{"id":44977,"date":"2020-10-08T15:22:09","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T19:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=44977"},"modified":"2021-04-27T15:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T19:14:06","slug":"ovenly-owner-agatha-kulaga-still-baking-brooklyn-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/ovenly-owner-agatha-kulaga-still-baking-brooklyn-community\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn Bakeshop’s Sweet Milestone in a Sour Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Agatha Kulaga currently has to make difficult decisions for her business. But she was at least able to celebrate her bakery’s 10-year anniversary. (Credit: Erica Schroeder)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As crushing, long-term uncertainty looms for small businesses across the country, one Brooklyn bakery<\/a> was able to savor a sweet<\/a> moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its 10th anniversary, Ovenly<\/a> rolled out a new chocolate cherry cake with brown sugar caramel filling and amaretto cherries \u2014 offering co-founder Agatha Kulaga a taste of happiness after a devastating spring and summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t felt that true joy since before the shutdown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The past several months have been anything but a piece of cake for the confectionary, which sells cookies, muffins and its signature Brooklyn Blackout Cake. Kulaga has been in the process of renegotiating leases on her four retail locations and trying to recoup as much business as possible in a city hit with one of the earliest lockdowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-pandemic plans for a new location inside the JetBlue terminal in JFK International Airport have been stalled, and their kiosk in Urbanspace Vanderbilt, a food hall in Manhattan, has been shut down until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Kulaga was able to celebrate the bakery\u2019s milestone last month, and she and co-founder Erin Patinkin have welcomed back local customers after a long summer during which New Yorkers quarantined and fled for less cramped pastures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ovenly's
Ovenly’s new chocolate cherry cake to celebrate its 10-year milestone. (Credit: Erica Schroeder)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

[Related: <\/em>Leave New York? These Women Business Owners Say Fuhggedaboutit<\/em><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople still want to have that moment of joy,\u201d Kulaga said. \u201cThey are willing to treat themselves to coffee and a cookie, and it\u2019s not going to break the bank. So there is this element of feeling like we are recession-proof and potentially pandemic-proof.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the bakery was shut down for seven weeks, Kulaga hired back about half of her 67 employees, and business at two of her retail locations has returned to near-pre-coronavirus numbers. But wholesale business is down about 75%, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are operating at limited hours and limited menus and limited resources, so they\u2019re not spending extra money on high-quality pastries,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She received and spent a Paycheck Protection Program<\/a> loan as well as an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, and now she is dipping into the byzantine process of forgiveness applications. She said she has received confusing \u2014 and conflicting \u2014 information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this loan is not forgiven, it will be detrimental for our company,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery single small business is banking on the notion that the PPP loan will be forgiven for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Related: <\/em>Beyonce and J.Lo Loved Her Kids\u2019 Clothes. Now, This Fashion Brand is in \u2018Survival Mode\u2019<\/em><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear that keeps her up at night? That, after a decade growing her mouth-watering cookie and cake empire, her bakeshop will take a giant step backwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter having led this business for 10 years, I had finally found a true balance of personal and work life, and that is obviously all gone,\u201d she said. \u201cI really feel like I\u2019m in a startup company right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is facing down a tunnel of uncertainty that is shared by thousands of other small businesses that are trying to survive during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo we raise more money? What kinds of funds do we raise? Do we seriously explore ecommerce given the state of the economy and how people are spending money?\u201d she said. \u201cThere are so many unknowns right now. I\u2019ve felt more paralyzed making big decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also acknowledged that taking risks \u2014 a hallmark of the industry \u2014 might not be a smart business decision right now. Tried and true is likely the best route \u2014 like her best-selling black-out cake, a chocolate bomb filled with Brooklyn Brewery\u2019s Black Chocolate Stout and smothered in dark chocolate pudding buttercream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOtherwise, in three years we\u2019ll be back to where we were last year, and that\u2019s the piece I refuse to accept,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s where my motivation comes from. I want to rebuild this company in the next year back to where it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Related: <\/em>As Stuck-At-Home Kids Turn to Gaming, Parents Need Advice and Resources<\/em><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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