Mid-Week Mugging: I love you 'a waffle' lot

Some couples use their weekends to relax from a week’s worth of work—go for a walk, see a movie, or something else. But for Nathan Snider and Brogan Adrian, recently engaged, they set their alarms for the early hours of the morning and prepare to head to the North Bay Farmers’ Market to set up their booth: Birch Gourmet Waffles.

“Birch started three and a half years ago now,” Nathan said. “What actually ended up happening is Brogan and I used to come down to the Farmers’ Market every Saturday as part of our routine and we started realizing there may be an opportunity to start our own booth. We came up with an idea, did a bit of research and all the pieces kind of came together from there. A couple years later we do catering and full time vending at the market now.”

Now, while walking the Market, it’s nearly impossible to miss the smell of baking waffles, the sweet ingredients seeping into your nose. Using a traditional Belgian recipe—meaning the batter has less sugar—the gourmet component comes in the batter and the toppings Birch puts on it. So instead of a simple icing sugar and syrup, their waffles go from dishes like the Sticky Bun, which boasts crème cheese icing, cinnamon sugar, and candied pecans, to others like the Muddy Chimp, which is topped with Nutella, bananas, and chocolate syrup, every bite into the succulent summer treat is savoured.

But it doesn’t end with the summer, as Birch has since taken the step to offer catering services to the community, and beyond, booking catering as far as Englehart and just out of Powassan.

The two still have full-time jobs, however, deciding to take on this endeavour together in their free time—a small commitment at first—it’s quickly become a major part of their routine.

“We’ve been loving the growth each year, seeing where it takes us,” Nathan said. “We thought about what our standard growth would be and where we’d draw our line and then we woke up one day and decided not to think about it like that and to continue to do it until when we can’t and that’s where we’d draw our line.”

Brogan said it’s been quite a roller-coaster, originally starting out as occasional vendors in their first year—standard practice for the Market—before being welcomed as permanent vendors during the summer market.  

“There was quite a bit of learning for us and now in our third year, it’s become a little family for us here,” he said. “We have people who come every week to visit us—regular customers are the most flattering thing for us. We both work full time so it’s a fun thing we get to do on the weekends working together. And now with catering, it’s become a whole new job.”

And yes, Birch cultivates the creativity of the community, releasing a specialty waffle based on their contest. This year was the Blue Robin, which has cream cheese, blueberries graham cracker crumbs and whipped cream and the winner was named Robin. But with the brink of fall arriving, Birch has been working on their rendition of the Pumpkin Spice Life—a harvest waffle in the works.

“It will be more like a pumpkin pie,” Brogan said. “So pumpkin pie filling, graham cracker crumbs, and whipped cream.”

The two have been having quite the adventure together, as a couple, in their venture. Nathan and Brogan said they couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend their time together.

“It’s been great for us because we do have this opportunity to spend all this time together,” she said. “Even last night we were going to bed and were talking about how insane this little idea has grown for us. All our friends come out to support us and I couldn’t ask for any better.”

“There is nothing that will make a relationship stronger I believe now than a couple going into a business together,” Nathan added, “I’ve been very fortunate that my partner is very good with money and incredibly creative which has added so much to Birch.”