was going to eventually open my own restaurant, but through the program and various jobs, I realized that baking was really my niche. The life of a cook can be very isolating, working hours when everyone else is off. With baking, there was a chance of a semblance of a normal life. After culinary school, I ended up landing a job as the head baker at a bakery in Woodside, California owned by a Swiss-trained pastry chef and former instructor at the CCA. He and his wife were very difficult people to work for and please, but they really taught me how to run a bakery and manage costs.

After two years there, I was ready to open my own place. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to do that, so I ended up taking a year off and driving around the country, visiting cities but mainly camping in National Parks. That trip taught me how little you need to be happy. It was one of the best years of my life. Following that trip, I decided San Diego was the nicest place to live in the country and moved here. I stayed with friends for a couple of months and met my current husband, Bernie Horan. At that time (1997), Twiggs was a coffeehouse in a just-starting-to-gentrify University Heights. The original owners were burned out and were going to close the place. Bernie knew the wife and contacted her about buying the place. She was quite surprised anyone was interested in purchasing it, and we ended up buying it for a very modest amount. For a year, we ran it as just a coffeehouse. Then we found a commercial kitchen space down the street (Plumeria restaurant currently occupies part of this space). We opened a bakery there, supplying pastries to the coffee house and starting up a wedding cake business. A couple of years later, we opened a second location at the base of the El Cortez on Cortez Hill (Soleluna Cafe occupies the space now). We ran that for about five years and then sold it to the original owners of Soleluna. We then built out our current bakery space on Adams Avenue from a concrete slab. Our timing was lousy — opening during the Great Recession of 2008. But we preserved. 2021 marks the 24th anniversary of Twiggs being in business in San Diego. It’s been great, frustrating, fun, maddening, all-consuming and something both Bernie and I are very proud of.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I could go on for 2000 words or more about the struggles, but I’ll focus on two: The Recession of 2008 was a huge struggle. It was the first time that we’d been in business that there was a significant financial slowdown. I really wanted to keep our staff on and, honestly, made some poor decisions that kept us paying staff we didn’t need and ended up losing a lot of money that year. Covid: By far the biggest challenge we’ve faced. But I learned a lot from 2008 and applied those lessons. I laid off a staff right away and cut our hours. My primary focus was making sure the business could survive, not individual employees. The fact that unemployment was so generous initially made that decision softer.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
One of the things that have really helped us over the years is that we don’t depend on one stream of income. We’re a coffeehouse that has folks coming in daily for their caffeine and pastry fix. We’re a quick breakfast place that folks can get a great bacon/egg/cheese biscuit on the way to work or a scramble to start a weekend day. We’re a bakery for birthday cakes and wedding cakes. I’m proud of all aspects of our business.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I’m definitely an introvert. My husband is an extrovert who loves to interact with the public. Growing up as a gay kid in the Bible Belt (mountains of Western North Carolina), I learned the best way to avoid judgment was to be invisible. I still carry a lot of desire to be out of the spotlight today.

Contact Info:

• Email: twiggsbakery@gmail.coim
• Website: www.twiggs.org
• Instagram: @twiggsbakerycafe
• Facebook: Twiggs Bakery and Coffee House