Page 18 of Wishes on Wildflowers
Nathan couldn’t help glancing toward the glass-fronted display case but couldn’t spot any.
“We’re all sold out.” Hailey’s eyelashes fluttered. “Come in in the morning and try one on the house.”
The one he’d sampled the other day had been amazing. “I might do that.” At least, if he could without garnering too much of Hailey’s attention.
“Anyway, we’re doing all right,” Kass put in. “Business is steady if not remarkable. We have two full-time employees and one part-time. It’s just, we think we could do more, you know?”
Nathan nodded. “Three years is worth celebrating. Have you thought about extending your hours? Being open Sunday and Monday? Or maybe over the supper hour?”
The cousins glanced at each other, and Kass twirled her coffee cup. “Not Sundays. We truly need the day off to worship and relax, but we’ve talked about Mondays. We’d need to hire another employee, though, and I’m not sure it would pay off.”
“As for staying open through the evening, that would require an entirely different menu as well as more staff again.” Hailey shook her head. “The breakfast and lunch menu relies heavily on our baked goods, but dinners would be a whole new situation. It’s not really part of our vision.”
“Fair enough. So long as you’ve made a conscious decision not to pursue that avenue.” The bright decor definitely shouted daytimes. And it did it well.
“Right.” Kass took a sip. “Mondays are a possibility but,honestly, we really like our hours. We appreciate everyone, including ourselves, being able to have two days off together.”
“It’s a great ideal.” Nathan tapped his pen against his notebook. “I remember this building from when your grandparents ran the bakery years ago. You’ve done wonders with the renovation.”
“Thanks.” Kass beamed. “I’ll take the credit for that.”
Hailey rolled her eyes as she elbowed her cousin. “Like I had no good suggestions.”
“One thing we’ve started doing...” Kass looked at Nathan as she sucked in her lower lip for a moment. “Some people have asked for weekly pickups of a standing order. Jasmine was our first customer of that kind, actually. Her and her roommate, Linnea Ranta.”
How did Jasmine’s name keep coming up?
“We could do more to promote that, maybe? It would help provide stability.”
Nathan blinked the thought of Jasmine away. “Man, that’s a great idea. Do you have a formal plan? Brochures to hand out? Specific talking points?”
She shook her head. “No, but we probably should. So far it’s just been word of mouth.”
“We can take that angle and run, for sure. Anything else?”
Hailey looked thoughtful. “We try to source as many of our ingredients locally as we can. If the Santoros get Bridgeview Backyards viable at a larger scale, that will be a huge help to us.”
Kass nodded, her eyes lighting up. “We can’t seem to get everything organic or local, but we are constantly looking for committed suppliers.”
Nathan glanced around the café. “Do your customers know that?”
“Some of them do.” Hailey shrugged.
“Definitely a point to play up as you seek to expand, don’t you think?”
“I agree.” Kass glanced at her cousin and turned back to Nathan. “It’s a challenging ideology. We either need to make a big deal of it or quietly let the concept drift away.”
Nathan shook his head. “I think playing it up will help you stand out. Anything else? Do you do any catering, for instance?”
“We do.” Hailey grimaced. “We took on an event for next weekend that we really shouldn’t have, though.”
“Oh?” He allowed his eyebrows to rise. “Why is it a bad thing?”
“It’s Eden Andrusek’s wedding,” said Kass with a sigh. “And Hailey and I are both in the wedding party. We’d hoped to get Linnea to oversee the catering when we first agreed to cater, but then she went and got engaged to the best man and would rather attend as a guest. So that leaves Shay, and she doesn’t have much experience. We need to hire a couple of people to serve, and that scares us both, frankly.”
“In a community like Bridgeview, I imagine nearly everyone you know is invited to the wedding.” He vaguely remembered Eden from high school. Word of the accident that had claimed the lives of her parents and both sisters had reached him in California. No doubt the community rallied around her then and were doing so for her wedding now.
Hailey shook her head. “You’ve got it in one. Every person we’ve tentatively asked was invited to the wedding. Our next step is to advertise through the newspaper, and that just doesn’t sit well with either of us. It’s our businessreputation on the line, but we don’t have much choice anymore.”
