First-time franchisee Sharian Lott steps into the spotlight with her own Schmackary’s cookie store.
Sharian Lott, in her own words, is “sandwiched between a mother who’s a great singer, a soloist, and a daughter who we knew was going to be some kind of a performer by 3 years old.” The spirit of Broadway is deeply ingrained in her DNA—her mother Dorothy Smith was the first Black woman elected to office in San Diego and purveyor of the longest-running Black theater in the country. Lott’s daughter, Loren, went from performing for her teddy bears to large Broadway audiences and even TV shows, including “The Porter” and “The Young & The Restless.”
Growing up, Lott gained a deep appreciation for her mother’s strength and resolve. Smith was born in 1939, went to college on a boy’s scholarship, and powered through relentless adversity as she tried to make it in the entertainment industry. “She was always so happy … It was never about accolades or money. In the late 1950s, you don’t tell a young Black woman that she’s going to be an entertainer. You tell her to get a good job as a teacher, secretary, or wife. But everywhere she went, she was excellent,” Lott shares. “[Smith] prepared my daughter to be in the industry and gave her the moral and ethical foundation she’d need to not be tainted by it.”
Surrounded by stars, Lott took a different path: She spent her early years teaching management and artificial intelligence at IBM and moved on to teach as a college professor in the San Diego Community College District for nearly three decades. She was looking forward to retiring, collecting her pension, and relaxing after a fulfilling career. Until her daughter gave her a cookie.
“As a child, I’d give her a cookie and then find it under the couch because she hated sweets,” Lott says. “One day, she was backstage at a Broadway show and told me, ‘Mommy, I’m obsessed with this cookie,’ and I flew to New York to see what it was all about.”
She arrived in New York and was introduced to Schmackary’s, otherwise known as “The Official Cookie of Broadway.” The award-winning brand has a reputation for appearing on Hulu’s “Only Murders in The Building,” feeding Broadway actors like Loren backstage, and partnering with local communities to raise money for charity.
As “Generation Y’s answer to the Old American Bake Shop,” the brand fuses new-age comfort food with reinvented classics. It launched a franchise program in May 2023 with Fransmart, growing its national footprint by 100 percent with two franchise deals signed in Q1.
One of those multi-unit deals was inked by Lott, who intends to bring the cookie chain to California for the first time. It was an organic synergy between the two, with Lott’s family deeply embedded in the San Diego community and embodying the spirit of Broadway on the West Coast. After the brand won over her daughter, Lott became what she calls a “connected customer” and jumped headlong into the franchisee application process. It was enough to pull her out of retirement.
“Schmackary’s is my home. I gave [founder Zachary Schmahl and COO Jonny Polizzi] a picture of my mother’s kitchen because we still have the family home, and it looks exactly like their stores,” Lott says. “They did such a great job with the design. In fact, in my first store, I’m going to dismantle my mom’s kitchen and put her stuff in it.”
Lott says the franchisee experience is different from anything she’s done before. The two-month-long application process was strenuous, but she brought her daughter along with her every step of the way. She learned about the struggles to find a unit location in a post-COVID landscape.
“I want my first store to be open by the end of summer … I know I’ll find a place. I’ll fall into the right place at the right time, and that’s how my life has always worked,” Lott says. “Take my mother and daughter for example. See how perfect they are for this?”
Although this is Lott’s first foray into franchising, and the hospitality industry in general, she says she is not foreign to being responsible for people and initiatives. Her experience as a mother, teacher, and instructional leader will help her hold the delicate balance between nurturing a concept and running a business. But she’s still improving her professional development to prepare herself for joining the spotlight.
“Zach and Jonny had me go through a five-week long class from the McClaskey Excellence Institute, and it takes away any fears on the front end because we’re all on the same page,” Lott explains. “I don’t have to worry about my leadership style. It’s trained to excellence, and although I’m stepping out on my own, it’s more fun because it’s a committee of me. I’m doing something for myself, and I get the credit for it.”
Once open, she plans on partnering with local theater groups in San Diego and hiring out of the same community college school district she taught in for decades. In a way, doing this brings her life full circle. Lott plans on growing past one store in the future but is more focused on making an impact in her community first and growing her knowledge in the industry.
“I think as women, we can’t show any weakness or lack of knowledge because we’re already in a position where people are looking at us a little side-eyed,” Lott shares. “But we fix this by putting ourselves in communities where mistakes are OK. With Fransmart and Schmackary’s, I feel safe to ask questions. I’m acknowledging that I don’t know everything, but I’m building a community where I’m not relying on people waiting for me to fail. I’m surrounding myself with people who are going to make sure I don’t.”
Originally shared as part of QSR July 2024 print edition by author, Satyne Doner.