January: Family provides cancer patients support and supplies at Cure & Co. in Sugar Land
Sisters Sasha and Francesca Klink along with their mom, Irma, own and operate Cure & Co., a cancer wellness boutique. Cure & Co. opened in 2013 after both Sasha and her mother had been through treatments for breast cancer.
“I think a lot of people who have been through treatment come to us because they know we understand,” Francesca said. “They know that we’ve been through it; we’ve seen it; we understand, and so we’re more compassionate towards that.”
August: Mochi doughnuts save The Sweet Boutique in Sugar Land during coronavirus pandemic
After an eight-year teaching career, Christine Nguyen started her own bakery business—The Sweet Boutique—in Sugar Land Town Square in 2011.
Nguyen’s mochi doughnuts, a dessert she makes for her five children at home, ended up saving The Sweet Boutique. Mochi doughnuts are similar to regular doughnuts, but they are baked instead of fried and made with rice flour, making them gluten free, she said.
“I couldn’t sleep for weeks when the whole pandemic started because I knew that we were going to have to shut down. If this mochi doughnut thing didn’t happen for us, we would have been closed a long time ago,” Nguyen said. “It was our saving grace. Mochi doughnuts saved our bakery.”
December: Home Studio 6 in Missouri City carries local, international finds
When Maury Marlowe opened Home Studio 6 in Missouri City, he had no idea his home decor and gift store would have to weather a pandemic in its first year.
Nestled off Hwy. 6 in Missouri City, Home Studio 6 is located in a house Marlowe believes was built in about 1895. Now, the old-house-turned-shop is a showroom for a wide range of eclectic furniture, jewelry, woodworking, textiles, art and candles.
“It’s a handcrafted look that we’re trying to strive for,” Marlowe said. “These are handmade, one-of-a-kind designs that most people don’t even really know are out there. It creates a unique kind of mysterious shop for people—you never know what you’re going to find next week.”
