Grassroots Gourmet

Two weeks ago I was honored as the 2010 recipient of the Young Woman of Achievement Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit from WIN. I’d like to thank Vaishalee Yeldandi, the YWA Chair, for her vote of confidence in this nomination.

The Women’s Information Network (WIN) is Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women. WIN encourages women to make moves and change the world. As a member of this organization I am always impressed by how many women from all walks of life are part of this network.  These amazing women are policy makers, organizers, lawyers, fundraisers, and “movers and shakers,” all with the common goal of building a network of women who know that we can achieve whatever we set our minds to. I think of WIN as a place where we pool our resources and gain access to the places where women need to be more present in politics, on the hill and at the front of change.  It is networks such as this one that have encouraged and supported our new business every step of the way. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the many reasons we were not blogging over the past few weeks is because business was booming! After the launch of our winter menu we had lots of orders to fill. There was a happy hour to cater, a holiday party delivery, the catering of a meeting that took place in 5 cities at once, a few board meetings and many more individual orders. We baked and baked and baked some more. The oven was repaired, the coffee was on and friends stopped in to check on us.

We’d like to thank you all for turning to us for your holiday season treats. We hope that every order found its way safely to a table near you. Please keep us in mind as we start a birthday program, cookie-of-the-month club and more.

So… how many orders was that exactly? Glad you asked! I decided to break it down by item. Please keep in mind that these sweet sugary treats were made to order within a 2-3 week period:

13 dozen cookies, 11 dozen shortbread cookies, 9 dozen rugelach, 4 dozen revolution velvet cupcakes, 3 batches of peppermint bark, 2 dozen truffles, 2 pounds of fudge, and multiple batches of Renee’s candy.

Our kitchen runs like a well choreographed ballet.

Well, we’ve been a couple of busy bakers. The two months of small business ownership have been good to us. Our special Thanksgiving menu yielded hours of pie fun and a growing following of loyal customers. With the orders from our winter menu and recent catering orders we have made more cookies in one month than you could shake a rolling pin at. All of this hasn’t left us any time to write up an update until now. It is our intention that this post be the first of a more consistent effort to keep people abreast of our endeavors.

Our adventure has shown us many things, but there are 3 major themes we’d like to share with you: our learnings, our rewards, and the support we’ve been given from friends, family and community.

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So, we have been learning a lot in the past month and haven’t had enough time to blog. You can expect an update from us as soon as we launch our winter menu this week. Stay tuned and thank you- GG

We have found the promised land… On Friday, after becoming small business owners, Causten and I ventured out to Capitol Heights, MD and discovered the magical land of Restaurant Depot.  It’s a wholesale market for restaurant and food service businesses… and it’s amazing! I’m not normally one for making high-pitch noises…but I squealed. It’s true.

“Oh, so exciting!”

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We are proud to report that on Friday November 6, 2009 we officially became Grassroots Gourmet, LLC.

That’s right folks, we got legit! We filed paperwork with the District of Columbia Office of Regulatory Affairs and the Tax Office. After many signatures and a few payments I, Sara Fatell became the owner of a small business with partner and President Causten Wollerman. We even took on pro-bono (or “Pro-Bonzo”) legal counsel. It was a very exciting morning, to say the least.

We still have a lot to do: write our business plan, get other certificates, licenses and papers, and stock up our kitchen. But we are hopeful that this great start is very telling of our future. The plan:  Deliver food that makes a difference in your work and life!

Look for our soft launch limited menu for Thanksgiving coming soon!