Bayport Cafe Launches Online Funding Effort to Expand Business
Miss Michelle’s Urban Gourmet, Bayport’s three-year-old gluten free organic bakery, is looking to expand and is using a well-known online crowdsourcing site to gain funding.
The owners, Michelle and Christopher Kelly, say their business has outgrown its current Middle Road location and are aiming to open in a new bigger spot, hopefully very close by, that will allow them to not only expand on products but also offer a variety of services from catering to running classes and workshops.
"We're so excited about this," said Michelle in a phone interview with Patch Thursday morning.
The funding campaign, launched on Kickstarter on Dec. 4, is a 30-day effort and the business owners are hoping to raise $26,772 by Friday, Jan. 3 toward the total cost of $85,278.
They need to reach that goal per Kickstarter's requirements otherwise all pledged funds will be negated.
Michelle told Patch in a phone interview Thursday that the initial funding goal would be enough to make the business goal become a reality.
As of Thursday morning the campaign has raised $410 through seven backers.
Along with relocating, the business owners plan to change the name to Miss Michelle’s Gourmand.
“Our new location will still hopefully be in the Bayport area but just a “grown up” larger version of our current spot. Our new location, with its new grown up name, Ms. Michelle's Gourmand is a dedicated Gluten Free Organic Bakery Café, which specializes in making high quality baked goods for individuals of all ages,” state the owners on the Kickstarter campaign.
The new location will allow the business to provide both outdoor and indoor seating, the latter complete with a fireplace, as well as much more display case room than the current café offers.
They plan to have a separate vegan baking and brunch section, as well as a wedding cake service and launch their own gluten free IPA beer that they have been developing for over a year.
“Instead of us trying to put all of our product into one cold case and one small muffin counter week after week we will now have more space to offer you the products you love on a yearly basis!,” states the couple on the website.
As part of their business pitch, the Kellys reveal how grateful they are for all the local community support since they opened.
“We will always be thankful and we will never forget where we came from. When we started this adventure a few years a go we could only dream of reaching a milestone such as this. We have only YOU to thank! Everyday we have to take a moment and give thanks,” they write.
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