Samantha Stephens (’05) has found a recipe for success, and a humble grain is its key ingredient. Stephens’s store, OatMeals, on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village, opened in June 2012 to rave reviews. The 450-square-foot eatery serves up steaming cups of steel-cut oats combined with ingredients sweet and savory. The Elvis (peanut butter, banana, honey, and bacon) and Stephens’s favorite, the Truffle RisOATto (shaved Parmesan, truffle oil, sea salt, and cracked black pepper) are just two of the many options listed on a giant blackboard, along with oat-based baked goods.
Stephens took a circuitous path to becoming an oatmeal maven. She came to Baruch from her native Virginia to study marketing. But after taking a psychology class and loving it, she changed her major. Upon graduation, she wound up working in the business sector, first in investment banking, then in equity research at J.P. Morgan. But the germ of OatMeals was already in her head: Stephens had become enamored of the staple as a health-conscious undergraduate.
Noticing the burgeoning trend of single-item food shops, Stephens decided to follow her heart. While still working full time, she took classes to learn how to start a business, earned a culinary diploma, and developed recipes at home. After finding the right retail space, getting seed money from her family, and taking out a small business line of credit, Stephens quit her job and opened OatMeals.
Now business is really cooking: OatMeals goes through 200 pounds of oats each week, Stephens has been approached by investors and is seriously considering opening another shop, and literary agents and book publishers have dangled the idea of an oatmeal cookbook.
—Barbara Lippman
Interested in exploring the world of haute oatmeal cuisine? Some of Stephens’s innovative recipes are available online.