(upbeat music) - Will you consider this?

I have known this young lady for a really, really long time.

I think maybe since you were like nine or 10, I'm pretty sure.

This is Riley Greenwood and she is kind of a masterpiece.

So thanks for being here.

- Thank you so much.

- We are talking about, you have your own business called Riley's Sweets and Treats, right?

- [Riley] It's Riley's Vegan Sweets and Eats.

- Sweets and, well, I was, I was pretty close.

Yeah, so let's start with you first.

Riley Greenwood is a Peoria girl.

- Yes, ma'am.

- Okay.

Where'd you go to school?

What'd you do?

- Peoria native.

I graduated from Peoria High School back in 2009, which seems like forever ago now.

I started my own business in 2017.

On my birthday, I opened up downtown.

It was a technology free cupcake shop that very quickly evolved into a 100% vegan bakery.

- Yeah.

Oh, so that was right across from the courthouse on Main Street?

- Yes, ma'am.

- All right.

Good.

And then you did that, you moved your business to where your mom was making cakes?

- Yep.

We're co-located together.

I was actually looking to move into a bigger space back in 2019, and I was looking for a restaurant location at the time.

But God has a very interesting way of speaking to people when it's not a necessarily no, but it's a not right now.

And I'm very blessed for that opportunity because the world completely shut down in 2020.

So had I actually gotten a restaurant space, I wouldn't have been able to have any customers inside.

So I'm actually really happy with the transition of being able to just go back to our home location on Bronze, and we still have that location open for retail business today.

- So thank you, Lord.

Once again.

Okay.

Let's go back to your schooling.

It was Thomas Jefferson at the time, and you were measured for a violin.

So you are an actual musician.

Tell me about that.

- Yep.

I'm a violinist and that's kind of like a secret talent that not very many people get to learn about, because I'm always talking about the bakery.

I'm always talking about anything that's non-musically focused.

But I've been a violinist, I believe, if I've counted right, about 25 years now.

So that has been an incredible talent.

And then even in Peoria High School, before I graduated, I was a part of the Fine Arts Academy, so they taught us how to compose our own music, they taught us about music history.

So instead of just learning music that other people created, we got to learn about the person that created the music that we are now playing today.

- Fascinating.

- So that was really fun.

- Exactly.

And then you even did some chamber performances as well.

Did you?

Or you played at weddings?

- Yes.

Yes.

That was something that I actually really would like to do as like my retirement plan.

I would like to- - It's gonna be a while.

- It will be a while, but if my mom is ever doing weddings in the future, I think that that would be a really neat combination for her to do the wedding cake and for me to come in and do some music.

- Right.

So your mom is Rachel Parker, and she's the Peoria County clerk, and she's been making all kinds of cakes for years and years and years.

And you were saying that you really didn't get to help her much.

- That's true.

I was a professional watcher.

I was, I had my chair right in the corner.

She was doing these cakes for weddings, for anniversaries, for birthdays.

And this started as something that her coworkers had encouraged her to do, was put a name to her hobby.

And that was how her business got started.

She never would've actually taken it farther and gotten into a commercial space, had people not continued to support her so much.

But it was really fun as a little kid, opening up our front door and welcoming people into the house to get their birthday cake.

I always kind of felt like I was a part of their celebration.

And so being 35 and being able to still do that today is really fun.

- It's rewarding.

Yeah.

She made a couple of cakes for us back in the day for our family reunions, when this had a birthday, they had an anniversary, they had a graduation, they had, you know, so many things.

And she fit it all on the top of a cake.

So by watching her, how did you figure out that you could actually do this then, since you weren't allowed to help?

- Yeah.

I honestly, I'm all about repetition.

I really love any small task that you can do over and over and over again.

And I think it was just the idea of how many hours and how many days that I sat there and I watched her technique.

And so it was really easy for me to mimic that on my own once I got started, because it was just, you have to really pay attention and focus.

Sometimes I think it's almost harder when you go into something blind and you're not really sure about the structure.

But having that opportunity to watch, I think I learned a lot more than I realized.

- Yeah.

You know, I guess it wouldn't matter how many times I watched, I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it, but I have other talents.

- There you go.

- All right.

So now you, so vegan.

How did you evolve into vegan?

Because your mom doesn't do that.

She uses dairy, and the whole thing.

- That's correct.

Yeah.

She still uses eggs, and she still uses milk.

So I like to call her cakes, the classic cakes.

And then I do the allergy friendly cakes.

So I had a customer come in about 30 days after Riley's Cupcake and Coffee Lounge was opened up downtown.

