NYC's Mercantile Mayhem: Sustainable Estonian Design, Arborio Bread and Small Biz Bits
A newsletter about the survival of independent businesses in New York City with a special focus on immigrant-owned, storefront retail and CPG enterprises.
WHAT LOCAL DESIGNERS CAN LEARN FROM ESTONIA
If you live in or around New York City, you have until the end of May 22nd, tomorrow, to see Upmade In Estonia on Lafayette and Grand Streets in Manhattan. The exhibit features creations made by 45 Estonian designers who concentrate on sustainable products—apparel, bags, shoes, jewelry and homewares. I attended a presentation given by several Estonians, moderated by Surya Vanka, the other night. I love Estonia (ok, I confess, I have only visited Tallinn for three quick visits, it’s gorgeous with phenomenal food) so I was happy to be among the Estonian designers and listen to their solutions how not to be part of the cycle that contributes to monster landfills.
Pioneering designer Reet Aus, PhD, has her own eponymous label Reet Aus, which uses upcycled fabrics, meaning, the extra fabric or raw material in factories that never gets made into clothing. These extras, sometimes called deadstock, are often just sitting in storage rooms until eventually dumped at a landfill. Reet Aus’s website and Instagram are not only filled with stylish denim pieces and graphic t-shirts, but are also a treasure trove of manufacturing information and shocking stats—25 to 40% of fabrics for mass production end up in landfills. Her pieces are made with upcycled and recycled materials, partnering with factories in Bangladesh, Kenya, Estonia and elsewhere; UPMADE Software, a Digital Product Passport, certifies a garment’s origins.
The documentary “Out of Fashion” follows Aus from Estonia to Bangladesh and explores if sustainable fashion, sometimes called slow fashion, can be more than just niche, if established systems can allow sustainable clothing to become mainstream and have real environmental impact. Yes, clothing prices reflect the labor involved, Reet Aus t-shirts cost $55, for example. But for those who can and will pay $55 for a t-shirt, why not buy an upcycled t-shirt?
Myceen, presented by Siim Karro, is an Estonian company that makes products made with mycelium mixed with sawdust or other natural manufacturing waste. The product resembles styrofoam, but with unique, one of a kind surfaces.
Myceen’s panels are used for sound proofing and building materials, as well as homewares fixtures like the spaceship shaped lamp pictured above. Bonus fun fact: this lamp was made in two pieces, top and bottom, when the two pieces were placed on top of each other, they eventually fused together as the mycelium sought itself out.
If you can’t make the show but are curious about Estonia’s sustainable designers, contact Silve Parviainen (silve.parviainen@eas.ee) the Director of US Business & Innovation, Enterprise Estonia, based in New York City.
ODD AMENDED REGULATIONS AND FINES FOR SOME OF NEW YORK CITY’S BUSINESSES
I’m all in favor of making life easier for NYC’s small business owners, including reducing arbitrary regulations and prohibitive fines, the goal of Local Law 151 of 2023. It goes into effect this month and I wondered why there hasn’t been too much hoopla about it. I finally read the press release and is it me, or do these new regulations seem odd? A whole paragraph is devoted to issues around plastic straws, yet one sentence breezily mentions easing fines for selling over-the-counter medications with expired sell-by dates… yikes. I copied a few bulleted points below, a more extensive list can be found here.
Reducing to $400 (from $500) the minimum penalty for a restaurant violating the prohibition on selling force-fed products. [Nina: are restaurants having underground foie gras parties?]
Reducing to $200 (from $500) the maximum penalty after a violation for failing to display required healthy eating information. [Nina: Don’t customers have a basic understanding of healthy eating, if not, would a sign change their mind?]
Setting an initial penalty of $0 (down from a range of $100 to $250) for selling expired over-the-counter medication. [Nina: I am in favor of reduced fines, but not on expired medication, even if over the counter.]
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT… MERCANTILE MAYHEM’S FIRST SPONSORED POST, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WEFRANCH
SEE & BE KITCHEN TO FRANCHISE, A NEW ERA FOR ARTISANAL FRANCHISING
The word “franchise” often conjures up images of vaguely impersonal fast food eateries like Taco Bell, Subway and Dunkin’, or perhaps a business establishment like Ace Hardware or the oppressively generic UPS Store. But there is a serge of independent businesses with personalities that are franchising, or looking to franchise, which are far from bland corporate brands. Oddfellows Ice Cream is one, Men In Kilts (teams of men and women who clean exteriors wearing kilts—do the men go full Scotland?) is another and imminently, See & Be Kitchen in Cairo, New York.
