Uprising, The organic bakery and cafe

Uprising is a neighborhood café serving scratch-made desserts and bakery as well as fresh & healthy breakfast & lunch options. Uprising is the continuation of Desserts by Corinna, a catering dessert shop that specializes in organic from-scratch desserts and cakes made with locally sourced ingredients. Desserts by Corinna has been in business for 4 years, participating in Farmers Markets, direct sales, and catering weddings/ parties all over the NW Chicago area. We are ready to take the leap and fulfill a life long dream of opening our very own neighborhood café and pastry shop located at 47 and Mill St, in beautiful Huntley, IL.About Uprising

Uprising will offer a unique combination items to the greater Huntley area: a locally-owned bakery and European-style coffee house reinvented for a Midwestern American market. Uprising will be a Eco-conscience facility, using only biodegradable and compostable flatware, cups, and trash removal services. Uprising will offer both fast- and slow-service with carry out, delivery, and dine-in options.

The main focus is local. Freshness and quality will be ensured by serving full service baked items, baked and prepared on-site by Corinna(owner) and staff and serving coffee roasted on-site by South Street Coffee. Uprising has partnered with local producers for dairy, honey, fruits, and vegetables, supporting many other small and local businesses or farmers. Uprising will offer flavorful products characterized by their freshness, organic and allergen safe ingredients, a high level of customizability and professional customer service. Most importantly, from the customer perspective, is that Uprising will serve menu items that taste good at an affordable price. The menu items will be familiar to customers but will represent DBC’s unique take on them. Uprising will showcase three completely transparent kitchens; dedicated gluten free, dedicated nut free, and traditional main kitchen.

The atmosphere will be relaxed and comfortable for socializing or working. An emphasis will be placed on minimizing industrial noise from the equipment. The atmosphere will be casual with a softer color palette (light creams, burnt oranges, and light greens.), art procured for the walls will showcase a new local artist each month. The art will be for direct sale, further supporting local businesses and families.

The Café will be open from 6:00am – 6:00pm, Monday through Sunday, with special events taking place after 7pm on select days. Special events include game night, poetry night, private party bookings, cookie classes, girl/boy scout events, etc.

Owers Bio:

Corinna’s career started in high school, where she was an apprentice at La Petit Marche (Dawn’s Breads) in Crystal Lake. She earned her Associates in Baking and Pastry from Kendall College, Chicago. In 2011, the historic Pinehurst Resort accepted her as an intern and she spent years learning from and cooking with some of the world’s finest chefs. There, she was honored to be on a team with Chef Florian Bellanger (Cupcake Wars) and participated in the national and global competitions. She cooked for Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, and leading national golf competitors alike. While working at Pinehurst, she also took on extra hours serving and managing the Ryder Cup Lounge where she gained valuable experience and knowledge of hospitality management and customer satisfaction. Corinna took 2 years off to raise children before going back to work in Sales and Marketing and Customer Service Team Lead in the medical device industry. This is where she perfected her skills at marketing any product, pricing, negotiating contracts and managing time between production, customer satisfaction, and essential clerical duties.

Corinna decided to take a leap, and open her homemade bakery operation to the public. After only one year public, DBC grew into one of the most loved local bakeries in Huntley. Since between 2018, Desserts by Corinna has seen 621.88% growth.

Funding

I am working with the Small Business Associations to fund the majority of the costs. I will be receiving loans for the acquisition of the building renovation costs and equipment purchases. The following is a breakdown of the use of funds:

Building lease price: $2000 month

Renovations: $121,000

Equipment: $55,179

Working capital = $20,000

Insurance and fees = $10,000

Total project cost = $206,179

The SBA/Bank loan will be used for purchasing the improvements and build out, which include the following:

• Install new finishes in kitchen
• Plumbing base allowance
• Electric base allowance
• Gas bas allowance
• Flooring installation
• Wall and ceiling installation

Kitchen(s) renovation total: $80,666

• Electric and lighting base allowance
• Gas and pluming base allowance
• Apoxy Flooring
• Electric and lighting base allowance
• Install window counter seating
• Counter construction
• Coffee Bar construction
• Bakery Case and retail fixture security

Retail area renovation total: $40,330

Total renovation costs: $120,999

SBA loans will fund the build out. Quickspark/SBA leases will fund equipment procurement. The personal investment and GoGetFunding funds will be used for working capital during the buildout period. If our GoGetFunding earns more than our funding goal we will then put those funds toward marketing the new grand opening and menu.

Risks and challenges

We all know that food service businesses are challenging. This is why we have gradually built the business over the course of four years by renting kitchen space from shared spaces. We have established Desserts by Corinna as a preeminent wedding caterer and Dessert shop in Northwestern Illinois while running the business full time. Doing this allowed us to minimize our overhead costs until the business grew big enough to afford our own retail space. Banks are much more likely to take a chance on an established business rather than a start-up, especially in food service. We built the business over the last four years and we believe that we have eliminated some of the greatest risk factors.

The biggest challenge for us will be to notify the community that we provide better quality. We need to put a lot of effort into marketing Uprising and the organic and allergen friendly aspects of the business. In addition to building our wedding catering business we want to become the favorite neighborhood place to stop in for coffee, pastries and a quick and healthy meal.

There is a need for our type of business in the area where we plan to open. There are other bakeries in the McHenry County area but geographically there is not one that services the immediate neighborhoods where we will be located. Customers love to know the owners of the businesses they patron and I will be there every day making their pastries, sandwiches, coffee, as well as serving them directly!