Haute Sweets Pushes Forward After Car Crashes Into Bakery

Around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, Haute Sweets Patisserie owner Tida Pichakron was preparing Christmas sweets in the kitchen with two employees when a Toyota 4Runner slammed through the building’s facade.

“All of a sudden, just a crash came through, I felt myself being literally pushed to the other side of the kitchen, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’” Pichakron says.

The driver of the 4Runner had pulled into a space to park, hopped the curb and kept moving — Pichakron presumes she hit the accelerator instead of the brake — right into the kitchen of the Northeast Dallas bakery.

“When she came through the window, the refrigeration units pushed me and the table. … It was a domino effect,” she says. “Between all of that and getting banged into the tables and shit, I have contusions, bruising, my arm fucking hurts, my hips where I was pushed into the table hurts, my back and neck, everything fucking hurts, same thing for [the employees].”

Pichakron says she called Dallas police; the driver was not impaired.

"It was just a flat-out accident. She stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake and ran into the building," says Dallas PD spokesman Sgt. Warren Mitchell. "We see that more often than not. You think you can't, but I've seen it a few times before."

Despite that, and even some second-degree burns from a hot ganache, there were no broken bones (employees were checked and have received X-rays). And the SUV only went through the kitchen portion; the storefront of the bakery is still intact.

“There’s no fear of anything collapsing, so we will probably reopen probably [Thursday], but it’s whatever I have, anything the kitchen has to make won’t happen,” Pichakron says.

Everything they were working on — Christmas chocolates and hundreds of oatmeal cream pies — are gone. Most items in the refrigerator are still good to go, but the wall where the ovens were was moved, possibly altering gas lines.

So while the shop may open, the operations may take weeks to resume.

Customers who want to support the bakery can visit when the storefront reopens, contribute to a GoFundMe effort or get gift cards.