Toomer: The name means a lot of things to a lot of people. To Auburn fans, it evokes a sense of pride, home, family.

But Sandy and Trish Toomer didn't know much about that when they established Toomer's Coffee Company in 2004. Over the last 12 years, the Toomer family has firmly entrenched itself into Auburn culture. 

Sandy, Trish and Toomer's Coffee Company

The family had accumulated a wealth of coffee-related knowledge during their travels - they spent years in Ecuador, one of the world's leading coffee-producing countries. The Quichas, an Ecuadorian tribe, grew and processed Arabica coffee.

Sandy, who served as a commercial pilot for Mission Aviation Fellowship, spent 14 years learning about what goes into making a perfect cup of coffee. His classroom - plantations in Ecuadorian jungles.

Eventually, the family moved back to the U.S. to recruit for the Fellowship. After visiting their successful coffee-roasting friends in Tennessee, they decided they had the tools to do the same.

A few months later, Toomer's Coffee Company opened for business in downtown Opelika.

The Toomer's don't know if their name has affected business, but it has definitely been a conversation starter, Sandy said. It just adds to the company's relaxed, conversational vibe.

It turns out, Sandy said, he is distantly related to Sheldon Toomer. Toomer, a halfback on Auburn University's first football team, opened a little drugstore on the corner of Magnolia Avenue and College Street in 1896.

In 2013, the Toomer's sold the retail side of their business to Todd and Toni Holt. They still plan on roasting the coffee for years to come, though.

Sarah and Mylk's Cookies

Sarah Toomer doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth.

She does have, though, a lifelong love for baking, an artistic eye and business savvy.

So, last year, she opened Mylk’s Cookies on Magnolia Avenue. The refined bakery offers the typical cookies – you have your chocolate chips, your snickerdoodles and your peanut butters.

But there are also winey dodgers, French cabernét wine jam spread between two butter cookies; tiger paws, Toomer’s imaginative take on the popular “samoa” Girl Scout cookie; and six-layer cookie cakes for special occasions.

Toomer never thought she’d end up running a bakery in Auburn.

She felt like an outsider in a small town and jumped at the chance to study art in California after high school graduation.

She loved it and thought she’d never leave. But life happens, Toomer said, and eventually she found herself back in Auburn.

She decided to make a living by combining the two things she knows best – baking and art.

“I’ve been baking since I was little,” Toomer said. “My mom really instilled it in me and it gives me a creative outlet.”

Mylk’s has had a steady flow of customers since it opened for business in 2015.

Toomer has considered expanding her business, but she doesn’t want the bakery to lose its minimalist vibe.

“Maybe a cookie cart or a truck,” Toomer said. “It just needs to stay very simple.”