Shakes worth waiting hours for? Fans line up around the block at this Georgetown bakery
It’s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic hit lots of food providers really hard, including bakeries.
When you’ve spent years building a business on wedding cakes, what do you when suddenly every wedding is on hold?
Baker Tia Chancellor, owner of Sweet Matriarch in Georgetown, went cattywampus.
That’s the name of her mind-blowing milkshakes: Cattywampus Shakes.
She had the idea last fall to open up a walk-up window and offer amazing milkshakes, like she’d heard about in New York a few years ago, but with a Southern twist. Just something fun, she thought.
“Now it’s become a blessing and curse,” she said.
A blessing because people love her shakes. And curse?
Because they love them a LOT.
Like “wait-in-line-for-hours” love.
What’s the fuss about? In part, it’s because they are so over-the-top, with toppings and extras that make it more like three or four desserts in one.
The shakes start with Blue Bell Ice Cream, Chancellor said.
And the menu of about 20 different shakes she can make varies depending on what flavors she can get from her supplier. Their most popular is Death by Chocolate which features a brownie and two types of chocolate.
And every piece is made by her shop of quality ingredients like Weisenberger Mill flour for the baked goods, which are made with real butter, real vanilla and high-end dark chocolate. She makes all the cupcakes, cookies and other items that “garnish” the shakes.
She does a banana pudding milkshake and makes the vanilla wafers.
“We make our whipped cream and the drizzles that go on top,” she said.
She adds nostalgic touches of candy and presents the whole thing in a Mason jar that the customer takes to go.
It’s about a 20-step process and takes about five minutes to assemble each milkshake, she said.
And there’s really not much Chancellor can do to make them any faster.
Her tiny shop in Georgetown is closed for dining in, but there a couple of tables on the sidewalk. She often hands out cold bottles of water to customers with their milkshake.
She opens the window for about four hours most days, although if people are in line she will keep going as long as they have ice cream. Most days there are people waiting when they open up.
They make 100 to 225 a day. It’s all walk-up ordering, no pre-ordering. Last Saturday, one customer put in an order for 14 milkshakes.
“We’ve had people tell us they waited four hours,” she said. Most Saturdays they stay open until 7 p.m. or later so that people who have been in line don’t go home empty-handed. Chancellor said Saturday is by far their busiest day.
“There have been lines, especially on the weekend, up and around the corner to the Baptist church. ... It was never my intention to have people wait that long,” she said. “We’re so grateful, and we’re working as hard and as fast as we can to make sure people can get what they have come for.”
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, she said, “we were scared. We went straight from winter into shutdown. And I thought ‘what am I going to do,’ all my cakes were canceled.”
So she decided to give the shakes a try. Black Tap in New York and The Legendairy Milkshake Bar in Nashville, as well as ice cream shops, diners and sweet shops around the country have joined the milkshake trend.
She launched with photos of two versions of her own — one with a chocolate Easter bunny and another with a Peep — on her Facebook page.
“That went viral. ... Somebody said, ‘you’re Georgetown famous,’” she said. “That was when I thought, ‘we’ve got something here.’”
Demand has been strong every since, despite the hot weather. She’s even run out of Mason jars on occasion.
For fall, she’s planning to do versions with a pumpkin roll and funnel cakes.
She also is looking at launching a mobile “Cattywampus Station” for next summer and adding hours in the shop for private events.
“I do wedding cakes and they’re always so serious. I wanted to do something fun, and to see families come together and have fun, and especially with everything that’s going on, it makes me happy,” she said. “Life is too short; I think we’ve all realized that.”
Sweet Matriarch Bakery
Where: 146 South Broadway in Georgetown
Price: $13 plus tax for each Cattywampus Shake
Hours: 1 to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Saturday
Call: 502-783-6492
Online: southernkindasweet.com; Facebook.com/SweetMatriarch/
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
