By Chanda Temple
For six years, Kristal Bryant was overlooked for promotions at a chain restaurant, where she worked as a five-star line cook.
She was skilled in handling all of the food stations and even worked double shifts to cover for others. When the company asked her to help open locations in other cities, she answered the call. But every time she inquired about a promotion, she was told, “We’ll get you in,” when the next door opens.
But that “next door” never came.
Kristal’s husband, Jonathan, saw how hard Kristal worked without advancement. So, he pushed her toward her passion: Step out on faith and do your side cake business, full time.
Those words stopped Kristal cold. The year was 2010, and she was a 27-year-old mother of two small girls. Even though Jonathan had a good job with the railroad, she wondered if she’d be able to make a living out of baking cakes and contribute to the household.
Still, with faith and determination, Kristal took the leap. It wasn’t easy. There were challenges, doubts and even tears. But over time, her fears gave way to confidence.
Today, Kristal’s leap of faith has paid off in ways she never imagined. Her downtown Birmingham business, K&J’s Elegant Pastries & Creamery, is a place where repeat customers, high-profile corporations, celebrities and professional athletes make orders. She’s baked cakes for Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Da Brat, and Slutty Vegan CEO Pinky Cole, appeared on Good Morning America and the Food Network, and does monthly cooking segments on Birmingham’s WBRC.
Through it all, one of her guiding principles has been the Bible verse: “Faith without works is dead.’’
“I have the faith, and as long as I put in the work, this will be successful,” Kristal said. “And that’s one of the things that’s always kept me, sane, even running the business now.”
But Kristal is quick to remind others that success does not happen overnight because the food industry is very hard to break into, gain a following and advance.
“In your mind, you think, ‘Oh, people know K&J.’ No, it does not work like that. I don’t care how long you’ve been around. It takes a long time for everybody to know who you are,’’ Kristal said.
Here’s a look at Kristal’s entrepreneurial journey:
2002- 2004 – Attended Virginia College in Homewood, AL to study savory cooking. But she left culinary school early in 2004 to work as a full-time line cook with a new chain restaurant.
2005 – Discovered a talent for making cakes and started making them for friends and family during her off time. Her baking skills were self-taught. She never studied the craft.
2009 – Created the name K&J’s Elegant Pastries, which is made up with the first initials of her, her husband and her children. She also launched her website, http://www.kjselegantpastries.com.
2010 – Left job at chain restaurant.
2010 – 2013 – Started making cakes full time from home, earning about $1,000 a week. But was forced to move into a brick and mortar in 2013 when the Shelby County Health Department said she could no longer make cakes at home. (In 2013, there was no law that allowed those in Shelby County to make and sell goods from home. That law has since changed.)
June 1, 2013 – Secured loans from family and friends to open a small storefront in Alabaster, AL. She bought used baking equipment and painted the store herself to get ready to sell cupcakes, cakes and pound cake. As a Birmingham native with fond memories of eating the large, homemade cinnamon rolls while attending Councill Elementary, Kristal added those to her menu.
December 2016 – Closed first store in Alabaster due to a property issue with the landlord.
February 2017 – Moved into a new location in Alabaster, adding ice cream and “Kollosal” milkshakes to the menu. Things were slow in the beginning. But after three or four months, al.com wrote about the milkshakes, and the story went viral. That next Saturday, people flocked to the store, and there was a 2.5 hour wait for shakes. But in June 2017, owners of a competing business stopped by her shop and started using her personal milkshake designs and names as their own, Kristal said. The “concept copycats” devastated Kristal, but she kept making shakes and cakes. She still had lines out the door and people driving six hours just to try the milkshakes. “Every time something bad happened, it actually elevated the business,” Kristal said. “And that has always kept me very faithful. I always felt that right when I was about to give up, … I’ve always been elevated in some type of way.”
“Once that happened, I had seven shakes and it encouraged me to create 20 shakes,” Kristal said. “It pushed me to keep the menu fresh and refreshed, so even if something is stolen, we have a whole new something.”
She also gained attention with her cake designs and creative cupcakes such as bacon atop a pancake cupcake and her chicken and waffle cupcakes. “I’ve got 120 cupcake flavors. So, we just rotated them every day, but still offered the standard strawberry, vanilla, lemon, cotton candy and chocolate every day.”
December 2019 – After realizing that 65 percent of their business was coming from Birmingham, Kristal decided to open a location in Birmingham and still run the Alabaster store. She signed a lease for a store in Birmingham’s Uptown hotel and business district. But when Covid hit in March 2020, things were put on hold for the Birmingham store.
2020 – Covid forced the 1,200 square foot Alabaster store to close for 2 to 3 months. But Kristal stayed rolling with her food truck, appearing in neighborhoods and food deserts. “The food truck saved our business. It was one of the things I was so thankful for,” she said.
2021 – Once her lease was up in Alabaster, Kristal closed the second Alabaster store and started building out the Uptown location in Birmingham’s City Walk tourist area.
