Photo by Milton Morris
Signe Gardo
AGE: 76
HOMETOWN: Hilton Head Island since 1965; born and raised in Connecticut
CLAIM TO FAME: Owner and recipe artist at Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery and Cafe
MAJOR MILESTONE: In August, Gardo celebrated her 45th continuous year in business.
A MATTER OF FAITH: She and husband Tom are members of Christian Renewal Church.
PASSION PROJECT: “I would like to finally get the time to write the cookbook that so many people have been asking me for.”
CO-OP AFFILIATION: Member of Palmetto Electric Cooperative
Signe Gardo remembers Aug. 11, 1972, like it was yesterday. Any doubts she had about opening a boutique food emporium in Harbour Town vanished when she counted the register and realized she had made $28.
Forty-five years and two locations later, Gardo is still feeding Hilton Head Island, energetically working seven days a week at Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery and Cafe. Along the way, she’s been featured on television and in the pages of the New York Times, Bon Appetit, Travel & Leisure and Southern Living, earning a national reputation as the island’s most creative pastry chef and wedding-cake baker. What’s her recipe for success?
Expand the menu. Her reputation as a baker took hold in the 1970s with oversized chocolate chip cookies—they had customers lining up outside her door—and continues to grow with her latest culinary creations, including the gooey, chocolatey mud dauber cake. “I never lost any of my old items. I just continued to add new ones,” she says. “We’re still pumping out cookies like crazy.”
Work with the best. “Staying in business this long, I didn’t do it by myself,” Gardo says of the more than 2,000 employees she’s worked with over the decades. “They are part of my life, and I just try to be respectful and appreciate what they’re doing to make it happen.”
Take it one day at a time. Gardo admits that, in 45 years, she never followed a business plan, other than making her customers happy and living by her faith. “When it came to 35 [years], I was wondering how long this would last. I did not think of an exit plan, and I still don’t have one,” she says. “I try to listen to the Lord and do what I’m supposed to do today. Tomorrow? I’m not really thinking about that.”
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Get More
See what’s on the menu at Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery and Cafe, 93 Arrow Road, Hilton Head Island, by visiting signesbakery.com or calling (866) 807-4463.