She came in and she asked me if I had any dairy-free or egg-less options.

And then she hit me with the word vegan.

Interestingly enough- - It never even crossed your- - Back in 2017, I had vegetarians in my family.

I had no vegans in my family, and I had never even heard the term before.

So when she had asked me about it, I was like, "Well, that's very interesting.

I'm not sure how to make a cake without eggs, and I'm not sure if I know how to make a cake without milk either, but let me try.

If you're gonna consistently be a customer of mine, I'll make sure that I always have one or two items for you."

I didn't realize how many friends she had.

So once I started doing that for her, it started as a cupcake, I created a cookie, then I started with a brownie.

Eventually, I started making donuts.

My grandmother, my mom's mom, she always made bread in our family, and none of my other cousins knew how to make bread.

So over time, I taught myself how to make fresh bread, and I realized like, "Wow, I think I really have created something completely different for myself than what I would've ever imagined."

In our bakery case, what I did was every plate that was a dairy-free or egg-less option was pink.

So all the other plates were black, so it was very obvious to customers which one was the allergy friendly baked good.

Over time, over half of the bakery case became pink plates.

And so it was like my mom's items were at the bottom, and then my items were at the top, but I didn't even see it that way.

And then before I went to transition out of that space, I told her, I said, "I think it's time for me to change my name, because I'm not really sure if I wanna create the classic items anymore.

If I'm so good at doing this and it's so much fun to me, I think I just wanna do this."

- Fun, challenging fun.

- Exactly.

Exactly.

And so I went from Riley's Cupcake and Coffee Lounge to Riley's Vegan Sweets and Eats.

And I haven't cracked an egg since 2019.

- Wow.

And you don't miss it?

- No, ma'am.

- And you don't eat scrambled eggs or sunnyside up or anything?

- No.

Interestingly enough, I actually battled with adult acne well into my late twenties and could not get a handle on why my skin was so bad.

I tried all the expensive face washes and the creams and everything.

When I, the more I learned about food, the more I realized that you actually heal yourself from the inside out.

There's not really anything that you can put on your skin that's gonna help you with something that you're suffering from on the inside.

And so, as soon as I stopped consuming eggs and I stopped consuming dairy, my skin cleared up.

So it's not necessarily that eggs and dairy make me feel bad, but they make me look bad.

And it's a battle that I didn't wanna have to deal with anymore.

And once, it was almost like I answered my own question without having to go to the dermatologist.

- So it was like an allergy that you didn't even know that you had.

The sensitivity.

That's crazy.

So you have a lot of customers, then you found out there's a lot of people who have food allergies.

And they can be very dangerous.

- Yes, exactly.

Yes.

It's not always just an upset stomach or a rash.

Like for some people, it can be extremely severe.

- Anaphylactic reaction.

- Yes, extremely severe.

They can get the upset stomach where they're, you know, projectile.

You know, it's just, it can be very, very hard for some people to have that same, you know, eat a donut, have a good time experience.

They go to these meetings in the morning, and they go to different things, and breakfast foods are not necessarily in alignment for people with allergies.

So they give us that small fruit bowl, but then they give us the eggs, they give us the bacon, they give us the toast.

And a lot of people who are gluten-free can't even have the toast, so it's like, all we get is the fruit at the end of the day.

And so I love that the city of Peoria is being a lot more open.

Even the Civic Center, the Paradise, like in East Peoria, they have expanded their menus for a lot of these events that they're having.

And I'm going and I'm signing up and I'm finding these vegetarian and vegan options that were not offered 10 years ago.

And I'm very proud of them for doing that, because there's a lot more people other than me that are happy to see that option.

- Yeah.

And you had to find out on your own.

So when you were... We'll get to your special event here in a minute.

But when you were creating these things, were you going online looking up good vegan recipes?

And how many flops were you discouraged by?

- Yes, a lot.

I spent so much time on my phone, watching video after video.

And even now, I feel even more bad for people who are taking on these AI recipes, because those are horrible.

(Christine laughs) But back then, so many different people had their own way of making things.

And so I definitely had quite a few flops, lots of hundreds of donuts that went into the garbage can.

I will be honest about that.

But once you get it, it's almost like you can't lose it.

So it took some time, but now that I feel like I've really gotten great at what I do, it's beyond good.

Because now that people can't even see or understand the difference between what my mom offers and what I offer, now I feel like I've got it.

When they can't tell the difference between the cake, that's how you know you've got something really good.

- All right.

So you still have some of the stuff in your case on Bronze.

And then you also, now, we're recording this on a Monday.

