May 2024
Elevate PHX – Tammie Coe
Tammie Coe has gone from pizzas to pastries to PHX, and if she has her way, all three will be in her future for the long term.
Tammie is the proprietor of Tammie Coe Cakes, the popular Phoenix-area bakery that showcases breakfast pastries, big cookies, and her signature fondant-draped cakes. For 10 years, she has also been behind Tammie Coe To Go in Terminal 4, which features hearty sandwiches and salads, snack boxes, and fresh fruit and yogurt as well as her sweet treats.
Those grabbable meals are sometimes a surprise for passengers who didn’t know Tammie Coe To Go was waiting for them behind security near Gate A22.
“Some people say, ‘I wish I had known,’” she said, recounting how travelers are often preoccupied going through security and finding their gate. “They get to us and they didn’t know they could buy their meals from us.”
When they do taste her food, though, they often remark how fresh it is and that they appreciate how Tammie and her business are local. And for Tammie, good-tasting food means selling what she would buy—whether it’s at her central Phoenix store or in an airport terminal.
“We have a mission, me and my team, we have a mission for quality,” she said. “We could’ve forced out lots of different things, but we always wanted to have our take on it, our favorite foods, what we want to eat.”
“We’re always talking about sourcing the best products, and we always just wanted to do it special,” she said. “It’s possible. Why not just make it what we like?”
Tammie went back to her restaurant roots three years ago by opening a pizza restaurant adjacent to her downtown Phoenix bakery, and she is enjoying coming around full circle. Given the chance, she would like to introduce PHX fliers to an airport version of her pizza place akin to her grab-and-go.
Her advice for anyone thinking about trying their hand at an airport concession: “Why not?”
“I didn’t know any different. People I knew and worked with said try it,” she said. “It’s a thrill. It’s been a great opportunity.”
Entrepreneurs interested learning more about contracting with one of the Phoenix Airport System properties can start by checking out Doing Business with PHX, DVT, and GYR.