A Gaston County school teacher with the heart of an entrepreneur has spent her summer dishing out sweet treats in Belmont.
The Banana Bar opened in an 800-square-foot rented space on Main Street just as the school year was ending, and owner Brooke Queen says she plans her business to remain open year-round.
The idea of serving frozen bananas dipped in chocolate, then topped with a choice of sprinkles, roasted coconut, candy, pretzels or similar delights grew out of a dessert she fed her children, one now a third-year nursing student and the other a rising senior at South Point High. A frozen banana and topping costs around $7.50, and $1 more if a drizzle of caramel, raspberry, peanut butter of six other flavors is added.
Customers can also switch the banana for cheesecake, for $2 more. The store also sells “dirty sodas,” cookies and soft serve ice cream concoctions.
Queen declined to discuss revenue other than to say the first two months “have been a huge blessing,” and the response has been better than she imagined. “Belmont has really been super supportive and all the people in Belmont have been kind and welcoming,” she says.
A Gaston County native, Queen graduated from Hunter Huss High School and then earned a degree in business and marketing from Western Carolina University. She used to own a children’s boutique store, but sold it about 10 years ago to go into teaching. She now teaches business classes at Highland School of Technology, a magnet school in Gastonia.
Four teenagers are working at the store this summer, but Queen says she’s there seven days a week. The store is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., but is known to remain open if a downtown event is taking place. The store is only closed on Mondays.
“A work-life balance is very difficult, but you have to have a lot of drive, you have to take a lot of risks and you’ve got to trust in God,” she says.
She credits word-of-mouth and social media with helping drive customers to the store. Her daughter helps drive content on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where she has a combined following of more than 3,600. She dreams of finding an investor who believes in the concept and would help her franchise the brand. Right now, she admits to being a bit overwhelmed.
But being her own boss has always been the dream, she says.
“I love creating things, and building them up and working for myself.”