And this is your big day for doing all the stuff that is not gonna keep you in the kitchen?

- Yep.

So I'm grocery shopping, I'm replenishing supplies, so anything that we need from outside.

And I'm even taking out posters so that way I can advertise for my upcoming event.

So Monday is more of a busy day where you might actually catch me out at the grocery store.

And then it's a lot of prep, so I get a lot of my dry mixes together, make sure I have enough butter in the kitchen, all for the deliveries that I make to Intuition Coffee and Juice, and then getting prepped for the bakery.

- Okay.

So, you can use butter.

- Well, I actually use Country Crock Olive Oil Butter, which is plant-based.

It's plant-based butter.

So you can still use those bigger name brands, but you can find them in a plant-based option.

And they taste exactly the same.

- Now, so do you order in bulk then or?

- I do usually try to do that with Walmart.

I'll get them by the case.

Working with Country Crock, you can't order directly from the distributor, but you just work with the local stores that carry their products.

So, yeah, working with Walmart has been pretty easy to be able to place those large orders for the cases when we can.

- All right.

So you had no idea when you were growing up that this was gonna happen.

- No.

- And you had no idea what a vegan was?

- Nope.

- And here you are running your own business, going home and playing the violin just to kind of calm yourself down, baking all kinds of wonderful tasting things, and staying so thin, even though you're sampling all this stuff.

That's a good thing to know.

Then you started something in, well, go back to 2021.

2020, you said were almost going to open a restaurant.

Then 2021.

- Well, 2020 is actually when, well, 2019, between 2018 and 2020 was that transitionary period of me trying to figure out, how am I gonna expand the business and what is that gonna look like?

So it was a lot of searching for different locations.

It was trying to figure out, am I gonna go with a full menu?

Am I gonna go with a lunch menu?

It was just really trying to lock in on what do I want my business to look like moving forward if it is gonna be a completely vegan business?

And so, in the midst of looking for the restaurant space, I found a place that I really liked.

It didn't work out the way that I wanted.

So ironically enough, 2020 was difficult for multiple reasons.

We went all curbside for a full year and a half.

Well, I would say for the full year, we went curbside.

So the same way we were operating the business before, we had people calling, they were emailing in their orders.

They could see everything that we had in the bakery case.

Because we were not allowed to allow any customers inside, we were just taking the orders out to their vehicle.

People were pulling up in their pajamas.

Hair is not done.

They're like, "I look a little funny.

Can I still come by?"

Absolutely.

Pull up, nobody, there's no judgment here.

Everybody is welcome.

- Not gonna put a cake in your face.

I worked hard on this.

- Yes.

But it was really nice for like my third shift customers to just be able to come as they were, still be able to support the business without feeling like they had to get fully dressed.

So it was really nice for them.

It was difficult for us in the rain and in the snow, but we made it happen.

No matter what, I was resilient against, I will not allow my business to fail because the world thinks that I'm non-essential.

Because I didn't feel that way.

I felt that my bakery was very important and there was no reason for us to close.

So when 2021 came along, I actually got a letter from Hy-Vee grocery store.

That was the expansion that I had no idea was coming.

I was able to put my vegan sweets in a grocery store for 3 1/2 years, and I never would've saw that coming because I never reached out to the store myself.

The store was recruiting small businesses to come in as a test run to see how well the products would do.

And week after week after week, my items would sell out within hours.

- Really?

- Within hours of making those deliveries.

And it would be over 100 items on the shelf, and they would just be gone.

They would send me a picture in a couple of hours and everything would be gone.

- [Christine] Okay, cool.

That's awesome.

- And so that was the way that I was able to reach so many more people that had never heard about my business before, because I left out the part that Riley's Cupcake and Coffee Lounge was a technology free business.

So we didn't have a website, we didn't have a phone.

It was if you walked by, you knew about it.

- If you looked in the window.

- And you kept coming back because it was a really cool place to be.

But it was a, if you know about it, you know about it type of place.

- And parking is difficult.

And you know, you needed foot traffic for sure.

All right.

So then 2021, you and your mother are sitting down saying, "Okay, this is a little bit crazy.

We need to do something else."

And so you came up with the Plant Expo?

- Yes.

So the Plant Based Peoria Expo, what I wanted with the idea of that was to kind of pull from what the Black Expo used to be, which was such a unique and extraordinary event that used to happen at the Civic Center.

It was full of culture, full of food, full of jewelry.

It was just all the things that you wanted to see, you could find it there.

And I just really missed that opportunity of like seeing people come together and supporting businesses in that way.

