Benton resident Suzanne Godbold has been baking for special occasions (and ordinary ones) for about three years, but up until now, she has operated from her home kitchen. Her business, Three Best Bakery, has grown and she has been looking for a commercial location for a while.
She talks about how she found this spot at 107 W. Conway in historic downtown Benton. “It honestly fell in to my lap,” Godbold says. “It wasn’t on the market for lease yet, and one morning I went to see Lyndsey at The Loft and she randomly mentioned it to me. She got me in contact with the owner, I went to meet her, and it’s all fallen into place! I was so excited after having looked for the perfect place for so long.”
Godbold doesn’t have an opening date set yet, and there are some other things still up in the air, but knows she wants to stick to the things that have worked for her so far.
“We will do our custom orders, large orders for businesses, and will begin selling to other restaurants and cafes around central Arkansas,” stated Godbold. We would also like to be open to the public during certain days for people to come in, grab a treat, and stay a while! We will have tables and a conversational area as well.”
Another part of the business is decorating classes. The plan is to schedule regular classes, and there will be a selection of cookie decorating supplies for sale.
“We have grown organically over the last three years and the plan is to continue on that route,” she said. “We don’t want to get too big for our britches right out of the gate. We will definitely have lots of cookies and will continue to offer custom orders for both cookies and cakes. We will probably expand our menu to include other baked goods, like muffins, breads and other savory baked goods as well.”
When asked about beverages, she said she hopes to have a cooler with things to pick from, but shows some love to another local business, “I would highly suggest going next door to Koffee with a Kause, grab a delicious coffee and then come see me for a sweet treat!” Koffee has a trailer parked in the Roseberry Landscaping parking lot on the corner of Main and Conway Streets, so it definitely would be easy to drive through to get coffee and then proceed next door to get cookies. (Umm… and then proceed for a left on Market Street to get something at Just Ice Cream.)
Godbold says customers will be able to pick up their custom orders in the new store, but there will also be goodies stocked in the bakery case for grab-and-go customers.
Suzanne teems with excitement about the location in downtown Benton, “We moved here to Benton about 5 years ago after my husband got settled in to his job as a Benton Firefighter. We have seen the downtown area come back to life,” she said. “It has been such a period of restoration, and it is amazing to see the community that is being built on those streets.”
“I am so thankful to the support that has grown around our small business. I’m also thankful to the other home bakers that I have met over these three years who have become friends and are so supportive of my dreams. I’m blessed to have such a great community of small business owners like myself!”
So far the team is just two people – Suzanne, who serves as the Owner and Creative Director and Chelsea Cook who is the Business Director. “I honestly couldn’t run this business without her! We plan on slowly expanding our team.” Suzanne is married to Tim and has two children, Lily and Cooper. Chelsea is married to Brent and has three daughters, Grace, Lola, and Kenzie.
Follow Three Best Bakery on Facebook and Instagram @threebestbakery to get the most up to date info. Follow MySaline for any updates.
