Today we’d like to introduce you to Kate Smith

Hi Kate, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

Hi, I’m Kate! I started my food journey when I born. My parents are restauranteurs and so naturally I spent most of my days at the restaurant as well. I was the only sibling that loved working in the kitchen and went on to get my Hospitality Management degree at Oklahoma State University in 2017 so that I could take over my parent’s restaurant. During my time at OSU, I was able to complete my internship in China and study abroad in Italy. I instantly fell in love with French Macarons during my studies abroad and when the opportunity to start my own business came up, I knew I wanted to bring high quality macarons to the Kansas City area.

I started baking out of my home at first, giving my macarons away for free to clients at my day job. Once my boss found out, she suggested I look into Lenexa’s Farmer’s Market to sell my macarons. The farmer’s market requires you to bake out of a commercial kitchen, so they directed me to the Lenexa Public Market as a possibility to do pop-ups and to bake in their commercial kitchen. After only 3 months of pop ups at the Public Market, we were offered a blank 100sqft incubator stall to make my own to jump start my business, Kate Smith Soirée. We quickly began to outgrow our space as it felt our popularity grew overnight. Then the pandemic hit out of nowhere. I was terrified because in financial uncertainty, luxury goods tend to be the first thing people forgo. But we were so fortunate to have the community support us regardless through the pandemic and we continued to grow. Then in December 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, I moved into a larger stall in the Lenexa Public Market and opened my restaurant Butterfield’s. Business was really f–king good. We used the new 425sqft space to operate both Kate Smith Soirée and Butterfield’s. It was a tight fit, but we made the space work and we did it very well.

Then in February 2023, I moved Kate Smith Soirée to Downtown Overland Park and opened my cute little boutique bakery. I’ve always wanted to be in Downtown OP since I started my business, so when the opportunity came I jumped on it. Sadly, if you were a fan of Butterfield’s you already know that it closed in September 2023. While we absolutely loved being at the Lenexa Public Market and have a lot of sentimental memories of starting my business there, it became impossible to be profitable as a small business when our monthly rent and fees to be there was being increased to $9000+/mo. Initially it felt like they pulled the rug out from under us, but I don’t blame them for needing a certain amount to maintain the costs of keeping the market running. It just wasn’t something we were financially comfortable with and wasn’t sustainable. It would still be a dream to be able to come back and teach our baking and cooking classes there again someday.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Absolutely not. I talked about one of our big struggles above, but moving on to our new space, I will say that it’s a huge learning curve when you have almost 100% freedom to run your business the way you want to and those choices can make or break your business. There’s value in having very set rules and guidelines to follow for your business as it’s usually fool-proof and guaranteed to make you money. But having the ability to pick my own business hours and run my business the way I want, every decision is a risk and luckily so far they have paid off and business is really good. We still have constant nuisances as all businesses do, something is always breaking and needs replaced or fixed, random slow and busy days that you can never predict, trying new things and sometimes flops, etc. but that comes with the territory. I will say that I have been extremely blessed with the best employees that have stuck with me through thick and thin and genuinely enjoy their job so I haven’t had to worry if my employees would show up for work or not. That’s a huge struggle for the hospitality industry as a whole at the moment.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

While I started my business as Kansas City’s French Macaron destination, we’ve progressed into this beautiful boutique bakery that is more than just French macarons. We offer a rotating selection of fresh French pastries, sweets, confections and celebration cakes. We change our pastry menu every week, so we’re always working with the freshest ingredients and introducing new flavors each week. We also have over 130 macaron flavors that we rotate through that you can’t get anywhere else, so I still think we are the French macaron destination in Kansas City.

When you think of “bakeries”, you either think of a sweets spot that sells cakes, cupcakes, cookies, etc. or you think of a café that sells breakfast pastries and slings espresso drinks. We are a perfect storm of both. You don’t have to have a special occasion to come visit us, but we’re also there for all of your special occasions.

What am I most proud of? Oh man, this is a deep, deep question but I’ll keep it simple. I always had this thought that I would have to either choose my business or choose to have a family. I had my first baby in November 2021 in the thick of running my restaurant and wore my baby while I helped customers and then I just had my second baby in June 2024 and have built this business and a team that allowed me to give myself a proper maternity leave this time around. I’ve never once felt like I would have to choose my family or my business. I’m pretty darn proud of that and proud of my team.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?

I always say that I am the worst businesswoman because I don’t put money as the priority for my business. I think this also just comes with my age since I’m only 29, but I think being respected by my community, in my industry and by my team is what matters the most to me. It is the fear that lives rent free in my head. When I started my business as a 23 year old, I knew that I wasn’t being taken seriously 99% of the time and probably for good reason. Now that I know what I’m doing and have 6 years of running my business under my belt, I still have some of that lingering imposter syndrome, but it has morphed into pushing me into building respect and reputation. If I were to die tomorrow, I want people’s memory of me to be positive and impactful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.katesmithsoiree.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katesmithsoiree
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katesmithsoiree

Image Credits

Annie Lui Photography
Aventi Weddings
Ashley Ice Photography
Neon Heart Photo
Claire Ryser Photography