Silver Chef x Punk Rock Pastries| Burnaby, BC

By MENU Magazine

January 17, 2023

Your Stories

In 2019, pastry chef Hollie Fraser took the leap and opened her creative, fun and edgy bakery, Punk Rock Pastries. “I wanted a place of my own where I could really show my artistic side in cakes—just do what I wanted to do and make people smile,” Hollie shares. “I started the business just by myself on a whim and even though I didn’t have a lot of money in my pocket, I went for it, and used pretty much everything I had.”

Even still, challenges outfitting the business space soon exhausted Hollie’s funds. After holding two fundraisers to get Punk Rock Pastries off the ground, she finally got the doors open. “I opened with just one employee and myself,” she recalls. “We had one fridge, one table, our oven, sinks, a counter and one display case.” It didn’t take long to realize they were bursting at the seams and needed more fridges, freezers and a larger display cabinet to accommodate their orders. “After a search, I found SilverChef.”

Initially drawn to SilverChef due to their common Australian roots, Hollie reached out. “I phoned them up and had a chat. Soon, I started to get to know them personally, which was great because I’d ring them and ask them so many questions because I’m that type of person. I do my research. I ended up falling in love with this company. They have helped me out so much! They were able to help me finance a new freezer, fridge and display case for the front. They really helped our business boom out of the gate.”

Just 10 months in, the pandemic arrived. “I was watching my dreams go down the drain. It was heartbreaking,” she says. She rallied, and opened an online store and did deliveries, working midnight to 3 p.m. the next day. Ultimately, her efforts paid off. Punk Rock Pastries reopened and was able to to hire back staff, but word of Hollie’s amazing cakes and sweets had gotten out during the closure. “We got bigger and busier and I had to reach out to SilverChef again. I have gone from this tiny little space with no equipment to a tiny little space that had so much equipment, we had no room,” she laughs.I wouldn’t have what I have without SilverChef. I’ve talked to them all the way through real challenges and they’ve helped us any way they can along the way. It’s not like calling a bank. I’m talking to people with heart who want to see me thrive. I know that all I have to do is call and they’ll help any way they can. They don’t say no, they say, “Okay, we could go that way, but how about we try and do it this way?”. There’s always a solution, and I’m so grateful for that.”

BENEFITS OF USING SILVERCHEF RENT-TRY-BUY^®