When breakfast and brunch are your passion, serving a mediocre biscuit is simply out of the question.
At Dawn Chapman’s Lazy Daisy’s Cafe in Leslieville, breakfast and brunch are what’s on the menu.
Dawn’s café is inspired by time spent on her family farm in Midhurst, Ontario, where food was fresh, local, and made with love.
Lazy Daisy’s has elevated the breakfast sandwich to a farm-to-table delicacy and has been recognized as the best in the city by the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, and many others.
We’re proud to carry Lazy Daisy’s Bake at Home Buttermilk Biscuits at Fiesta Farms. They’re all-Canadian, buttery, and cook up light and golden. Our customers know a good thing when they taste it. As soon as we started sampling the biscuits in the store, customers loaded them into their carts to serve at home or at the cottage.
In recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’re celebrating Dawn’s achievement as the reigning biscuit boss, who turned a personal passion for a better biscuit into a thriving woman-owned food business.
The Sandwich That Inspired a Better Biscuit
When perfecting the café’s breakfast sandwich, Dawn needed a vehicle worthy of the quality ingredients she stuffed inside.
Unlike most of what’s out there, these sandwiches only use the best Canadian ingredients, including free-run Ontario eggs, Mennonite bacon and sausage, Ontario cheddar, and Quebec butter.
There was just no way she could justify putting all that goodness on a mediocre commercial muffin or biscuit!
Dawn waxes philosophical about it: “You can’t build something great on a weak foundation.”
So, in keeping with the ethos cultivated on the farm, Dawn made better biscuits from scratch.
What sets these biscuits apart?
- Real, local Ingredients: Lazy Daisy’s Country Buttermilk biscuits are made with all Canadian ingredients, including copious amounts of Quebec butter and flour sourced from wheat grown on her cousin’s farm. There are no additives — just real ingredients her grandmother would’ve used.
- Made by hand: These are handmade biscuits. The dough is carefully folded, creating layers that bake up light and fluffy inside and golden-crisp outside.
From the Café Basement to Freezers Across Canada
Like Stush Patties, Lazy Daisy’s biscuit business emerged from pandemic lockdowns. When the café was shuttered, customers told Dawn they missed her biscuits most.
To give them a taste of the café at a safe distance, Dawn started making takeaway frozen biscuits for customers to prepare at home. They’re flash frozen, so they come out of the oven tasting fresh.
“Hot oven, 30 minutes in the oven or 20 minutes in the air fryer, and your kitchen smells like a Sunday brunch spot,” says Dawn.
Dawn started out making them in the basement of the café. Their popularity has led to steady expansion, so the biscuits are now prepared in a 1,200-square-foot production facility.
Dawn’s Keys to Success as a Woman-Owned Business
Building a food business is demanding. As Dawn will tell you, building one as a woman comes with added complexity.
Dawn talks about how women owners often face a “second shift.” After production runs, supplier calls, retail meetings, and staffing decisions, there’s often still family life waiting at home.
“Women tend to take on additional responsibilities at home, which makes launching a business even harder,” she says. “Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, so it’s essential to have a strong support network.”
That’s why Dawn sees community as one of the keys to her success.
Dawn is part of Canadian Women in Food, an organization dedicated to helping women navigate the consumer packaged goods industry.
She has been mentored by other women business owners and mentors women just starting out. Having a network of other women entrepreneurs to share ideas with, consult with, and celebrate with has made all the difference.
As Dawn rightly says: “Having a community of women behind you changes everything.”
We Love these Biscuits and Know you Will Too
Having these best-in-class biscuits on hand to pop in the oven will turn breakfast or brunch into a special occasion.
Pick them up in our frozen food section at the far end of the store. Be sure to check out Dawn’s inspired recipe ideas to serve Lazy Daisy’s Country Biscuits at home. And, if you want to try her famous breakfast or brunch, visit her at Lazy Daisy Café, where breakfast and brunch are served every day from 9-3.
To find out more, visit Lazydaisyscafe.ca and Lazydaisysfoods.com or visit Lazy Daisy Cafe at 1515 Gerrard Street East every day, 8:00 am-3:00 pm.