DO WHAT YOU CAN

Going to try my best to not get political here, but obviously this whole SBA system is pretty f’d.

We applied immediately for SBA/Federal assistance, and got zero dollars. Not saying we were anticipating to get any - as I generally set my expectations the lowest they can possibly go and hope for the best. Maybe this is my overall pessimistic view of humankind speaking, but it generally allows me to be pleasantly surprised when things actually do go according to plan, and not shocked if they don’t. It’s taught me to have to pivot constantly, to adjust with slightly thicker skin.

With that said, for the sake of transparency, we’ve seen a pretty significant drop in sales. We’ve avoided complete lay-offs, but have cut our labor, and operating cost significantly, and our crew is feeling it. We’ve had to change up the way we do things significantly, including our food program. Unfortunately, our bagel provider was one of those that was impacted early on and closed up their doors, at least for now.

So, after racking our brains between other bakers, between delivery/pickup, inconsistent inventories, and an ever changing daily need, we decided to bring bagels in house. This is something we’ve thought about for a long time, but the time commitment required and lack of infrastructure, space, and frankly energy that it could take, has always been more daunting of a task that worth it. So we’ve decided now is the time to do it.

My wife, Hilary, is a 1st grade teacher. In addition to teaching, she has a behind the scenes role here at the shop, and now she’s steppin’ into the spotlight. She’s a great baker, and has taken the charge of figuring out our bagel situation. Over the last couple of weeks she’s been busy gettin’ our base dough down, and we’re stoked to announce as of tomorrow, April 21, all bagels will be made in house. We’re going with an old school hand rolled, boiled then baked style. Using a tiny stand mixer, and induction burner, a half sheet oven, and hardly enough refrigerator space. But you know what? Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. These bagels are delicious.

We’ve stayed scrappy since the start, trying to come up with new ideas that really push us to get creative while staying unique and true to ourselves and holding a middle finger to every generic corner cafe out there. This is virtually impossible to balance and frankly bad business when it comes to making cash fast or even paying off your build out debt (haha…ha..), but that’s not what this is about. We’re in this for the long haul. We opened this shop for the sake of building something from scratch, pushing ourselves to be better neighbors, and creating a dialogue by asking questions. What are we contributing to the world? Are we just putting more STUFF out there, or is what we’re putting out there vetted, relevant, and pushes the conversation forward via thoughtful service, ingredients, and environment? Hopefully it’s the latter.

If sales remain consistent, as they have been over the last 5 weeks, with our current expenses locked as they are, then we’ll make it out of this at zero. With an incremental increase in our operating hours coming soon, an all new lunch menu (keep that on the DL for the next week or so), and some eased city-wide restrictions on daily life, we think we’ll see that number grow at least a bit and that will allow us all to take a big breathe of fresh air.

With this first disaster of federal SBA bailout money, we’re certainly not expecting any cash in the rumored about second round. The thing is, if we don’t need it, we don’t want to take it (and trust me, we could definitely use it). But the the bottom line is that we’re allowed to operate, we’ve implemented measures to make sure we’re serving safely, and our current sales are steady enough to keep us going. With all of that said, my mental morning & nightly deliberation generally ends in a resounding “yes, this is worth it”. It’s not easy at all. But the thing is, I’m not interested in excuses. It being “hard” is not a reason to give up. And even though this hill gets steeper every week, this shop will keep climbing. Your continued support paired with our refusal to fail will get us out of here feelin’ like we can take on the world. So thanks, and cruise thru for a bagel this week. We’re making them with even more love than before.

‘17 Til Infinity, baby.

-Will