Two things are happening to Jason Churchwell. He is making people happy, and he is making people sad. People are happy if they are in line early enough to buy croissants at Slanging Dough Artisanal Bakery; they’re sad if they’re too late. 

“I don’t want people to get upset at me,” Churchwell said. “I really just want to make people happy. If I had more help or a bigger place, I could make more, but I’m doing everything I can for now.” 

In the middle of the night until 8 a.m., when the door to his tiny bakery opens and the line of 20 or so customers rushes in, Churchwell creates homemade, handmade croissants. Some customers wait on the little side street in downtown San Angelo for an hour and a half. Those at the first of the line might buy 20 or 30 croissants; when Churchwell’s 150 to 200 croissants are gone, the people at the end of the line go home empty-handed – and sometimes also broken-hearted, depending on their resilience. 

Churchwell is back in his hometown after six months of study at a French pastry school in Chicago.  He said that at first his breads were like rocks, and his cakes were flat. After school, he worked in restaurants in Austin and Seattle, where he lived in his car for a couple years and learned how people live on the edge of society. He likes pastry because it’s more “scientific” than other kinds of cooking, and he enjoys experimenting until the dough gives up its secrets. 

Churchwell came back home to his mom, Judy Churchwell, who always had a garage apartment waiting for him and a belief that he would succeed. “Without my mom, I couldn’t have done any of this,” he said. “I wanted to create a bakery in San Angelo and bring pastries that would be so good. My goal was to open people’s eyes, give them something they never had and help educate people about what they could expect from a bakery.”