Providing a little taste of southern cuisine to South County with a lineup of scrumptious desserts such as pecan-crusted sweet potato pie, peach cobbler, lemon Jell-o cake and sweet potato cheesecake, Anthony and Dawn Randolph deliver a unique goodness through their family venture: Soul Sweets.
“For me, it was about starting something that I was passionate about,” said Anthony, a full-time engineer with software giant IBM. Anthony is the master baker of the Randolph bunch which includes 17-year old Paress, 10-year old Trey, 8-year old Kayla and 21-month old Jasmine. “We just wanted to start a family business.”
Anthony—who holds a mechanical engineering degree from San Jose State University—has enjoyed his time in the kitchen since a very young age, assisting his grandmother whenever she allowed it, and then at age 12 when he started a baking business with his uncle.
“We consider ourselves foodies,” said Anthony, 39, who moved his family to Morgan Hill in 2004 before settling a little farther south in Gilroy two years ago.
Dawn—an East Palo Alto transplant who holds a business degree from Heald College—is the brains behind the operation, marketing their products and scheduling the Soul Sweets food stand in as many farmers’ markets as possible throughout the Bay Area and Monterey Peninsula.
“We use all natural ingredients and we make everything from scratch,” assures Dawn, 38, who launched Soul Sweets in 2008 with her husband, at first renting space at small commercial kitchen in San Jose before finding a new, more suitable baking home at Morgan Hill-based Roxanne’s Biscotti.
The entrepreneurial couple now rents out time at the Morgan Hill commercial kitchen and bakes about 20 hours per week, crafting approximately 100 personal sized and 200 bite sized treats for a faithful following of clientele.
“These are things that when you taste them it takes you back to your childhood, for me. It’s very difficult to find that,” said loyal customer Sam Kenoly, who, along with his wife Vanessa, befriended the Randolphs in 2008 when Soul Sweets was at the ground floor. “It’s very, very difficult in the South Bay to find legitimate, authentic soul food.”
The Randolphs are changing that landscape with a weekly routine of farmers’ market stops that includes Carmel on Thursday morning, Morgan Hill on Thursday evening, Walnut Creek on Friday, and Gilroy and Willow Glen simultaneously on Saturday.
“This year has been great,” said Dawn, speaking of promoting the southern-influenced dessert treats through the California Farmers Market Association and West Coast Farmers Market circuits. “The response (from customers) in each community has been amazing.”
Without skipping a beat, she tells old and prospective customers to follow them on Facebook/soulsweets, or Twitter/soulsweets, or Instagram/soulsweeties, or visit their website soulsweets.net.
“We have a vision for the future to grow small and grassroots,” said Anthony, who sold 2,000 of his cobblers at last year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival. Soul Sweets has been welcomed back for this year’s 36th annual event July 25-27 in the garlic capital of the world. “We’re very happy with where we are right now.”
And that is in the kitchen, where he belongs.
“He’s very much a perfectionist,” said Dawn of her hubby.
But Anthony doesn’t do it alone. Dawn offers a helping hand as well as their oldest Paress—who “has been with us since the beginning”—and the rest of the Randolph crew.
“They’ve always been part of the business,” Anthony said. “They know how to press the dough. They know the whole process.”
They especially enjoy being out selling the sweets at the farmers’ markets, fairs and festivals, according to Dawn.
It’s love at first bite when customers pick up one of the Randolphs’ unique collection of fine desserts, which also includes bourbon pecan and fried pineapple pies, butterscotch peach and caramel apple cobblers, and red velvet and banana pudding cheesecakes.
“Their food is really authentic soul food, but what really sets them apart is their sweets,” said Kenoly, whose sweet tooth still craves some Soul Sweets, especially since moving away to Illinois.
Before starting Soul Sweets—and sticking to Anthony’s desserts—the Randolph repertoire served up full-course meals. In July 2008, they catered their first wedding, a buffet-style Thanksgiving dinner for more than 200 guests. Then, a few months later, they sold fried turkey sandwiches with homemade barbecue sauce, hot links and desserts at the Taste of Morgan Hill.
But the baked goods were long considered the creme de la creme, with the former downtown Morgan Hill eatery Ragoots serving Anthony’s personal size pecan sweet potato pies to its customers.
“We make food that’s good for the soul,” said Anthony using one of Soul Sweet’s mottos. “I love how food makes you feel. When you have a bad day, it picks you up.”
