We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Carlock recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?
Starting this business during the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantine, for sure. I was a stay at home mom at the time and hanging on by a thread. I knew everyone else was, too. One day, I though maybe I’d give myself something to do while giving some friends and family something to look forward to – little grazing boxes one day a week (Friday.) Porch pickup, text to order, etc. Just me taking what resources I could find and what knowledge I possessed and creating something of an experience, an escape from the ongoing unpredictable horrors of every news update. Within weeks I decided to start an official business and moved to a commercial space owned by a mentor and friend, and a few months after that moved into my own space in Deep Ellum. Opened shop officially the first week of December 2020, bootstrapped. All because I started making cheese plates to lift spirits in quarantine.
Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Amor Y Queso started off as a humble snack plate service, focused on sourcing local goods and artisan cheeses and meats to serve in beautifully presented care packages for a community that was struggling deeply with morale and isolation. I genuinely started doing this because I needed it myself. I’m always the one feeding people, making treats and being extra about snacks. The bougie one who lived in France for like eight seconds and thought yeah, I’m qualified. So I did it. I found local jams and jellies, honeys, crackers, shortbreads. I found artisan cured meats, and gorgeous cheeses, and all sorts of nibbles. I created an ordering system and facilitated donations of snack boxes to essential workers, who were nominated by the customers themselves. Within less than year from the first box picked up on my front porch, I was opening a little storefront in the heart of Deep Ellum. Literally, it was such an organic and beautiful process. The support from the community was UNREAL. Customers, sure, and friends, and family, but also other small business owners and influencers and artisans who showed up and shared with their people and encouraged me. What a magical thing it was, in a year of absolute mayhem and fear, to provide and be provided with joy and comfort from the people around you.
Now that we’re no longer isolating and the world has kept spinning, the focus has shifted from our benchmark Friday Snack Box to grazing tables and boards for all of the special events in our lives, from corporate conferences to weddings to picnics and date nights. Building on-site grazing tables is one of my very favorites – there always seems time while I’m working to chat with the clients and bond over snacks and life experiences. I rarely get to see folks’ reactions to the board when they arrive, but when I have it’s the most rewarding thing.
The shop is open for walk-ins most days, with a few grab-and-go options for when you need impulse cheese. (When don’t we, am I right?) I also offer build-your-own board workshops every other month, as well as private events. You can find our snacks at several Dallas institutions, notably at the Dallas Arboretum during the Cool Thursdays concert series at which we vend regularly.
Amor Y Queso is not your basic cheese plate situation. I’ll always bring you new flavor profiles, pairings you never saw coming, and a good time. This space is yours. Come as you are, I’ll bring the snacks.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
A few months after opening shop officially, Amor Y Queso was truly initiated as a Deep Ellum business when I got a 3AM phone call from the DPD alerting me to a break-in. The door was smashed open, the inside a wreck, my mental health trashed. It could’ve been worse, fortunately we don’t keep much cash on site and the person who did the breaking-in was unaware of the street value of some of the cheese slicers (mostly joking.) The worst of it was the reckoning of having to be closed, having to assess the damages, losses, and risks of whatever product we had, replacing doors and failed security systems, and of course having to really convince myself that it was okay and that is was safe and damaged and lost things can be replaced.
The thing is, this was never a huge business venture with investment capital and business credit, etc. By doing absolutely every drop of business on a pre-order basis, Amor Y Queso was built on its own funds. The obvious takeaway is that it was a debt-free business. The downside was that while we were sustained by savings, the rainy day funds were dipped into heavily anytime unforeseen problems (like needing a literal door installed) would crop up. Lessons were learned, savings were accommodated, credits were applied.
Incredibly, magically, fantastically – the community once again showed up and showed out. I really can’t say it enough. I would not be here in any sense of the phrase if it weren’t for the people, the customers, the friends and family and fellow artisans who bring energy and space and donations and supplies and love. From neighbors helping me tape up the door and bringing coffee while I waited for crime scene to the myriad local businesses and influencers who shared our re-opening to ensure a good turnout to the fans from afar who sent donations to help fund the repairs. Amor Y Queso is just that. Love and cheese. Big emphasis on the Love.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Ya’ll, let’s talk about impostor syndrome. Do you know how dang hard it’s been to convince myself that I’m not JUST lucky and I’m not BAMBOOZLING people into believing in me? Do you know how much I cried when I saw the word ‘CHEF’ in front of my name at a prestigious food and wine festival? How many times have I walked into the space that I built and thought to myself, “I cannot believe this gets to be my job… how did I pull this off?” Impostor syndrome is basically feeling like a fraud, like you are undeserving of your accomplishments and success. Anybody feeling seen? I know it’s pretty common, I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. I was a stay at home mom, years out of the workforce, no official culinary training, zero business experience. Who did i think I was, letting people call me Chef, showing people the tricks of the trade, walking into the shop day after day to operate a business that I kinda just made up?
The biggest things I have to keep reminding myself are that it HASN’T been easy, that NOBODY is just this lucky, and that there’s NO WAY I’m clever enough or a good enough actor to fool SO MANY PEOPLE into believing in me. If AYQ is still here, and the magic keeps coming, there’s something attracting it. And I’m the only one here.
Contact Info:
- Website: Amoryqueso.com
- Instagram: @amor.y.queso
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amoryqueso
- Linkedin: Sarah Carlock
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/amor-y-queso-dallas
- Other: TikTok- @amoryqueso