Beverage Bar Makes Smoothies
Sharee Baldwin has been making drinks for a long time. She first started bartending in fast-paced clubs, where she was the go-to person to make complex Piña Coladas and Margaritas and Daiquiris fast.
When the pace got to her, she started her own personal bartending business. Looking for some- thing healthier, she started a lemonade stand with her daughter at their apartment complex, which was near a hospital and a fire station. “There was a line,” she says. “My daughter was known as the lemonade girl.”
She now bottles it, sells it in bulk and makes it at her shop inside The Roastery on South 16th between Market and Dock streets. Where she says she’s already broken even.
Success is in her recipe: fresh-squeezed organic lemons, spring water and cane sugar. Which sounds easy enough. But she says her proportions make the drink more tangy. “I like to blend things so you can taste all the flavors,” she says. “You can’t skimp on the good ingredients; it’s pricey, but our customers think it’s worth it.”
The lemonade is made to order and served at her shop in a variety of flavors. In addition she makes açai bowls, shakes and smoothies using lo- cal ingredients as much as possible. Visitors can buy coffee at The Roastery’s coffee shop at the front of the building.
She also attributes her success to Genesis Block; she graduated from their Jump Start Academy, where she learned branding, how to grow her busi- ness, focus on an anchor product and marketing. Expansion is in the future with a mobile unit and more locations. And perhaps starting a franchise. “That is my goal,” she says.
Blendsations Beverage Bar & Café 20 S. 16th St.
(910) 998-6659
The story was originally published in the Fall 2024 issue.
