Elmhurst Woman Aims To Open Bakery

ELMHURST, IL – Elmhurst resident Kai Sison MacNicol has run a bakery out of her house for nearly four years.

RoughEdges Confectionary has quickly grown. And now MacNicol is looking for a space in Elmhurst to have a shop.

Earlier this month, MacNicol set up a 30-day investment campaign on the Honeycomb Credit site. The effort drew $25,000 on the first day. She met her maximum of $65,000 with 27 days left, she said.

"People are investing in my business, so I can get out of the kitchen and move to a larger place," MacNicol said in an interview.

MacNicol, a former clinical manager for an orthodontist, said she started her home business just as the pandemic was starting. In the beginning, she did not see many of her customers face to face. They picked up baked goods at the back of her house on Grantley Avenue, she said.

"When COVID hit, everything was closed, and we were open," said MacNicol, who has lived in Elmhurst for nearly a dozen years.

Her campaign attracted 66 investors, many of them Elmhurst residents. Some of them were from the local running community; she belongs to the Elmhurst Running Club and has taken part in marathons and triathlons, including the Ironman.

Why is the bakery called RoughEdges?

MacNicol said she was abandoned as a child in the Philippines. Her grandmother took care of her.

"She was a strong-willed woman. I was a strong-willed child," MacNicol said. "She said, 'You're a little rough around the edges. You can handle that.'"

MacNicol's children are 9,11 and 13.

To find out more about RoughEdges, visit its website.