A Fort Greene Baker is waging a last-ditch, 1,600-pie battle to save her storefront after the city repeatedly shut her down for health violations.
Adrienne Braxton, whose Vanderbilt Avenue bakery, Krumbs, was shut down amid a raft of violations earlier this year, promises to bake — and, more important, sell – 1,600 pies by Thanksgiving to raise the funds needed to reopen and bake happily every-after.
“The problem isn’t baking the pies,” said Braxton. “I know [1,600] sounds like a lot of pies, but that’s not an issue. It’s getting people to place orders — that’s a problem.”
The last-ditch effort, which began a week ago, has resulted so far in only 300 orders, leaving Braxton with 1,300 to go with just seven days left before Thanksgiving.
Do the math: That’s 185 pecan or sweet potato pies per day — priced to move at $20-$23. Braxton is optimistic.
“I have to have hope, I have to think positive,” she said.
It’ll take more than an upbeat attitude in this last struggle to keep her bakery; it’ll take a legion of neighbors. Thus far, however, their support has been wavering.
Many Krumbs fans came forwarded after Braxton’s shop was shut down in June after she was unable to renew her operating permit because she still had $3,655 in unpaid violations. Two fundraisers were organized for the down-and-out baker, but both were sparsely attended. One, in fact, had two attendees — Braxton was one of them.
“I just felt like I didn’t want to bake again,” said Braxton. “I felt humiliated. But I got over that and I just figured out a Plan B.”
The bakery is not without support, of course.
“It was a fabulous bakery,” said Jennifer Stokes, a Krumbs patron and program manager of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, a neighborhood business group. “She is extremely talented. That night when she closed, I remember passing that corner and seeing people standing around scratching there head. She has a following and she has a gift.”
And she’d better have fast hands. Thanksgiving is Nov. 24.
To place an order, Call Braxton at (347) 384-2275.
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