And then we no longer have the Taste of Peoria, so it was kind of like, how are we able to sample things that locally different people are making, and how can we get everybody back together in the same room?

So to pull those two ideas together is what made me first wanna host it at the Civic Center.

And then the second was, let's go ahead and invite as many vendors as we can in the state and outside of the state, just to see what would happen.

And keep admission free.

- And everything plant-based.

- And everything's plant-based, but yep, but keep admission free because the idea is not for me to make money off of the customers.

The idea is for the customers to come in outta curiosity and people spend more money when they're curious.

When you have to spend that money for parking, when you have to spend that money for admission, it just doesn't hit the same because it's like there's too many blockers before you get to the fun.

- Too many steps.

- Yes.

So we curated the Plant Based Peoria Expo as a way to showcase any and all cruelty free or plant-based items that are being made in the city and outside of the city, if we had anybody that wanted to come and be a part of it with us.

So this year, we've got vendors coming from Nashville, we have people coming from outside of Illinois.

So we're gonna have vegan seafood, we're gonna have vegan cheesecake, we're gonna have my loaded nachos, so it'll be completely vegan cheese, it'll be a vegan meat option.

But it's just an idea and an opportunity for people who don't really know what vegan food is like, or they're not really sure what plant-based options are like to just come and sample.

You can meet the business owner, you can ask questions.

It's a lot more personable of an experience instead of going into the restaurant, maybe that's not the owner at the front.

You're asking questions, maybe you're not getting the full question answered.

This is that way for you to get one-on-one with the people who are making those products.

- Are you surprised by the amount of excitement involved, that you did it three years at the Civic Center and this year you're doing it at?

- Yes.

So this year we are moving the location to the Life Together Center.

And I'm very excited about that too, because we're gonna have the opportunity to be more indoors and outdoors.

So instead of it just being inside, we are also welcoming vendors that want to keep their food trucks to be in the parking lot, so that way we can have even more options for our customers.

- So the Life Together Center is at?

- It's right off of Sheridan.

- Right.

Okay.

Oh, and that's behind the church.

- Yes, First Federated Church.

- Sheridan and Memorial Drive.

- Yes.

Yes.

That's correct.

- So what's your favorite thing to prepare?

And are you experimenting all the time?

- Yeah.

So my favorite thing to make is the bread.

I would absolutely say that making fresh baked cinnamon rolls, just the smell of the bread brings me right back to us sitting in Galesburg at my grandma's house.

She used to make bread for our entire family, so the dinner rolls and the cinnamon rolls were served every time my family got together.

We never had outside desserts served at my family.

So the fact that I was able to teach myself that skill and then bring that smell and bring that nostalgia back to my family for family holidays has been great.

But to also be able to share that with an unknown amount of people just throughout having my items at the grocery store and then being able to support them throughout my business, that has just been a really cool thing for me because I almost feel like I'm sharing a piece of my grandma with other people.

- Yeah.

And you are.

- And in a cruelty-free way.

- You are.

Yeah.

So, you know, sometimes vegetarian food or or gluten-free is kind of cardboard-ish.

- True.

- Yeah.

So how have you managed to get around that?

And how is your bread?

So you use yeast, you use flour, you use eggs?

- I do not use eggs.

- You use, okay.

- So I would say that the, so everything I make is vegan.

I don't specialize in gluten-free, but I do offer gluten-free items on occasion.

Gluten-free is very difficult.

I would definitely say that it takes a lot of time.

Gluten-free is more like chemistry and magic, and you have to be very patient because you have to make sure that the texture's there, that the taste is there, and that it also looks the way you want it to look because it does bake completely differently than other items.

So, I do do gluten-free by request.

I will say that I have gotten wonderful feedback on the gluten-free items that I make now versus the gluten-free items that I made when I started.

So it has definitely been a learning experience and a lot of constructive criticism from customers that I absolutely appreciate.

Because without that constructive criticism, I would've never known how to make it better.

- [Christine] You would've just been going along, singing a song.

- I would.

Serving out cardboard.

Absolutely.

- Well, I know that a lot of sugar is needed with gluten-free items, and that's strange to me.

- Yeah.

It does seem like a lot of... I, well, I would almost say that that comes into play when people are not sure how to balance the flavor.

They probably would add in a lot more sugar.

So I like to use organic cane sugar versus refined sugar.

So I don't use any bleached flour, no bleached sugar, no bleached salt.

So that's something, those are the three things that are very important when it comes down to the ingredients that I choose, because it makes your body feel better.

Your body doesn't go through so much of a process when you're eating and consuming these items.

- So are you using a lot of heritage grains then, that way?

