West Greenville, Easley vegan bakery closing doors but not disappearing

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After three years of business, a popular West Greenville-based vegan bakery will close its doors.

The main location of basta, the bakery known for its array of gluten-free and vegan baked goods, is 1256 Pendleton St. with a grab-and-go kitchen location at 838 Powdersville Road in Easley. Both physical locations will be closed permanently on Sept. 23. However, owner Alexis Krcelic said it won’t be the last you see of basta.

In addition to bulk quantities of frozen items so people to stock up on their favorites, Krcelic said, she will continue taking cake orders on the website as a home baker — which is how she started.

“I’ll be working on getting that joy for baking back in the way I started it to begin with,” she said.

Basta started Oct. 1, 2020, with baking banana bread in Krcelic’s home to raise money for different organizations making an impact in the world, she said.

When Krcelic studied abroad in Italy, she learned word “basta” quickly as she pointed to cookies, croissants, or any kind of dessert and would say “basta” when they had put enough in her bag. It also is an expression of feeling — that someone has had enough with the problems and issues in the world and is ready to do something about it.

“If you’ve seen my Easy-Bake Oven in the store, you might know this has been my dream since I was a little kid,” said Krcelic. “How special that I could actually be living out my dream. Not many people get to say that. But my dream and who I want to be no longer align.”

Krcelic said she started basta when she was single, had one dog, and full-time job.

“It was so easy to give everything to it, and I’m so grateful for that,” she said. “When a little boy comes into the store and thanks me for being a vegan place where he can eat anything, my heart melts. When a person thanks me because they or their children can finally celebrate their birthday with desserts that are safe, it gives a moment of I can conquer any hard times. But back then was different than now. If I wanted to run myself into the ground it didn’t matter. I answered to no one and had very few responsibilities. It also gave me such a purpose. While it still gives me purpose, my life looks so different today.”

Now, Krcelic has a fiancé, two dogs, and a house to take care of, but no real income for herself coming in, she said.

“And as much as it shocks me that I would be remotely domestic, I love my little family,” she added. “I want to spend time with them. I want to get off my phone. I want to travel with them. I want to smile like I used to.”

The weight of business

Basta was born amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with the banana break project and she said at the time, it felt easy and aligned with who she was and what she had the capacity for. She baked sustainably knowing she wanted a physical location eventually.

There has never been a kitchen at the West Greenville basta storefront. She had shared a kitchen with another business, and at the end of 2022, that business moved on, leaving her without a kitchen to bake in. That’s when she opened the Easley grab-and-go location equipped with a kitchen.

“We always had to bake somewhere else and then brought it all to the West Greenville store so having two spaces, one of which is without a kitchen, is tricky,” she said. “It’s been great being able to service the Easley area, though, too. But I never intended to grow two locations at once.”

At the beginning of the year, said Krcelic, she realized she wanted her life to slow down, because relationships are important to her, and with owning the business, she couldn’t live in the moment with her loved ones.

“I could just feel the weight of basta crushing me more and more,” she said. “On the outside, people saw the growth of the business, but on the inside, I felt something very different. What I see now is high payroll, personal and business debt, physical pain, bills, someone always needing me, constant stress, always putting out fires, never being able to be fully present, and not even recognizing myself in the mirror while I have given almost everything I had to basta.”

With growth, comes having to do more, she said. It took a while for her to go through all her options, to grow and expand, but ultimately, she decided that even if she downsized, she would still have to manage employees and have no steady paycheck for herself.

“This has been a really positive work environment, and where I am at mentally wouldn’t be contributing to that culture I had originally created here,” said Krcelic. “Nor being a great leader for the team, so I made the decision to close.”

Taking the good with the bad

As with owning any business, Krcelic said, there is good and bad.

“I realized this week that though I started basta because I thought it was my purpose and what I should be doing with my life, the space was created for other people,” she said. “So, ultimately, the purpose was not for me at all.”

She said after she announced the closing, a team member hugged her and told her she had been a great boss.

“She was crying, because she said this space and her job helped her find her light again,” Krcelic added. “Some people just go and exist at their jobs, but to be able to provide this type of impact as an employer, I’ve never had that before and be able to hit a large market with safe-to-eat food here for all, everyone feels welcomed, and I loved bringing more joy to people’s lives.”

The hard part was the financial aspect, said Krcelic, who admitted her strength is not in accounting.

“I have to make sure everyone else gets paid before I do, and I’m the sole business owner,” said Krcelic. “Every decision laid with me, and I probably won’t do this again.”

She said she didn’t want to grind it out only to close after 10 years of hard work.

“I looked at my life with all I have going on, and I just didn’t want to make that sacrifice anymore,” she added.

Krcelic’s advice to anyone considering a business in today’s economic climate would be to know their own weaknesses and consider finding a business partner that can counterbalance with strengths in those areas.

“Also, build as many firewalls as you can around the things you really care about,” she added. “Running a business, even a side hustle, will try to consume all those things. You need to build protection around everything you don’t want to lose when you run a business. And that’s what happened to me. Give protection to the things that make you you, which is hard but knowing that going in I think is important.”

Although there are downfalls to owning a business, said Krcelic, she was passionate about it because it gave her a platform she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“If you look at the brand, it is me, and I’m it,” she explained. “I was able to use that voice, my voice, that people liked and fell in love with, and talk about positive change. One of the greatest accomplishments is we talk a lot about mental health, something there isn’t a lot of transparency in, so then people feel isolated and alone. I wanted to be able to talk about that. I have no issue sharing my own mental health story and encouraging others that they shouldn’t feel isolated in it. Someone reached out to me and asked me to help save their friend because I spoke openly about resources through my basta platform, giving a space to talk about other things than just offering food, and people have been interested in what we have to say.”

So, what’s next for Krcelic?

She said she is an entrepreneur at heart but taking a break from business. She is currently looking for a full-time job with more stability, maybe in marketing.

“Right now, it’s about spending more time with my family, turning my phone off, decompressing and getting back to the parts that make me me, which you often have to put aside when running a business,” Krcelic said. “No matter if it’s physical or digital, your brain is always thinking about it (the business). So, although it’s sad to be closing the business, I also find the joy in it.”