Written by Emma McDaris // Photo by Briley Kemper
A Searcy bakery recently began a new set of hours that allows students and the community to enjoy a different setting for nightlife.
Wild Sweet William’s, a bakery that serves various breakfast pastries, expanded their normal hours starting Feb. 6 to provide a late-night dessert and coffee option for the community. The store is now open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., offering drinks such as chai, decaf coffee and an assortment of teas. The bakery will offer classic Wild Sweet Willam’s pastries such as cookies, baby cakes and cinnamon rolls; however, it will expand this menu to include dessert items like bread pudding, cakes and cheesecake.
Lisa Ford, the founder and owner, said she was excited for this new time slot and what it could mean to the business and community.
“I’m just constantly looking for ways that we can open the space so that it can mean the most to the community, and we have the best team of people that we’ve ever had,” Ford said. “And so we have the team, we have the space, we have the product and we have the community. And so it’s kind of a no-brainer.”
Staff members said they looked forward to the new hours and the space for the community and Harding to interact. Junior Magdalene Pruitt, a current staff member and Searcy native, said she hoped these nighttime hours would foster a new place to relax and connect.
“I hope it offers a good space for kids to get off campus, and also more of the community of Searcy because Wild Sweet William’s has a bunch of regulars that are Searcy natives,” Pruitt said. “… I feel like this would be a really good place for it to be kind of a middle ground of college students and the actual community.”
Pruitt’s coworker senior Collin McCook also said he looked forward to a new space for students off campus.
“I am really looking forward to creating a space for students to come study and hang out and not be confined to campus,” McCook said. “It’s going to be great to have a new student community spot.”
In the past three years, Wild Sweet Willam’s moved into a larger building and started serving lunch, which expanded its menu and brought in new customers. Ford said she never changed her intention with the store and how she approached new additions to the business.
“I try to stay as present as possible in the moment,” Ford said. “And I find that when you are present in the moment, doors open, and you’re able to see what those doors are much more clearly than if you’re not in the present and you’re always looking to the future, and so that is what we have done, and that is what has worked for this business.”
