There are no bad ideas in a brainstorm. Especially those that come at the beginning of a global pandemic.
COVID-19 shuttered restaurants starting in March 2020, and Austin chefs Laurie Ziminski and Victor Sandoval, like most of their peers, found themselves at home considering the futures they wanted to create for themselves. Gone were the late nights and 60-hour work weeks at Jeffrey’s and Il Brutto, respectively. In their place, something new: hobbies and spare time to envision a brand-new life.
“I think that is when we got into the daydreaming,” Sandoval says. “Maybe we should leave the city. Maybe we should try homesteading. What can we do to work for ourselves? At that point, everything was on the table. And if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just blame it on the pandemic.”
The couple, married in 2024, started envisioning a simpler life—one more closely connected to the earth. Although lifelong city dwellers, they fell into a routine of watching YouTube videos about people who had fled their busy lives for a more pastoral existence. Paired with a claustrophobic sense of cabin fever, they began searching in earnest for rural property around Central Texas.
Due to exploding prices, Austin and its surrounding towns were out of the equation. But in early 2021, they found a one-bedroom home with 2 acres of land in Durango—a tiny town northeast of Temple that neither Ziminski nor Sandoval had ever even heard of before.
“It’s right there by Westphalia,” Sandoval deadpans. “It only comes up in the Weather Channel app.”
The chefs had plenty of history working with food and had long cultivated a DIY lifestyle. Fueled with self-confidence and a nothing-to-lose mentality, they started working the land, planting Asian greens, broccoli rabe, and various melons; caring for chickens, ducks, and turkeys; spreading sunflower seeds; and making their own soaps from olive oil.
Inspired by their cat’s name, and the smaller environmental footprint they were leaving behind as homesteaders, the duo dubbed the property Little Foot Farm. To subsidize their new lifestyle, they set up shop at the Waco Downtown Farmers Market in the summer of 2021, where they began selling wildflowers, eggs, and produce, along with an array of Ziminski’s laminated croissants, scones, and cookies.
Adorned with tattoos and dreadlocks, the chefs knew their aesthetic might come as a culture shock in Waco. So, Sandoval came up with a brilliant idea: He “Trojan horsed” their farm products and baked goods into the public consciousness by selling pies from an unmarked table draped in a checkerboard cloth. Once the blueberry and pecan pies lured in passersby, Sandoval and Ziminski would slide over, introduce themselves, and make new customers out of the unsuspecting.
“We had such a cool and unique product,” Ziminski says. “Once people tried it, they always came back.”
Her croissants showered in everything-bagel seasoning were the first item to engender return business. In fact, the couple sold more than 100 on their first Saturday in downtown Waco. With interest piqued, Little Foot was soon selling morning buns, blueberry scones, and sourdough bread. A good Saturday now means more than 250 croissants—no pie deception required.
Ziminski and Sandoval realized despite their success at the market, the Saturday endeavor—supplemented by a van they used to sell baked goods in front of local coffee shops—would not afford them long-term financial stability. They needed a permanent home for their business.
They searched Waco for about a year before stumbling upon a historic building located steps from the farmers market, close to Waco City Hall.
The couple created Neighborhood Bakery as a morning and afternoon bakery and café centered around Ziminski’s assortment of pastries, Roman-style pizza, and a collection of eclectic dry goods. Sandoval loves to cook Japanese food, hence the packaged Momofuku ramen noodles, Hello Kitty soup cups, and obscure Kit Kat bars at the shop’s entrance.
A coat of white paint updates brick walls in the century-old building, and the exposed wooden beams are not just a design element but a testament to resilience and good fortune. The Neighborhood Bakery site survived the Waco Tornado of 1953, which destroyed nearby properties and killed dozens.
At their farm, an arid 2024 meant a dormant fall season in the fields, but Sandoval was already planning for the following spring as the year wound to a close. With Neighborhood Bakery serving as the hub for Ziminski’s pastries, Sandoval intends to continue his homesteading and planting, with Little Foot Farm remaining a market staple. The plan is to offer cabbage, herbs, soft lettuces, and kale this year. He also envisions planting his own wheat and Bloody Butcher corn to mill for cornmeal and grits that can be used at the restaurant.
The café marks the realization of a pandemic fever dream that has roots stretching back years earlier, when the couple first started dating. Despite the challenges of moving to the country, planting a garden, and starting their own business, their faith never wavered. However, Sandoval admits slow weeks on the farm sometimes left him wondering about life as a long-haul trucker.
“But there’s no way,” Sandoval says with a laugh. “I can barely drive my truck an hour from home to the bakery.”
Some ideas have longer legs than others.
