Today we’d like to introduce you to Desiree Hunter
Hi Desiree, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Charleston, SC and grew up
working and traveling for our family business which was a booth in the City Market downtown selling women and children’s clothing and accessories. In our family and business travels we would often go to street festivals and would always seek out the local markets and street food. After college I continued traveling and moved to New York during the sub-prime mortgage crisis. I had moved in hopes to find a job or internship in sustainable development or landscape architecture but entry level jobs were being flooded with very qualified people losing their higher paying jobs. I was able
to get an internship for a fashion photographer and a job on a taco truck on Bedford Avenue called Endless Summer. I loved making affordable, fresh fast-food. The end of my first year in NY was winding up and I was trying to decide what to do and that’s when my two friends from college reached out to talk about starting our own food truck. We were going to start a Belgian waffle truck in their hometown of Florida, so I moved down there. We started out by selling in the local farmers market in Jacksonville, the Riverside Arts Market. Our original menu started with coffee, waffles and lemonade. Our waffles were very delicious and the reception was good, but as it got hotter, waffle sales slowed. By this time my two business partners had other job opportunities calling to them but we made tentative plans to bring the waffles back, but in a colder place, with daydreams of selling them on the slopes of Vail, CO. In the meantime I decided to go home to Charleston and focus on lemonade, and I knew just the place I wanted to sell it. Growing up in the Charleston City Market, fresh food and drinks were not offered but in 2010 the market management allowed me to give lemonade a try at the night market. During the days I would work at my moms booth, and at night I would sell lemonade. Eventually, I was able to undergo and score well enough during the market screening process to land close to the top of the list of temporary vendors which allowed me to set-up pretty regularly and eventually win a permanent spot. We have since created good relationships with local farmers and have been offering locally sourced, seasonal specials such as strawberry and peach lemonade, teas, and other fresh drinks such as ginger, turmeric tonic. We have expanded to include many farmers markets and special events around town. As our business grew we moved our base operations from place to place until we decided it was time to buy a building so we would no longer have to move further and further away from the City Market where we were now setting up every day. I decided to use money from the lemonade stand to buy a building on Reynolds Avenue and start a commercial kitchen for our own use and to share. We have since shared the kitchen with many other fellow food and beverage owners and friends. Buying this building led me to become more involved in real estate and have met many other like
minded individuals along the way, creating other exciting opportunities. One such friendship led to me co-founding a construction technology company, Construx, that was recently featured on a DIY Fox & Friends segment.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The mobile aspect of the business has created many challenges. Being able to have reliable vans and people strong enough and willing to unload, and load many thousands of pounds of ingredients as well as keeping things in tact, clean and efficient has led us to come up with many creative solutions which have overall
improved all aspects of the business. Seasonal shifts in inventory and staffing can be a challenge too because many aspects of the business are constantly in flux with the changing of the seasons and
making sure all
of these changes are communicated clearly, is very important.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Lowcountry Lemonade?
We provide locals and tourists alike with freshly made drinks. We specialize in making drinks, especially freshly squeezed lemonade, to order. We have standard recipes for our drinks that people love but because we make each drink fresh to order, we have the ability to adapt the drink to the tastes of the customer. What sets us apart is that we take these classic and simple drinks very seriously and strive for quality and consistency by precisely measuring each drinks ingredients and use the best local and quality ingredients. We are proud that we have not compromised these distinguishing characteristics as we’ve grown and become even more
mobile. We offer our drinks at concerts, area markets, and other special events and due to popular demand we have recently revisited the idea of locally distributing our drinks to restaurants and retail shops.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Thoughtfulness is the quality characteristic I feel is most important to my success. Applying thoughtfulness to efficiency, quality, consistency, and most importantly,
in our relationships with employees and customers has helped me tremendously.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.drinklowcountrylemonade.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lowcountrylemonade?igsh=MzlzNDUzcnVkOHU%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/LowcountryLemonade/
