Sheridan Gleason and Sharon Hicks know obstacles test resolve. After opening the first Texas store of the Tennessee baking franchise Whimsy Cookie Company, they balanced the stresses of growing a business, expanding their family and learning the ins and outs of raising a boy with special needs — and all of that is before you throw a pandemic into the mix.
After everything, Sheridan and Sharon know they got through it with the only secret recipe they know — faith, family and a dash of whimsy.
“If there was an obstacle you could throw at us, it’s been thrown,” Sheridan says. “We just want to do our part, keep our doors open and let people know that we are all in this together.”
A COOKIE AND A LOT OF LOVE
Born and raised in Texas, Sharon has been a practicing attorney for 30 years, and Sheridan was a school teacher before Whimsy Cookie became a reality. After marrying her husband Matt, Sheridan became pregnant with their first child Ace.
But 20 weeks into her pregnancy, Sheridan received an update on her first child during a regular CT scan.
“The inside of his head wouldn’t show up. He had so much fluid on his brain that it just came up as a black screen. The doctor didn’t even think that he had a brain,” Sheridan recalls. “The doctors didn’t think he would make it to term and be born alive.”
Despite not knowing whether he would live past his birth, Sheridan and Matt prayed about it and decided they would carry Ace to term saying, “No matter whether we got two minutes or two hours with him, we were going to enjoy whatever time we had with him.”
Thankfully on July 11, 2016, Ace Gleason was born in much better condition than expected. Sharon says there were tears all over the hospital room when the Gleasons welcomed Ace into their lives.
“The best words I’ve ever heard were, ‘He’s here, and he’s crying,’” Sharon says.
The couple learned Ace had Hydrocephalus, a cranial condition where fluid doesn’t flow through the ventricles properly and floods the brain, causing head enlargement and developmental delays. He had to have surgery at 2 days old to remove excess fluid out of his head, then again at 7 months when his shunt failed to drain.
“He just learned to walk, and he’s 4 years old,” Sheridan says. “It’s always a challenge, not knowing what the day is going to bring. We’ve just learned to take it step by step and be thankful for whatever time we’ve been given with him.”
Despite the difficulties, Ace has been an absolute joy to the Gleasons. A kid who smiles almost as much as he laughs, he loves to play with his younger brother Pryce, sing nurseries to the family’s newborn Tate and listen to classic rock ’n’ roll.
“He’s a redheaded firecracker,” Sheridan chuckles. “He’s very determined, strong, independent, opinionated. He knows what he wants, when he’s going to get it and what he’s going to do for the day.”
One of his wants has always been cookies. As a self-taught baker, Sheridan could ensure Ace always had easy access to pastries.
“He would eat cookies and muffins for the first two years of his young life,” Sheridan says. “That’s the way to his heart: a cookie and a lot of love.”
BRINGING WHIMSY TO TEXAS
As Ace kept growing and going to physical therapy, Sheridan wondered what his future would look like and what he would do for work. At the same time, Sharon wanted to spend more time with her family and help Sheridan raise Ace.
“My husband and I were looking for something to slow down and do with our grandkids,” Sharon recalls. “We were looking for something to do together to be able to take care of Ace and also something he could potentially do himself later on. We wanted to find something that could extend into the long term for him.”
With Ace’s love of cookies in mind, their answer came in 2018 when the family discovered the Whimsy Cookie Company through blogger Collins Tuohy Smith, the adoptive sister of Michael Oher of “The Blind Side” fame. After looking deeper into the company, its story and values, Sheridan and Sharon fell in love with the brand and decided to bring it to Texas.
“One of their mottos is Faith, Family, Whimsy, and that was really important to us,” Sharon says. “This was a place that welcomed anybody that walked through its doors, and we wanted to be a part of that.”
After meeting with founder Laurie Suriff in Memphis, Sharon and Sheridan purchased the rights to open 10 stores in Texas, with the first in Southlake. Whimsy Cookie Company specializes in several different types of cookies, from buttercream bites to gooey butter cookies made from cake batter. But of all of its fluffy options, Whimsy’s most popular item is its sugar cookies, which can be specially decorated into custom shapes like dragons and footballs.
“We picked Southlake as our first location because we knew about the family atmosphere and the Dragon camaraderie,” Sheridan says. “Its strong sense of community was perfect for Whimsy Cookie.”
Their first store opened at 2645 E. Southlake Blvd., Suite 180, in September 2019, an inviting bakery filled with fancy furniture, colorful merchandise and pink and gold decor. At the front of their store, the counter is lined up with so many tasty cookie selections that it’s hard to choose just one.
“It’s one of those things where you’ve waited for so many months, only to walk in and see your hard work and efforts fully realized in front of you,” Sharon says. “It was breathtaking when we saw the final product.”
After a strong opening and overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, Whimsy Cookie got off to a great start in Southlake with sights on expanding into Collin and Denton Counties. It looked like Whimsy Cookie’s direction could only go up.
FEELING LIKE FAMILY
In March, COVID-19 came to Texas, closing schools, canceling events and shuttering businesses’ doors. Since many of Whimsy Cookie’s largest orders come from big holiday celebrations like the Fourth of July and St. Patrick’s Day, Sharon says event cancelations impacted their growth.
“It changed everything almost immediately,” Sharon says. “We were on an uptick of growth versus a business of two or three years. We just came off of a very successful Valentine’s and Easter when COVID-19 hit. It really hurt our whole process after seven months of getting established and getting people into the door.”
Sheridan, meanwhile, was in the middle of giving birth to her third child when COVID-19 escalated into a pandemic.
“It was like things were on fire,” Sheridan says. “It was the same weekend where everybody was closing businesses and piling into lines at H-E-B. We just got out of the hospital, and my husband and I didn’t even know what was going on. We were just sitting there with a newborn, and we didn’t even have toilet paper.”
After Sharon and Sheridan got their necessities and bunkered down at home, they had to shift focus from expanding to sustaining their current and only location through the pandemic. They started by partnering with DoorDash and GrubHub for expanded delivery services while rolling out curbside pickup to limit person-to-person interaction. They’ve also introduced corporate logo cookies designed to support local businesses, including the city of Southlake.
Sharon says staying connected with the community and building a core network of new and repeat customers helped keep Whimsy Cookie afloat.
“We keep getting new people that come in saying, ‘I never knew you were in here before,’” she says. “It’s very gratifying to build that relationship and start knowing your customers by name when they come in because they do come in on a regular basis. We’re appreciative that we’re beginning to build a fan base of Whimsy Cookie lovers, and we love cultivating that community with Southlake.”
But Sharon and Sheridan didn’t just focus on the business itself. They also focused on retaining employees by implementing a 10% hour reduction, a move that cookie decorator Francis Rogers appreciates.
“It kind of feels like a little family,” Francis says. “I really appreciate Sharon and Sheridan for putting us first and trying to take care of us during this time of uncertainty.”
While Sharon and Sheridan don’t know what the future will hold, neither did they when Ace entered their lives four years ago. As Whimsy Cookie looks to thrive, not just survive, the years ahead, Sharon and Sheridan know they will get through it the same way they always have: Together — with Ace playing with his younger brothers and a batch of cookies baking in the oven.
“I literally started a new business, had a baby and then went through a pandemic all at once,” Sheridan chuckles. “In these crazy and uncertain times, sometimes a cookie just helps.”