Meet Elizabeth Acevedo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Acevedo.

Hi Elizabeth, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am a self-taught baker and owner of Beanwood Bakery. As a little girl, I grew up tailing my mother in the kitchen. Weaving her love and creativity, she would make all sorts of handmade dishes, and more importantly, desserts. From here, I learned how to nurture others through food.

In the spring of 2008, we began the process of opening our very own restaurant in Bordentown, New Jersey. Beanwood Latin Bistro was a labor of love, with the goal of offering unique products to our community. We earned our reputation serving fresh brewed Coffee, Tea, Paninis, Soups, and of course pastries like mini tarts, cookies and biscotti. As we grew, so did our menu, from breakfast sandwiches and French Toast to full Pulled Pork platters with Yellow Rice, Pigeon Peas and Sweet Plantains. The secret to Beanwood’s success was the love and support of the small community we grew in and the dedication of our staff, both family and friends. After seven years of hard work building our small restaurant business in the Spring of 2015 Beanwood closed its doors. The cold climate affected my health and was the driving force to relocate to a warmer climate. We soon found ourselves here in South Florida, and although the bistro was gone, our passion for cooking and baking still burned brightly. My partner and I tried for many chef and baker positions all over Broward County, but nothing ever felt quite right. After some deep soul searching, in 2021 we decided the time was right, and we brought Beanwood back anew. We went from having a local Latin restaurant in NJ to now a home-based online bakery in Fort Lauderdale. The concept changed, but our goal of producing artisan quality desserts while maintaining that homemade taste remains the same.

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?
We have gone through many challenges to get to where we are today. When we started, we tried to get a loan but many investors were unwilling to take the risk. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and gather all the money that we could. We moved forward, self-financed. While this allowed us to really get things going, it also put some unexpected restraints. We had to be very frugal with finding equipment and supplies. Which influenced our menu items like the spinach and feta omelet (one of our more popular breakfast items ) was inspired by the fact that the ingredients fit our budget and was versatile enough to be used in lunch items as well. With our budgets so tight, we had little in the way of advertising. In that regard, the community really came through for us. Then, we moved to South Florida and starting from scratch in a new city was not easy. Especially getting the word out in our community to make people get to know our flavor and trust our work. I believe we are still getting started but we are very grateful for the support that friends and family have given us. What keeps us moving forward is our passion for cooking and baking and seeing the satisfaction of our customers when they taste our products.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Beanwood is a home-based online bakery that offers artisan desserts with a homemade taste located in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

How do you think about luck?
I believe there is always a small chance of luck in life but that comes second. You first have to study and prepare yourself so when the right opportunities come to you, you are ready!

I have started from 0 and have studied and prepared myself to be where I’m at today. So I don’t believe luck got me here. To me is like icing on the cake for doing the right things. I’m just super grateful for all the love and support we are getting.

Pricing:

• $18-$60

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://www.beanwoodcoffee.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/beanwoodcoffee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beanwoodcoffee/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/beanwoodcoffee
• Other: https://g.page/r/CfBtdn4S8qOrEAg/review 

Image Credits
Author : Tim Proctor  Associates Copyright : Copyright: C.Timothy Proctor (Personal Photo) Author: Alexa Santana – Summa Digital Agency Copyright: Alexa Santana – Summa Digital Agency (Product Photography)