Sweet Hazel & Co.

Address: 1000 South Main Street, Suite #100

Telephone: 801-889-1466

Website: sweethazelandco.com

District: Ballpark

 

“Sugar runs in my veins,” Felicia (Fee) Hanson said with a smile, as she looked around the warm, whimsical space she has built. “I just love making people happy - with candy, with food, with community.” Sweet Hazel, Fee’s vegan bakery, market, and café, is tucked into a cozy strip that includes Leavity Bread and Star of India. Named after her beloved cat, Hazel, Fee said that “She was my soul cat. When I started this adventure, I didn’t know what to name it, and my sister-in-law said, ‘What about Sweet Hazel?’ It just felt right.”

What began as a keto sweets business evolved into a fully vegan operation, but the name, and the spirit behind it, stayed the same. The moment you walk in, you know you are somewhere special. With inviting seating, a cat-themed wall, soft-serve ice cream dipped in chocolate, a market full of locally made goods, and shelves of handcrafted candy, the place exudes comfort and intention. “It’s a vegan heaven,” Fee said. “But also, it’s a place where everyone - vegan or not - can feel at home.”

Fee was born and raised in Salt Lake City and got her first food service job at the age of fourteen working at a hamburger joint called Central Park. From there, she never left the food world. “It was one job after another,” she said. “I was always curious, always wanted to know what was going on in the kitchen.” Fee had always envisioned creating something of her own - not just a business, but a place of belonging. “I try really hard to hire marginalized folks and people with issues in their past,” she said. “I know how much it can mean when someone just gives you a shot.”

Fee’s path to opening her own business was not a straight one. She has what she refers to as a justice-involved background. In 2011, she was incarcerated. While serving time, she enrolled in culinary school in the prison - eager to turn a lifetime of experience into something more. She came out committed to doing better. “When you get in trouble, you’re supposed to work on yourself,” she said. “That’s what I did. I took accountability. And I rebuilt from there.”

After her release in 2015, Fee started over. She landed a job at Buffalo Wild Wings, and shortly after, interviewed at the prestigious Alta Club. “I told the chef there, ‘I have a colorful background. Is that going to be a problem?’” she recalled. “He looked at me and said, ‘Did you kill somebody?’ I said no. ‘Are you on parole?’ I said yes. And then he hired me.” Over the next five years, she worked her way up to sous chef and learned the skills that would lay the foundation for her own business. She had hoped she could hold on to both the steady job at the Alta Club, which she loved and deeply appreciated, and the small dream that was quickly gaining traction. “They took me in and kept me through Covid,” she said. “I’ll always be grateful.” But just a few days after launching her own brand, she realized something had to give.

During her time at the Alta Club, Fee began experimenting with recipes at home - first selling keto treats, then transitioning to fully vegan sweets. “I told my wife, ‘We’re going vegan,’” she laughed. “I had to call all my keto customers and say, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m vegan now. I can make you a peanut butter cup, but that’s it!’”

Fee’s homemade vegan Snickers bars sparked a frenzy. “The vegans went wild,” she said. “I was doing parking lot meetups every Saturday to keep up with orders.” That demand led her to a shared commissary kitchen where she launched her own production space and, eventually, a small storefront in March 2021. “It was just one bakery case and a tiny table, but it was mine,” she said.

From there, Fee's momentum grew. She added grab-and-go meals, hot lunch options, and expanded her menu with items like cinnamon rolls, cookies, and cakes. Eventually, she found herself running an eighteen-table, 5,600-square-foot restaurant. “It was beautiful, but it was too much,” she said. “The rent, the stress - it started to weigh on me.”

In March 2024, Fee moved Sweet Hazel into its current location - cozy, colorful, and just the right size. In addition to her vegan café and bakery, the space includes a small market, cat-themed merchandise, goods from local sanctuaries, and a donation station for community cat food. “We’re still growing,” she said. “But this feels like the kind of growth that makes sense.” Fee and her wife, Lori, whom she married in 2022, have poured their hearts into the space. “She just follows behind me and makes everything beautiful,” Fee said. “The vibe is retro and cozy. It feels like home.”

Behind the scenes is a 2,200-square-foot commercial kitchen equipped with tempering machines, a flow wrapper, a blast chiller, and candy bar enrobers. “When I started, I didn’t even know what half that equipment was,” Fee said. “But I figured it out. You learn what you need to learn when you care enough to get it right.” Someday, she hopes to share what she has learned with others. “I’d love to mentor people who want to follow this kind of path - especially the ones who maybe don’t think it’s possible yet.”

Alongside Sweet Hazel is Fee’s second company, Break Free Candy, a business born from both her love of sweets and her desire to create opportunity. “Break Free means a lot of things,” she explained. “Breaking free from animal agriculture, from addiction, from shame, from stigma. Whatever you’re trying to move beyond, there’s room here for that.”

That message of breaking free came into sharp focus in 2023 when an old mugshot of Fee surfaced online. “The backlash was devastating,” she said. “I thought about giving up. I thought maybe I shouldn’t have started any of this.” But a gift from her sister-in-law - a session with a medium - changed something. “She said, ‘You don’t need to talk to the other side. You need clarity right now.’ And she was right.”

In the weeks that followed, Fee made a decision. She would no longer hide. She would lead with honesty and let her work speak for itself. “This is bigger than me now. It’s about showing people that you can fall and still rise. You can start over. And you can make something beautiful.”

Fee's slogan - “Vegan for the animals. Inclusive for the humans.”- says it all. Teary-eyed, Fee offered, “I never thought this would grow like it has.” Standing in the doorway of her shop, sunlight pouring in behind her, she added, “But I’m doing what I love. I’m helping people. And yeah, sugar really does run in my veins. I guess I’m just sprinkling the city with Sweet Hazel.”