Our Story
Hi, I’m chef Lea Marie Dennis. In 2012 I was working as a private chef, and I rented a tiny commercial kitchen in Barrio Logan, San Diego to open a boutique catering company. Cooking in houses during the day and running my catering kitchen early mornings, late nights, weekends, and holidays, I gradually reinvested my paycheck into the catering business and one by one earned the honor of catering for the San Diego Symphony, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Mingei International Museum, the Natural History Museum and others. We did it with hard work and love!
Along the way, I became obsessed with the cookies we served for receptions. I made adjustment after adjustment until they were the most delicious and addictive chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever have. It’s hard to make a common thing like a chocolate chip cookie really stand out without any gimmicks. Our cookies shine because the buttery-brown sugar flavor, chewy and crunchy-toffee texture, ingredient quality, and crackly, rustic appearance are SO GOOD.
We. Are. Obsessed.
We became known for our cookies, and I decided to launch a business-to-business cookie line three years ago. Suddenly, something happened that changed my motivation for working. Our cookies were being sold at Panama 66 in the heart of Balboa Park, and I’d receive texts from my friends and their kids having beers, burgers, and my cookies. I felt connected to my community and my friends in a way I never had before working in private homes and high-end receptions. And, my cookies were supporting my friends’ pizza shops, delis, breweries, and cafes. I came from a family of musicians and artists, so catering for the symphony and museums is a huge honor, but Sugar Kiln IS a family.
Covid-19 changed our community and economy forever. In one day, the catering business that I worked nights, weekends, and holidays to build was closed as I received notice from every performing arts hall and museum I served that programming was canceled indefinitely to protect our public health.
Overcoming Adversity
I found myself in the position of many small business owners; it is small business owners like us who are responsible for re-evaluating a very new world, and quickly, creatively pivoting to serve our community safely and create jobs again. We are rebuilding the part of the economy that disappeared, reuniting our bakery family and giving them a paycheck again after months of uncertainty.
Covid-19 changed our restaurant community forever. Since then we've been partnering with local restaurants to provide take-out ready, super-delicious packaged desserts. These alliances helped our restaurant friends boost their take-out sales during these hard times, and have helped us get our incredible team of bakers back to the job they love. We’d LOVE to partner with more San Diego restaurants, cafes, and bars, especially if your story is like ours and you opened your dream business here in San Diego.
We are proud of ten years of work, all the ups and downs, and the way this cookie is part of a community of businesses, people, and super delicious sugar buzzes and picnics in the park.
Alliances with local restaurants help our restaurant friends boost their take-out sales during these hard times, and have helped us get our incredible team of bakers back to the job they love.
We would LOVE to partner with more San Diego restaurants, food trucks, cafes, and bars, especially if your story is like ours and you opened your dream business here in San Diego.
