Mia Reitz is the mother of four children and a dog, and she is the owner of Sweet Moon Macaron in Griffith. She was not originally on the path to owning a bakery, but she made the decision to follow her passions.
“I was a stay-at-home mom for about six, seven years, and I did hair. I'm a licensed cosmetologist and I was doing hair for about 10 years and I loved the creative aspect of it, but it just wasn't my passion. I felt like I had something else to do in life. I just didn't know what it was,” Reitz said.
Reitz then toured a few schools with the idea of becoming an ultrasound technician, and while trying to figure out where her life was taking her, the idea of making macarons fell into her lap. This allowed her to stay in touch with her creative side. She explained how she had always loved macarons, but felt like the selection in the area was not up to par, so this inspired her to try and make them.
“I loved the creative aspect of doing hair and I knew I wanted to do something with my creative side,” Reitz said. “It kind of fell in my lap. I have always loved macrons; I thought it was fun to eat them. But I never really enjoyed the flavors so I was like, ‘You know what? I'm going to try; I'm going to give it a go from my home.’ I bought some of the stuff to make them and I failed miserably.”
After the first batch failed, she tried to venture out into baking cupcakes and cakes, but she did not feel as passionate about those desserts as she did the macarons. Although making macarons is a very difficult and time-consuming commitment, Reitz made the decision to embrace the challenge and keep trying to perfect the macarons.
“I enjoyed doing the macrons the first time, even though I failed. I like a challenge, so I decided, I'm going to give it a go again. Then I kept making them and I started having my family test them and they're like, ‘Wow, Mia, these are really good.’ Then I ventured out and I did them out of my home and I set up my Facebook account and they took off. It was hard for me to keep up with orders because it was all new to me. It was around Valentine's Day three years ago. Ever since then, it's been going strong.”
The business took off on Facebook, and Reitz was making macarons from her home. Keeping up with all of her orders from her home was beginning to be difficult, so the hunt for a larger space began.
“I couldn't keep up with orders anymore. I was at a point where I just had a regular oven at home and I could only put in one tray at a time. I told myself I really need commercial size stuff,” Reitz said. “I looked at a couple of spaces and they didn't fit my needs. So, I just let it go. Then about six months later, I stumbled upon the space that I'm in now. It needed a lot of work, so I was a little stressed out about that, but I just knew it was the right fit right anyway.”
There are many positive things that come with having a shop to run Sweet Moon Macaron out of. One of Reitz’s favorite things is being able to interact and build relationships with community members that come into her shop regularly.
“I come across a lot of great people. The conversations I'll have with customers upfront might be my favorite part. I'm seeing a lot of consistent customers coming back; they come weekly or some of them will come daily. That's been really cool to build relationships with complete strangers,” Reitz said.
There are countless other things that make Reitz’s job worthwhile. Picking out flavors and dedicating time to hand-painting the macarons are a few more of Reitz’s favorite parts of her job.
“I definitely love the creative part though. I love hand-painting and I feel like a lot of people airbrush, and that's really cool, but I absolutely love painting and I feel like it's a lot of fun. I did Pink Floyd Mac macrons and I hand-painted the logo. There's a lot of things that I would say are my favorite part of what I do. There are almost too many to list," she said.
Having the luxury of not being able to pinpoint a single favorite part of her job only emphasizes what a perfect fit this career path is for Reitz. She began her journey not knowing where she would end up, but ended up finding exactly where she belongs.
“I absolutely love what I do, and I feel very blessed that I can do this as a career. A lot of people don't like their careers, and I absolutely love mine. I wake up every morning and sometimes I have to pinch myself,” Reitz said. “Even when I walk into my shop sometimes, I'm like, ‘Wow, is this really like is this really my life?’ It's, crazy. It's really crazy. It feels like a dream sometimes.”
For more information regarding Sweet Moon Macaron, Reitz recommends checking them out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sweetmoonmacaron.