Raine Keis, age 49, is the owner of SweetArt Bake Shop and Cafe. Keis opened both of SweetArt’s current locations in 2025, first opening a location in the City Foundry in February and a second on the bottom floor of the Coronado in May.
These new locations are far from the beginning of SweetArt, however. Keis first started her bakery business with a brick-and-mortar store on 39th Street in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis in Dec. 2008.
Before opening the shop, Keis said she had simply enjoyed baking in her home kitchen. Then, she turned that love of baking into her career.
While her love of baking is what got her into the business of opening her own cafe, Keis’s biggest motivation for opening and continuing SweetArt is her kids. Keis said she is motivated by getting her kids through college loan-free. She has three children: Jurni, age 25, Ajani, age 22 and Birago, age 20.
“Student loans are from the devil,” Keis said.
Beyond her own family, Keis said she hopes to make a positive difference in SweetArt’s surrounding community, starting with her employees and guests.
“I’ve been proud that people’s very, very first jobs have been in my space. And their very, very first employer is a black woman,” Keis said, “Back when I was a girl, having first jobs, I would have never imagined to be working for a black woman, and I think that’s a big deal.”
Keis said an experience with her brother at Crowd Candy, a St. Louis food icon that has been open for decades in North City, was also a major influence in her decision to open SweetArt.
“”We had gone to Crown Candy, we saved a little money,” Keis said. “We opened the door, and we saw all white men in business suits. It was like lunchtime. We had our money, and we closed the door, because we did not feel we belonged. I feel like this space is not that.”
Ava Cole, a senior nursing student at SLU, said she’s been studying at SweetArt and has been enjoying the space.
“Everyone that works there is super friendly, super nice,” Cole said.
Johanna Bauers, also a senior nursing student at SLU and a former vegetarian, said that she was attracted to SweetArt because of the large and inclusive menu options.
“It’s still something I sort of gravitate to, so the fact that she had so many plant-based and vegan options available made me feel really comfortable,” Bauers said. “It made me feel like I could still be that part of myself and still have that aspect as much as I can.”
SweetArt offers customers a plant-based and allergen-friendly focused menu, a choice Keis said began when she first met her ex-husband, who was a vegetarian.
During the pandemic, Keis chose to make the switch to a completely plant-based diet for herself and for SweetArt.
Keis, also a SLU alumna, is originally from a small town called McKenzie in rural Tennessee. She moved around a lot in her youth and eventually landed in Kirkwood, where she attended Kirkwood High School.
Keis started her collegiate career at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, before transferring to SLU for her sophomore year. At SLU, Keis majored in French and English and was an active member of the Black Student Alliance chapter.