- Not necessarily.

Not necessarily in the baked goods, but I do focus on unbleached all-purpose flour.

As far as the bread goes, I do use yeast.

When I make the gluten-free rolls, I don't use yeast.

So that does kind of change some things up a little bit because I know some people, they don't want the yeast at all when they're consuming breads.

So, but just trying to focus on minimal ingredient recipes is the most important part because a lot of people are like, "Well, what's in it?"

And that's the easiest question for me to answer because it's always the same basic four or five things.

And then I just add whatever that flavor profile is on top of that.

- Have you made up your own recipes then that you've come up with?

- Yes.

It's a lot of the base recipes that I started with had to come from a structure of someone else because I was completely unaware, unfamiliar with how to do it.

Yes, yes.

But over time of being able to work with those recipes, I've been able to completely change some of them to where they're absolutely my own and not just a highlight of someone else's.

But if it's not a recipe that I've made from scratch, I'm always happy to share that with my customers so they can do the same thing I did and kind of turn it into their own.

- Yeah.

So Plant Based Peoria Expo, and look how beautiful this flyer is.

So I'll try to hold it steady, but I don't know.

- Yes.

And that's gonna be happening on August 15th and it's from 11:00 PM to 5:00 PM, so we really tried- - 11:00 AM, AM.

- Yeah.

Oh, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Yes, 'cause we really wanted to highlight that lunch period and then all the way into the evening time if people are gonna be getting off work.

And so we're gonna have a lot of different options.

So we've got a vendor coming in all the way from Baltimore.

She's gonna be having her hair care products.

She has like haircare products, shampoos, and lotions.

- And they're plant-based?

- Everything is plant-based and cruelty free.

Yes.

And then, like I said, we've got cheesecake coming in town.

We've got vegan seafood, we've got Intuition Coffee and Juice that is bringing fresh juice.

They always provide a coffee option.

We have potatoes, bringing vegan donuts.

G's Creative Creations actually made my hoodie and she will be there actually printing shirts on demand.

So if anybody wants apparel or any type of fun thing to take home as just like a souvenir.

So it'll be a really good time, and especially for the kids.

The highlight is honestly, everything I do, adults are included because they're my age, of course, my age and up.

But I do this honestly for the kids and it's so they have something where they're meeting other kids that are just like them because they may not go to school together.

But being able to connect with somebody over something that normally is a downfall, because when you have an allergy, it's not really something you wanna celebrate.

But meeting somebody else that has that same allergy makes you feel better because it's easy way for us to connect and it's something that can bring you together and you get to eat the same thing.

So for kids to make new friendships and to make those connections and to introduce those parents together, I feel like I'm creating connections that are way bigger than my business.

- Alright.

So, you brought your phone up here because you do have some sponsors here.

So, and again, oh, and you're gonna have live music.

So who's providing the music?

- So we are actually, we are still recruiting a DJ.

We have had live bands or we've had bands joining us every other year.

This year, we are looking to incorporate a DJ, so that way we can get a little more of a mix of music.

And then we're also just looking to incorporate a new face.

We have had quite a few of the same musicians.

We've had First Date Kiss perform two years in a row for us, and they have always done a fantastic job.

So we absolutely, we recommend them to anybody that needs live music.

- [Christine] Good.

So your vendors are- - Well, yes.

I wanted to highlight our sponsors.

- Oh, I mean the event sponsors, you got the vendors.

- So CEFCU has been one of our sponsors for all four years of the event.

And we're super grateful for that because being a small business, having an idea, I'm not a nonprofit, so of course the funding is a little bit different.

Having their support to do something like this- - Means a lot.

- It means so much because even if they're not vegan, even if they're not vegetarian, they understand the mission.

They know that I need them to go farther than where I'm at.

And so I really appreciate CEFCU.

We've got CityLink as one of our sponsors this year.

We have Simons Mortuary, we have the African-American Firefighters, and we also have Peoria County as a sponsor this year.

And then Riley's Vegan Sweets and Eats, my business, is also a sponsor for the Plant Based Peoria Expo.

- [Christine] Good for you.

So August 15th?

- Yes.

- At the... - At the Life Together Center.

- At the Life Together Center, right by First Federated Church, there at the corner where the big flag used to be.

Okay.

Well, thank you very much for inspiring us.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- And you're doing really well.

- Thank you.

- We'll be visiting you soon.

- Awesome.

- I hope you enjoyed hearing her story and all that she's doing with this new buzz thing, this plant-based everything.

Thanks for joining us.

And in the meantime, see you again soon.

Be well.

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