All Over Albany

Berrylicious Bouquets

Who: Shannon Allitt

Project: Berrylicious Bouquets: strawberries hand dipped in the highest quality Dark, Milk and White Premium Chocolate, which are then arranged in sophisticated and beautiful bouquet creations with layers of exquisite flavors and textures.

My name is Shannon Allitt. I am a stay at home mom to my 2 children, Cassidy age 8, Caden age 7 and owner of Berrylicious Bouquets. I think my story starts a bit further back though. As a young woman my life was spent in a gym. I played Volleyball and Softball through college at Eastern University. After graduation I found my first job teaching Physical Education and Health and also head volleyball coach at Arcadia university. When I met my husband (who is English) he was living in Switzerland, so off I went to get married in England and move to Switzerland. We moved back to the US to upstate NY, with a 7 month old baby in our arms and I was also 3 months pregnant. The next 5 years were a blur of diapers, wipes, sleepless nights and spending every waking minute as a wife and mother.

What I did do during this time was have lots of parties and entertain. I can cook, in fact I am a pretty good cook, and developing recipes and shopping for ingredients is really fun for me. What I cannot do is bake!!! They say it is a right brain, left brain, thing but I think I just have the wrong brain for baking. I would serve fabulous meals and dessert was a disaster.

That is when I began dipping berries. I started dipping and just serving them on a plate. I would use different types of chocolate: dark, white or milk. Then I started adding different toppings: nuts, coconut, sugar dust, sprinkles, etc. I thought there had to be a way to make the presentation more dramatic and give it some height on the table. That is where the whole bouquet idea came into play. I used a terracotta pot and a head of lettuce placed in the pot to hold the berries that were on skewers. I arranged the berries in a fabulous design, incorporating different colors and textures depending on the theme of my evening or event. Over time friends started asking me if I could make them for their own events and many people encouraged me to start my own business.

With lots of things falling into place, I officially opened Berrylicious Bouquets in mid-October 2011.

As of right now, Berrylicious Bouquets has a full web site (you can even place an order on the site), a pretty good facebook page, and it is all run out of rented kitchen space. I try my best to get the word out about the business, I have gone door to door and brought samples to people that I thought might use my product. I sit at vendor events every chance I get, not to make money, just to get the word out. I am going to participate in 2 farmers' markets this spring. I take orders, make the bouquets, and deliver them all myself.

You may wonder at this point why I am looking for the $1500 grant you are offering and what I would do with it? Right now I am renting kitchen space from a chocolate shop in Ballston Spa. This means every time I have an order I have to pack up everything I need (chocolate, pots, skewers, lettuce, sprinkles, toppings, etc), take it over to the shop and then lug it all back home. What I would really like to do is have my own chocolate kitchen. I would also like to still be home with my children as much as possible. My best bet for doing all of this is to have a kitchen in my home. We have the space, we just need to build it. Someone once said, "build it and they will come", I really believe I provide a product that is already showing signs of building but I need a space that is conducive to the product I am putting out. The main issue in the kitchen I am in right now is lack of counter space. I basically have to make one bouquet at a time instead of dipping berries for multiple bouquets then putting them all together. When I get very busy there is not enough room in the chocolate kitchen for me to have another employee in there to help me out.

If I was chosen for the grant I would use it to help build a kitchen in my home, where I have a space in the basement suitable for installing sinks, counter space, industrial hot plates and refrigeration. This space is however in a location that requires running the sink plumbing over a significant distance and waste water will have to be pumped into the septic system, which requires installation of a pump . The $1500 will cover the installation cost of the plumbing and pump. Moving the business to my home will make my production more efficient by providing the space to create multiple Berrylicious Bouquets at the same time and reduce my costs by eliminating the kitchen rental that I currently pay. It will also allow the business to grow as it will provide space for one or more employees to work - the number of orders I can take will no longer be limited by the fact that my current kitchen only has sufficient space for one person to work. We have talked about looking into shipping our product but until I have more space this is not even a option. Having my own kitchen would keep me close to my family and make my business options limitless.