Seminole Heights General Store employee Chriss Holliday kept her head up after being let go from her job as pastry chef and kitchen manager after her boss was shown her pro-Black Lives Matter Facebook posts.
An outpouring of public support followed Holliday’s termination, her publicist Danielle Bayard Jackson told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. And now, an opportunity to continue baking for and serving her community arised. Now, Holliday is set to begin an informal partnership with Blind Tiger, where she has been granted use of one of the coffee shop location’s kitchen spaces to work out of.
The Westshore Mall Blind Tiger—which reopens next week—will house Chriss Holliday’s Holliday Bakes operation for the time being.
“She sees this opportunity as her way to give back to allocate funds to help different organizations literally in her neighborhood,” publicist Jackson told CL. “So all of it has the end goal of helping the community it ties back around.”
Holliday sees her time with Blind Tiger as a means to an end. Ultimately, her goal is to open up her own bakery storefront, hopefully in Seminole Heights, but for now, she hopes to create and serve her community in a more efficient way.
Jackson said the temporary Holliday Bakes kitchen will feature a continuation of Holliday’s popular menu items including her both classic and more unfamiliar cookies and cupcake flavors, as well as new creations.
“Things are kind of changing every day because there's been such an influx of interest,“ Jackson said. “She's a creative and she's so innovative that she’s always thinking of new things and new combinations to keep things fresh.”
After reaching out in support of Holliday after the story of her termination went somewhat viral, owner of Blind Tiger Roberto Torres (who’d been dealing with COVID-19 business complications of his own) offered up the location’s extra kitchen space for her bakery.
“The opportunity presented itself where Chriss had this pent up demand and we have the excess capacity so without her, I don't think we’d be able to open the store,” Torres told CL.
Blind Tiger—whose flagship location is in Ybor City—is a speakeasy-inspired coffee shop and lounge. The chain now also has locations in Seminole Heights, Westchase, South Howard, Sparkman Wharf and the Westshore Mall plaza. Blind Tiger had to furlough several employees after pandemic closings, Torres said. Now, the shop plans on reopening some time next week, though an official opening date has not yet been set.
“The entire [Westshore business] district has taken a massive hit,” Torres said. “It's the busiest business district in the city, and it’s down more than 50% understandably so. So, the idea for us was, how can we make sure that this store which we just opened in September last year, how can we make it viable and open it up.”
Upon reopening, Blind Tiger will follow all CDC guidelines to keep both staff and customers safe. The shop will reopen at 50% capacity and will now have entrance and floor markings to encourage social distancing. For Torres, a goal is to take the partnership with Holliday as far as it will go.
“We take this person who has a tremendous product and a cult following, and now she gets an opportunity to introduce her brand and her products to a totally different audience,” he said. “So that makes us extremely happy. We believe in upward mobility and female empowerment.”
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This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2020.