UTAH TECH UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWS SOURCE | March 29, 2024

Alumni’s Waffle Bliss thrives

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St. George has been blessed with a blissful treat — the sweetness of the Waffle Bliss food truck. 

Two couples, four alumni of Dixie State University, came together earlier this year to share with southern Utah what the true Belgian waffle is all about. 

Kristi and Mike Shaw and Nick and Juli Nield originally came together as friends when they attended Dixie State University, which was a two-year college during their time there in the early 2000s. 

Since Mike Shaw was going to school for business, he said he “always wanted to do some type of business on [his] own.”

“We were just brainstorming one day … and we came up with the idea of a food truck,” he said. “That’s how it came to be.”

Nick Nield said the idea for waffles has always stuck in his mind ever since trying a true liege Belgian waffle in Salt Lake City. The ingredient that sets these waffles apart is the fact that they’re made with pearl sugar, which caramelizes as the waffle cooks.

“[Juli’s] cousin brought us over a couple waffles from a place called Saturday’s Waffles in Salt Lake City,” he said. “He stood in line for a long time to get the waffles … I never forgot the experience.”

Starting a business between the four of them has kept the two couples plenty busy, but Kristi Shaw said the good environment makes for a better experience.

“It’s better than I expected,” she said. “It’s a lot more work than I expected, but it is so much fun. It’s kind of everything I hoped it to be and more.”

They were involved then, and they are involved now. Kristi Shaw is currently a cheerleading coach and also helps coach the dance team, of which she was a member during her Dixie days. She and Mike Shaw met while he was playing football at DSC. Juli and Nick Nield both played soccer, and they both later helped coach the women’s soccer team.

“Some of the best times of my life [were at Dixie State College],” Mike Shaw said. “Obviously I met [Kristi], so that’s the best part of it.”

Juli Nield said the positive atmosphere is what keeps the waffle business trucking on.

“It’s … getting busier and busier for us,” she said. “… We want to keep it a positive experience for us and our partners [and] keep that positive experience to help the business grow.”

The Waffle Bliss owners credit DSU for bring them together and giving them some of the best years of their lives at college. They wanted to be involved in the Dixie community since the beginning of the business.

“When Mike and I started talking about a business, we definitely wanted to be a part of the Dixie experience,” Nick Nield said.

Kristi Shaw said they wanted something fun for Dixie students to do in St. George.

“St. George just doesn’t have a ton of really fun things [for students] so we thought that would be something super fun to involve the students with, and if we didn’t go to Dixie, we wouldn’t have met and we wouldn’t be where we are with our business,” she said. “Dixie State has so much to do with Waffle Bliss.”

The employees of Waffle Bliss are DSU students and the owners get involved in student and community events like fundraising for student organizations.

“We love the students and we want to support Dixie as much as we can,” Mike Shaw said.

With growing support from both students and community, this brightly-colored food truck runs off of long-lasting friendship and teamwork.

“I can’t imagine doing this alone,” Nick Nield said. “… Without the four of us doing our parts it wouldn’t work. It’s been perfect, for sure.”