August 2021 – Kristal learned she was pregnant with her third child, Jonathan Jr. It was a panicky moment for Kristal, but she kept the faith and kept things moving to get the Uptown location ready to open by spring 2022.
April 27, 2022 – Uptown location opened in City Walk, where hundreds of people visited for the World Games in Birmingham, July 7 – 17, 2022.
May 2022 – Jonathan Jr. is born and Kristal goes on maternity leave for two months. “It was a big challenge to have him in a time period where I was so busy. But it just worked out,’’ Kristal said. “My advice would be don’t let (pregnancy) stop you. Even if you are busy, you can always still have that balance of family and success.”
“Women, especially, feel like they have to make a choice. But I am a prime example you can definitely do both,’’ she said.
“After he was born (in May 2022), he came to the bakery with me for nine months. We had little bouncies and bassinets here. For me, I just didn’t want to miss those moments,’’ she said.
Jonathan now attends daycare during the week, and the couple’s parents alternate Saturdays to care for him so Kristal can work. “He’s now at an age where he can spot our logo. He says, ’That’s K&J’s, mama.’ ’’
September 2022 – Kristal is named one of 11 Bronze Alabama Retailers of the Year for businesses with sales less than $1 million.
December 2022 – A K&J’s location opened in Hoover’s Ross Bridge to expand their reach, serve consumers familiar with K&J’s when its food truck used to visit the area and to catch those living in Alabaster. The Uptown store remains open, too. Sales at the Ross Bridge store were good at first. But by December 2023, the Ross Bridge sales had plummeted. The cakes remained amazing, but people did not buy at that location. “I’m still confused as to why that store didn’t do what it needed to do,’’ Kristal said. “We were consistent. We had a good product. We were open when we said we would be. We had a good customer service. All those boxes were checked, but it’s still not a success.’’
Each month, the Ross Bridge location operated in the red and tried to hold on. By 2024, Kristal talked to her landlord and decided to close the Ross Bridge store. “In my mind, it was not a failure. It didn’t work. Keep it moving,’’ she said. “What I wasn’t going to allow it to do was to shut down the whole business because that could have happened if I kept digging in the hole. We were pulling from the downtown profits to supply Ross Bridge. I was like, this is not making sense.’’
2023 – Kristal’s middle daughter suggested K&J’s offer cinnamon sticks. Not one to want to copy what other businesses are doing, Kristal decided to roll her cinnamon dough into “bites.” And thus was born her Cinnamon Bites, which came with a cream cheese dipping sauce and caused a consumer craze.
In 2024, she started adding a syrupy pecan topping over the cinnamon rolls. “It tastes like a sticky bun bite. It’s so good,” Kristal said.
2024 – In honor of Black History Month, K&J’s placed edible images of famous Black historic leaders atop cupcakes. They’ve also done special cupcakes to celebrate UAB, the Magic City Classic and other events to pull in patrons. “I don’t have a marketing team or a social media person. I do all of that myself,” Kristal said. K&J also relaunched its food truck, making it available for private and corporate events.
Since closing Ross Bridge, Kristal has been able to focus on the downtown location, which has heavier foot traffic and is in a tourist attraction area. “Now that we’ve seen what our business does in a neighborhood, versus a business type district, it needs to be in a business type district,’’ Kristal said. “Being that we are something extra, we need to be in an area where people are on vacation and they have a little extra money to spend.’’
“We are going to focus on this one store and let it do what we know it can do,’’ Kristal said. “What happened made me analyze so many things. Being successful is having people buying from you and letting them know you are there. Location is the most important thing.’’
2025 – Researching ways to establish online ordering and ship cakes to customers. The store has provided desserts for the BJCC and Protective Stadium and is looking to gain more corporate contracts.
As 2025 begins, Kristal has three tips for those wanting to start a food business
1. Be prepared because running a business takes patience and sacrifice
“This is not an industry where it’s all gas. There are a lot breaks,’’ Kristal said. “I’ve had so many breaks in 12 years. And there were so many times I wanted to give up. But if you stay consistent and keep pushing forward, you can meet your goals.’’
2. Build your clientele so when you get into a store, you have returning customers.
“Had I not been forced to go into a store in 2013, my first two years would not have been as hard because I would have already built a clientele,’’ Kristal said.
3. Don’t feel like you have to have a storefront.
A lot of people think they have to have a store. But remember, a store brings extra bills, insurance, employees, etc. However, the upside in having a store is that you get to do bigger contracts, such as thousands of orders for companies. It all depends on how far you want your business to grow, Kristal said.
Savor This! K&J’s Elegant Pastries is located at 2260 9th Ave. North, right around the corner from Eugene’s Hot Chicken in Birmingham’s City Walk. They are just a block away from the BJCC and the Sheraton Hotel. They are closed on Sunday and Monday. They are open Tuesday – Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. And open Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Their phone number is 205-663-4827. Their email address is kjelegantpastries@yahoo.com.
Chanda Temple is an award-winning writer living in Birmingham, AL. She blogs at http://www.chandatemplewrites.com. If you have a food story idea, email her at chandatemple@gmail.com. Follow her food postings on Instagram at @chandatemple.
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