East Austin Bakery OMG Squee Will Definitely Make You Squee

Delightful Tex-Asian bakery OMG Squee is now open at 4607 Bolm Road in Govalle. Co-owners Sarah Lim and Michael DeAnda started OMG as a farmers market, and recently expanded with the physical storefront last month, though under limited hours for now.

Of course OMG Squee’s fun signature macarons are available, which are shaped into recognizable characters and creatures sourced from pop culture, like Game of Thrones, Studio Ghibli , and musicians like Lizzo, as well as regular ones. During its farmers market days, Lim and DeAnda would often solicit suggestions for potential macaron themes. “We try to find like-minded people, and hopefully those people show up for us,” said DeAnda.

The bakery also serves up jiggly Japanese cheesecake, which Lim described as if “cheesecake, pound cake, and flan had a baby in terms of texture.” The souffle-style cake is light, airy, and extra cheesy, but made with a third-less sugar.

The new space allows Squee to expand its menu. Soon, there were will be taiyaki ice cream sundaes, where house-made ice creams like cookies and cream, ube, matcha, black sesame seed, etc. are stuffed into hollowed-out fish-shaped cakes. There are plans to offer a vegan flavor as well.

Drinks-wise, there are milk and hot teas, like vegan Thai tea, matcha milk tea, strawberry rose tea, and a fun pretty mixture of the latter two. Hot drinks include the earl gray tea mixed with rose, honey, vanilla, and frothy milk; and the matcha americano. Bubble tea is also in the works.

Lim and DeAnda had always intended to open OMG as a permanent storefront. The farmers market afforded them the opportunity to introduce and test their brand of macarons. It took them a lot of practice to get the meticulous cookies just right.

“If it was going to be cute,” DeAnda explained, “it also had to be good. We don’t want people snobby about macarons think they were somehow worse.”

Lim added: “Taste is the most important thing.” She did share that many people originally thought the cookies were dog treats (which they’re not).

Lim started teaching herself how to make macarons at home, after working as a commercial photographer for quite some time. She tested OMG Squee’s macarons at the Boss Babes ATX craft fair in 2016, and another holiday market that same year, and the responses were good. The farmers market debuts in early 2017.

The name is a “two-fold” one, said Lim. The word “squee” worked because of its definition (“to be delighted”). It’s essentially an “onomatopoeia, between a squeak and a squeal,” which is the response people tend to give when they see the bakery’s creations. It’s also named after Lim and DeAnda’s late dog Squeegee.

With the bakery, Lim hopes that people enjoy themselves. They should “have a fun, happy, interactive time. It’s important. You could eat food and enjoy it, but if you have a moment and appreciate it,” it makes the experience even better, she said.

OMG Squee shares the Bolm Road space with Old Rail Coffee Pub, which opened in late March under co-owners Aubrey Vandable and Melba Garcia. Sharing made sense to the two companies: it was a way for the both of them to “have more viable businesses” in a time where costs of running a business were already high, explained Lim. Squee had been in the midst of building out a shipping container trailer for what would’ve been the bakery when Lim and DeAnda connected with Vandable and Garcia. They “decided to share the space and expenses so we could both keep going,” she said.

Currently, Squee is only open on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Menu and hour expansions will slowly roll out this month. They also plan on returning to the farmers market once the bakery operation is squared away.

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