Starting a small business is always a roll of the dice, and Downtown Jersey City entrepreneurs are facing the challenge in a variety of ways. Figuring it’s not enough to simply open a pastry shop, one local couple has decided to start a club to help finance the venture. And a New York-based gourmet coffee competitor to Starbucks who runs his roasting facility on this side of the Hudson last week showed off his wares at a local college.
Not as easy as cake
Making cake truffles and red velvet cupcakes is a lot of work for pastry chef Jessica Isaacs.
But the biggest challenge for she and her husband, Eric Fleming, has been to try and get their storefront up and running.
For the past four years, the downtown Jersey City residents have wanted to open their bakery and café called Cocoa. They have retail space in the Liberty Harbor residential community set aside but they need to raise $200,000 to open the store and keep it running for the first six months.
That’s when the couple decided to create the Cocoa Club.
The club allows people to purchase gift cards, and the money raised from the sales is put into an escrow account, money that will go toward opening Cocoa.
“Hopefully we can reach our goal and everyone can be happy.” – Jessica Isaacs
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But if the financial goal is reached and Cocoa opens, then the gift cards can be used to purchase items. About 25 people have signed up so far.
“So far it has gotten a real good response,” Isaacs said. “Hopefully we can reach our goal and everyone can be happy.”
The Cocoa Club has already gotten national attention. A camera crew from the CBS Early Show came on Wednesday to the Cocoa stand at the Hamilton Park Farmers Market.
Even in tough economic times, from Isaacs’ perspective Jersey City is a prime location for opening Cocoa.
“Just from the past two years, even with the bad economy, this place has grown so much,” Isaacs said. “Certainly, it is a lot cheaper to open our bakery here than opening in Manhattan.”
Still brewing after all these years
Those in know about coffee will be familiar with Oren’s Daily Roast.
The coffee store, Oren, with eight locations in Manhattan, has carved out a niche in the world of gourmet java for nearly 25 years by offering freshly roasted brew and showing the public how to achieve the same with accessories sold in the stores.
Chances are most of their coffee customers don’t know the company has operated its roasting facility in Jersey City on Communipaw Avenue since 1989.
Oren Bloostein, the CEO and yes, roastmaster of the company named after him, came with his wife, his son and a company employee to Hudson County Community College’s Culinary Conference Center on Sip Avenue (no pun intended) to give the public a taste of some of his favorite coffees.
According to the Culinary Center’s Executive Chef Rick Low, Bloostein’s visit was to show that Jersey City’s beverage and food businesses are becoming vendors with the Culinary Café, part of the center that serves up daily meals.
“We are always looking for a way to promote local culinary businesses here at the Culinary Conference Center,” Low said. “This is a great way to spotlight two of Jersey City’s best.”
Bloostein, took a break from giving instruction on the coffee business as well as serving up specialties such as Guatamala “Puerto Verde” and Ethopia Longberry Harrar. He talked about why Jersey City is the ideal location for a major part of his business.
“The cost of doing business here versus [New York City] is great,” Bloostein said. “I mean getting 10,000 [square] feet anywhere in the city, I can’t imagine.”
Bloostein said there are no plans in the immediate future to open an Oren’s Daily Roast in Jersey City but was shown a retail location near the Culinary Conference Center by a college official.
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com.