The Biscuit Shop

Some people have visions of sugarplums, but Michelle Tehan has dreams of biscuits – making them from scratch and selling them fresh to the community she has always called home.

In June 2014, Tehan opened a biscuit shop in a small, white cottage on South Jackson Avenue in Starkville. The Biscuit Shop has become one of the biggest breakfast attractions in town and, with her staff of seven, she averages more than 1,000 biscuits a day.

“And when I run out, I run out,” Tehan said. “I know my limits, and that’s OK.”

But her dreams are far from running dry. Tehan is a goal-oriented woman whose professional passions are obvious from the outset, as well as from the infamous, floor-to-ceiling size chalkboard on which she has listed her “Biscuit Bucket List.” It includes the names of people she’d like to serve, from star Mississippi State University athletes and their head coaches to Miss Mississippi Jasmine Murray to former Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck to SEC Network analyst Tim Tebow. Quite a few of them have been by. Next to their names, they’ve left their autograph and an indelible mark on Tehan’s never-ending journey.

But, why biscuits?

“I’ve always made them,” she said. “My entire family is from Starkville, and I would spend weekends at my grandparents’. My grandmother always made biscuits and gravy, and I would sit on the counter and help her. I’d pour the buttermilk. There’s never been a time when I didn’t make them.”

She said her grandmother to this day makes biscuits at 7:30 a.m. every Saturday. In May 2013, while she was working for the Wildlife and Fisheries Department at MSU, Tehan began selling biscuits out of her house and, later, as a participant at Starkville Community Market. She’d post her availabilities on Instagram, and through connections made there, she’d take orders.

“People would come to my kitchen and get them, or I’d deliver. I’d even meet college guys to deliver biscuits in the CVS parking lot,” she said, laughing.

Eventually, her aunt told her about Kickstarter, a popular online crowdfunding site for individual projects and businesses. Her campaign received enough support that she was able to confidently go forward in setting up a storefront.

“She said, ‘Just see. Just put yourself out there,’ and I did,” Tehan said. “I think it’s a lot easier to grow when you have the support of others, and it’s never stopped. It’s absolutely never stopped.”

Much of The Biscuit Shop’s soaring success is due to Tehan’s continued reliance on social media — namely Instagram — to connect with customers and keep them posted on the shop’s daily offerings. She said she will drop what she’s doing between batches, wash the flour off her hands and take a picture of the shelf behind the register. The decadent photos have now earned the moniker “Shelfies.”

“It’s the best way to get the information out there and tell them what we have on the shelf,” she said. “Since it isn’t like a big doughnut factory and we can only get about 80 biscuits out at a time, it’s the best way to make sure customers can get what they want when they want.”

The menus change daily, with options ranging from more traditional flavors, such as blueberry and sausage cheddar to seasonal concoctions such as red velvet and cranberry orange. She’s constantly developing new flavors, most of which stem from family or customer suggestions.

“They’re the ones who eat them,” she said. “If there’s something they want to try, we’ll do it. It makes for a great way to have a conversation with people.”

The most popular, according to Tehan, are the sprinkle biscuits — plain biscuits with multi-colored sprinkles baked in and topped with a simple glaze. They’re a visual dream, perfect for birthdays and for children.

“The sprinkle ones just taste like good, buttered, sugary biscuits,” she said. “They’re the closest to what my grandmother’s tasted like when I was making them with her as a child.”

But her social media feed isn’t simply a barrage of biscuits or ads; it gives frequent glimpses into Tehan’s bubbly personality as wife to Alan and the mother of their four children, including a set of 8-year-old triplets: Hannah, Hollis, and Houston, and their youngest son, 6-year-old Andrew.

With her husband’s help, she’s able to balance the demands of owning a business with family life with what she lovingly refers to as the “Tehan Crew.”

“Alan has more faith in me than I could have ever expected,” she said. “If I told him I wanted to go to the moon tomorrow, we’d go. He’d figure out a way.”

Going to The Biscuit Shop becomes like visiting a friend’s home. Patrons feel familiar enough to dash in wearing pajamas to grab a plate or two of biscuits and some coffee, or a cold bottled Coca-Cola from her grandmother’s old refrigerator to take home to their own crews on a Saturday morning.

“I really hope that it helps everyone feel comfortable in my space,” she said. “I want them to feel good about coming here.”

Customers can also take a larger order of biscuits to their tailgating crews at MSU. The Biscuit Shop offers a customizable menu featuring both savory and sweet fare for a crowd.

Last football season saw success for MSU on the field as well as for Tehan’s shop. She remembers the Auburn weekend as a time of high stress and an even bigger sense of pride as people turned out in droves to buy biscuits for their tailgates.

“That weekend was crazy,” she said. “I was sitting on the porch crying for a minute, thinking, ‘Wow, they’re all here for my biscuits!’”

But even those overwhelming moments haven’t slowed Tehan down. In fact, they seem to fuel her fire.

I have an insane amount of energy. I don’t know how to do things any differently. I just always want to be doing something, and I’ll do it until I don’t fail.

Michelle Tehan

STORY Kate Gregory
PHOTOGRAPHY Jeremy Murdock