Gorge Local – In Business: Édeske Patisserie
By Zoe Wagner Columbia Gorge News
Édeske Patisserie, 512 Cascade Ave., was named the 2024 SBA Oregon Nano Business of the Year in May, bringing a celebratory end to their second year in business.
Owners Tamara Bartucz Biscardi and James Biscardi ended their first year in their brick-and-mortar store by hiring their fourth team member, a trained pastry chef, and installing some new indoor seating. To sum up how Edeske has changed over the last year, Biscardi said they are “just growing.”
The Nano Business of the Year is one of multiple awards given by the Small Business Association (SBA) during National Small Business Week, which took place April 28 through May 4. According to the SBA, 99.9% of American businesses are small.
“On a business level, I think this award is something kinda special … We are doing something right on the business side of things,” Biscardi said.
This is not the only award Edeske has received this year. Their strawberry pink peppercorn won an honorable mention at the Oregon Chocolate Festival, featuring strawberries from Killer Tomato. Travel Oregon also mentioned them in Oregon’s Top Bakeries article.
Since opening, “There [are] a lot more products and a lot more consistent amounts of products,” Biscardi said.
The winter/Christmas season and Valentine’s Day tested their capacity last year, he said. Before Valentine’s Day, their capacity was around 1,000 chocolates a week; they have since ordered more chocolate molds. Leading up to Valentine’s Day, they sold at the farmer’s market and the 301 Gallery Sugar Show, where they sold out of all their holiday chocolates. Biscardi said he responded to many calls about being closed on Valentine’s Day, saying, “I don’t have anything to sell you.”
“The goal for this business is to provide a sustainable lifestyle for us and our employees,” he said. “This year, we put our foot down in making more manageable hours for ourselves…except for the Christmas rush, everybody stays below 40 hours.”
While they have consistent products like their croissant, pain au chocolat, almond croissant, and (hopefully) the apple turnover, other pastries can be influenced by the local produce available.
“Up until this point, it has always been coming up with an idea and going with it. We never had time to do R&D up until this point,” he said.
"We do brainstorms all together,” Bartucz Biscardi said. Coming up with ideas, especially for their busy holidays, is a team effort.
The team currently has four employees not including the owners, and a requirement of the nano business award is having five employees or fewer. “I also didn’t know that a nano business was a thing. I thought it was all small business, but small businesses are up to 100 employees, and that is a lot,” Bartucz Biscardi said.
Looking at how they may grow their nano business, adding coffee is a possibility.
Gregory Price, who helped them start their business through the Small Business Development Center, was the one who recommended they apply for the award. Questions about revenue, projected revenue, and items they will be producing were the focus of the application.
Bartucz Biscardi and Biscardi learned they got the award when it was just the two of them. On a slow Friday, they received the call, which went to voicemail — for good reason because they often have their hands in chocolate — and they called them back immediately.
The week of the interview, they had just adopted a puppy. “So now we have to stay at home a little bit more,” Biscardi said. The six-month-old puppy, named Gus, is already half the size of their couch and is “stubborn when he wants to be stubborn,” he said.
“I think [Gus] is also gonna be good for our marriage because for the last few years we have been together 24/7… running a business with your life partner, your husband, is not easy,” Bartucz Biscardi said.
“We never expected to be at this point this quickly… If we did everything exactly the same [as last year] we would be fine,” Biscardi said. “But that is already being surpassed.”
Edeske Patisserie, a Hood River bakery owned by Tamara Bartucz Biscardi and James Biscardi, was named Oregon Nano Business of the Year in May (2024).
Photo by Zoe Wagner