Strugglebeard Bakery Aims To Make People Smile

Quinton McNair is the owner of Strugglebeard Bakery, located at 5221 S. Harper Court. Photo provided by Strugglebeard Bakery.
Quinton McNair is the owner of Strugglebeard Bakery, located at 5221 S. Harper Court. Photo provided by Strugglebeard Bakery.

Strugglebeard Bakery Aims To Make People Smile

By Tia Carol Jones

Quinton McNair creates baked goods that bring people joy with Strugglebeard Bakery. He said there is a feeling that comes with creating things people enjoy he made with his bare hands that is therapeutic.

McNair retired from the military in 2019 and returned home to Chicago after 24 years. He was having a hard time with depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his transition. A friend posted a cookie recipe online and McNair thought that he could do it. He baked the cookie and by his own admission, it was trash. He had also attempted to grow out his beard, after having to be clean shaven since he was 18-years old.

“The beard is struggling, I’m struggling with my mental health and the first time I baked, it was straight off the struggle bus,” he said.

Because McNair doesn’t like to fail, he tried to bake the cookie again. Once he got that cookie right, he started to bake other cookies, cakes, cupcakes and cheesecakes. A couple of times a week, he would bake because he found it was therapeutic. He would share his baking journey on social media. With every lopsided cake or flat cookie, he would use the hash tag #strugglebeardbakery. He eventually got good at baking after weeks of practicing. People started asking him to bake for events and cater and ship baked goods.

At the end of 2020, McNair came up with the idea to turn his baking into a business. He started shipping from home all over the country. He outgrew his kitchen and found the site where his bakery is currently located at 5221 S. Harper Court. In 2023, Strugglebeard Bakery opened in Hyde Park. The bakery recently celebrated its two-year anniversary and McNair said it has been an awesome journey.

McNair said he went into the military to get out of Chicago. He said he went through a lot growing up in Chicago and experienced trauma, which he carried into his military career. He said in the beginning his military career was rocky. He did eventually get help and got better and started to use his military career to help people.

 His first job after he came back to Chicago was volunteering for Aerostar Avion Institute. It allowed him to use his aviation experience in a positive way since he served as a master helicopter crew chief in the military. He taught children and young people from underserved communities about the world of aviation.

Built into the ethos of Strugglebeard Bakery is the intentional effort to give back to the community and having it serve as a resource for other businesses that are coming up. He lets other businesses do pop-ups in the bakery, uses local Black vendors for the tea and coffee he serves, as well as his honey. He said it enables the bakery to be a hub of community where people appreciate it and want to add to the legacy he is building. The walls of the bakery are also decorated with art that people created for the space.

“Just like baking gives me joy to create things, to share with other people and people share things that I created, it also makes me feel good to give back to the community and inspire other people to give back as part of themselves with their art and their resources,” McNair said.

Strugglebeard Bakery’s signature items are cookies infused with top shelf liquors and bourbon. For instance, the Charles Anthony Pecan and Chocolate Chunk, which was named after McNair’s brother, has chocolate chunks and Alexander James bourbon roasted pecans. The James 'Tod' Miles Limoncello cookie has limoncello in it. He also uses the name of the cookie to honor the names of people who were influential in his life. McNair said his favorite cookie is the CPS butter cookie, he said it is the simplest cookie, and he likes to eat it fresh out of the oven.

McNair said the response from the community has been great. He said he had no doubt he had a great product, but he wondered if people would stay loyal to the brands that exist around him. He said because his business has great quality and great customer service, people support his business. He said when people taste his cookies, he wants them to taste the ingredients, not just the sugar. He said the sugar has to be blended. While he started off with the cookies, he said people love the caramel cake and brownies.

Strugglebeard Bakery is partnering with artist JessTimeless for paint and sips and McNair is also hosting bake and sips where he teaches people how to make mini bundt cakes. He said the idea is to share his space. He said someone helped him out when he was first starting out and he wants to return that energy out into the world.

For more information about Strugglebeard Bakery, visit www.strugglebeardbakery.com.


Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

Quandra-Urban Market Exchange