Wrap Up for 2010

What a year it was.  It started out fairly normal but how did it change.  In Omaha there was a new Sunday farmers' market that added to our list.  We almost decided to not do it.  Sunday was kind of our day to take a breath.  But, by this time we were seriously considering to open an Omaha location and we needed the money to get it up and running.  We knew that we wouldn't be able to borrow any more money so we had to do it all on our own and a lot of sweat equity.  As if this wasn't enough, we decided to expand our Lincoln store to add extra seating and production space.  This expansion we didn't do ourselves, thank god.  We're crazy but not that crazy.

Everything went as usual, behind schedule.  We were supposed to open the Omaha store by early September.  That didn't happen until my birthday, October 6, a good birthday present.  I was so exhausted from working on that store I've only been back once, for about ten minutes.

The Omaha store has gone quite well for us.  You can read a little bit about it in the Omaha world herald. Us being in the Top 10 Restaurants, our Food Review and another small blurb.  I feel very blessed have had such a great response to what we do at our bakery.  It has really made me feel that much more commited to our quality and expand our product line.  We have a lot of good ideas but it's hard to find the time to test and then get them into production.  I have to really focus on efficiencies and where it's best to spend my and everyone else's time.

Our Lincoln expansion is actually still in process.  The holidays took a toll on the plans here but now that we are in our slower time of the year we are back up and running on this project.  If you look at my Rondo posts you can see the one major piece of equipment that we are learning how to use.  By the end of next week we should have a new kitchen area ready to go and that will allow us to make new and more breakfast and lunch goodies for our stores.  I just stole one of the new hires, that was going to help as a prep cook, to help me with a line of hamburger buns for a new Omaha client.  I've had the hardest time finding good bakers that stick it out so I get priority when we do find someone.  I'm excited about getting more of the production staff back into one place and see what can happen when we put our heads together.

So this is where we are right now.  A new year with many opportunities to come and hopefully everything goes well and we can take advantage of them. 

Thanks for supporting our bakery and we all hope to see you in 2011!