See & Be Kitchen is primarily a wholesale bakery with a small retail shop, owned by Chrissy and Ben Traore. They are now married, initially meeting in the kitchen of Saraghina, the Brooklyn restaurant/bakery. “He was their head baker and I was the pizza chef,” Ms Traore recalls, “I had to mix my pizza dough in his mixer.” In fact, their courtship had limited hours, she ended work at 11pm, he started his baking at 2am. “We'd find a restaurant, ‘Do you serve food untill midnight? Great! We'll be there at 11:30, save us a table!’” she adds.
They launched See & Be Kitchen in 2018 after moving to Upstate New York. Mr Traore, originally from Burkina Faso, is the official “CBO” (Chief Bread Officer) and uses sourdough starter for all baked products, while she focuses on creating operational systems, like building proprietary software to help plan the production. Their baked goods sell at Cub Market, Taste of New York and Good Grocer; as well as restaurants and cafes like Wildflower Farms Resort and Phoenicia Diner, among many other establishments.
So why would a successful wholesale bread baking business want to fiddle with franchising?
“We could either grow horizontally or vertically,” says Ms Traore. Rather than building a factory and compromising on integrity, See & Be Kitchen is opting to grow horizontally, “which means replicating,” Ms Traore states.
Through professional connections they found WeFranch, a startup founded by Gregory Ugwi based in New York City. WeFranch appealed to the Traores because it relies heavily on data, it’s less expensive than hiring a franchise lawyer and WeFranch organizes events for potential franchisors and franchisees, offering a sense of community with different perspectives. A much more interactive experience than sitting in a lawyer’s office preparing the labor intensive FDD (franchise disclosure document) paperwork.
“We're not looking to be McDonald's and have See & Be Kitchens everywhere,” Ms Traore assures. Mr Traore adds that any potential franchisee must have the love and passion for baking bread; this is not an investment plan for someone with no interest in bread. By franchising, they hope to help passionate bakers become financially successful quickly by using the lessons the Traore’s learned from 15 years in the industry—from the fermentation process to logistics and everything in between.
“Our goal is to really build a network where everyone's working together,” says Ms Traore, noting that each franchise will carry signature See & Be Kitchen baked goods, like their Arborio and croissant breads, but it’s not “cookie cutter”, franchisees are free to add their baked goods into the mix.
They plan to have dedicated territories in Upstate New York with a 100 mile radius and according to Ms Traore, See & Be Kitchen will be the first wholesale bakery franchise in the US.
LO! A LULO UPDATE
Lulo has officially launched its app. The social impact startup’s aim is to streamline the WIC grocery buying experience for eligible parents. I mentioned Lulo cofounders Dani Lopez and Sarah Stellwag last month in this newsletter when they won the Community Betterment and Audience Award categories at the TechImpact Startup Competition, sponsored in part by the ever-extraordinary Accompany Capital, a sponsor of this newsletter.
Communitas America, a BIPOC women-focused incubator in Harlem hosted the launch, where many moms, a few dads, and lots of kids were treated to lasagna, wild flower seeds, hoola hoop activities and jars of Burlap & Barrel turmeric and Omsom sauces. Many parents with young kids do not know they are eligible for WIC benefits, which is regardless of immigration status.
The WIC program has been quite bureaucratic and archaic (a la 1980s, pre-internet) for both users and administrators alike, everyone is welcoming the streamlined change Lulo aims to initiate. The Lulo app is in both English and Spanish with plenty of visuals, for more information contact the founders via the Lulo website.
Opportunities & Events
It’s time for the New York StartUP! 2024 Business Plan Competition, open to entrepreneurs who live and work in Manhattan, The Bronx or Staten Island. You must submit your entry form by May 31, 2024, but read all the requirements before applying. The entrepreneur winning first prize will get $15,000, second prize is $10,000 and third prize is $7,500.
New York City’s DragonFest, a spring to fall street food fair focused on Chinese cuisine and culture, is still open to new vendors. Apply here.
Beyond SKU is accepting applications for their September 2024 program in New York City, deadline is June 15. Beyond SKU is a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) accelerator. For 12 weeks Beyond SKU provides each company with a curriculum and mentors, from entrepreneurs to various industry experts. A few brands that have been Beyond SKU cohorts in the past: Dam Good English Muffins (pictured below), Jalapa Jar and Pinsa Love.
The Vilcek Foundation is accepting applications for Creative Promise in three categories: visual arts, curatorial work and biomedical science. Applicants must be immigrants and born on or after Jan 1, 1986. A $50,000 prize is awarded to each winner. Deadline is June 10.
Sponsorship
I plan on keeping this newsletter free by getting additional sponsorship from organizations, I will keep you posted. Some of you have paid for subscriptions, thaaaaaaank you so much! (If you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact me: ninarobertsnyc@gmail.com and I’ll send you the details). Please feel free to forward to others.
Great newsletter Nina! That Estonia event sounds interesting. We just missed it I guess.