The Monkey Diaries: By the Time You Read This . . .

About author / Rebecca Michaels

Queen of the desserts and pastry chef extraordinaire; graduate French Culinary Institute; Golden Scoop Award winner; Flying Monkey Bakery founder

. . . The Monkey should be open. I may be tempting fate here, but it looks like everything's in order at this point.

I've decided to do a soft opening, which is, in restaurant speak, when you open your doors but do not advertise it. This is a kinder, gentler way of introducing your business to the world. It gives you a little time to iron out the kinks, like getting your staffing schedule right and your production volume calibrated. This way, when the press are notified that you're up and running, you'll be ready to run when patrons beat down the door.

That's what I'm hoping for anyway. Though I think a soft opening at Reading Terminal won’t be as soft as I’d like. The historic nature of the Market, the heavy foot traffic, and the anticipation of The Monkey being the first new business in the Market will no doubt bring a good share of business.

Of course, there are still a million things to do, but right now I’m focusing on just getting into the space and selling. Typical for lots of businesses, I’m in debt now and every day that I’m not open, I’m losing money. So the sooner the better, I say. Bring it on! Come and get it, folks!

The things left to do are numerous. I’ve got to get my espresso machine installed, the staff trained on it, I’ve got to lug a lot of baking stuff from home to the shop, I’ve got to purchase all of the little things, like cake pans and spatulas, I’ve got to get a staffing schedule set. Those are some of the basics.

And on the on the marketing front, I think I’ve found the perfect person to do my logo. He is the friend of a friend who designed my gift cards and I think his design style is the perfect fit for my vision: it’s light, feminine without being ‘girly’ and it’s got a nice touch of whimsy. I’m very excited about working with Rob and I can’t wait for him to get started. I figure this logo/design project will probably take a couple of months. In addition to the logo, I’d also like him to design the business cards, the menu, my bags and perhaps my website, if I can convince him to take on such a project.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we’ll be doing a lot of fine-tuning of the menu. I’m going to start selling the things that I know will sell, like the brownies and marshmallows, and experiment with Daily Specials to find out what the market can bear. I’ll also have to figure out what size bags I’ll need when I order my custom bags with the logo. It will be quite an adventure!

So if you’re in Philly, stop by and say hi. Y’all have been very supportive and I appreciate the chance to tell you my story. Hopefully I’ve been helpful in unraveling the mysteries of opening up a food business. It’s a tough road, but if I can do it, so can you. See you soon!