From bomb squad to baker and coffee maker: Former deputy crushes a new business
Chris Smith, 56, and his wife opened Ground Ops Roastery + Bakehouse in Tallahassee, Florida, in Nov. 2023.
Before doing so, Smith was a deputy with the Leon County Sheriff's Office, working as a member of the SWAT team and then with the bomb squad.
He retired a few months before the grand opening — but what appeared to be a drastic career change was more familiar than it may have seemed.
"It all comes back to serving people and being there for the community," Smith told Fox News Digital. (See the video at the top of this article.)
"Opening Ground Ops was just another way of providing a service to the community."
Service has been at the forefront of Smith's work for much of his adult life.
He spent four years in the U.S. Navy before attending Florida State University on the GI Bill. He became a deputy in 2010 and has also worked as a volunteer firefighter.
But his wife, Shannon Smith, said one of her husband's greatest accomplishments was on the day she met him in 2021.
"He actually came to speak some sense into my adopted son, who had gotten in trouble in school," Shannon told Fox News Digital.
At the time, Shannon Smith was a single mother. A friend recommended Chris Smith pay them a visit.
Before speaking to the young son, Smith showed up and presented her with a paper plate of food covered in foil.
"Then I ate this thing [in the foil], and it was amazing," Shannon said. "I never had anything like it before."
A few days later, Smith sent her a text that he was making banana pudding for the bomb squad — and asked if he could bring some to her.
"At that point I knew," Shannon Smith said. The couple were married a year later.
As for the treat Smith brought her the day they met, it turned out to be a future menu item at Ground Ops.
Smith didn't have a name for it then, but the Hello Cake became "one of our most popular items because it's how we said hello," said Shannon Smith.
Ground Ops is both a bakery and a coffee shop that shares a love of country.
Many of its popular roasts have patriotic names, such as the Bravo Zulu blend with chocolate and toffee; Commander's Choice hazelnut flavor with a touch of fruit; Depth Charge espresso blend; Missing in Action for its decaffeinated brew; and War Horse Southern Pecan blend.
"We do have a very good time – and the customers love it."
"A lot of the latte names do follow the military" as well, Smith said.
"So, we've got the Roger That, we've got the Bunker Buster and others. We do have a very good time – and the customers love it."
Inside Ground Ops is also a framed photograph of Smith's cousin, Shannon Kent, a Navy cryptologist who was killed in a 2019 suicide bomb attack in Syria.
Her husband, Joe Kent, was recently named director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
All the food is baked from scratch daily, from the rolls and popovers to the cookies and cakes. Smith doesn't have a culinary background, so he relies on family recipes and plenty of trial and error.
"I love food and I love sampling food," Smith said. "I love traveling for food, and I love trying to recreate what I've eaten. And I eat like I'm a 7-year-old, too, as my wife says."
Shannon Smith said her husband "saved a lot" and slowly began buying equipment that he would store away because he "had the idea in his heart" of one day opening his own place.
His work requires a lot of sacrifice and comes with challenges, she said.
"Running a business is hard," she said. "I mean, law enforcement is hard, but running a business is a different kind of hard."
That includes waking up before sunrise every day.
"I would have to say getting up early in the morning to bake is a lot more difficult than having to go take care of bombs," Smith said.
"But I do miss the guys."
Smith hasn't fully retired from his life in law enforcement, it turns out.
"He did go back into the reserves – because he can't help himself," said his wife.
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