Q&A: A new mom with a bigger business
Courtesy of Crust Bakeshop
Alexis Kelleher
Title: Owner
Company: Crust Bakeshop
Location: 118 Main St., and 1 West Boylston St.
Founded: 2017
Employees: 20
Kelleher’s age: 30
Birthplace: Worcester
Residence: Worcester
Education: Bachelor’s degree in English from Wellesley College, and a certificate in baking and pastry from New England Culinary Institute in Vermont
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When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Alexis Kelleher’s business Crust Bakeshop took the same hits as other small businesses, particularly in the hospitality industry. Yet, motivated by her newborn child – Reed – she and her life and business partner, Nate Rossi, pushed forward to take advantage of a new demand for Crust’s products and expanded to a second location on West Boylston Street in September.
What was 2020 like for you?
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was just finishing my maternity leave with a three-month-old. Immediately thereafter, the entire state ws on lockdown. I was terrified. It was scary and bleak. Even after we were allowed to reopen, I was nervous about letting anyone into the store, because we wanted to minimize contact.
But I channeled my terror into work, because that is what I know best. Being a new mom, too, that made me want to work all the much harder, so I could keep my job going. I was holding him when I uploaded our menu online for the first time. I was answering Instagram messages while I was breastfeeding. For me, it was keeping the business alive for him.
Did you consider temporarily closing?
I said to myself, “If we close, we aren’t going to be able to reopen.” Because of what we had in the bank, that was the reality.
We ended up adapting to selling some grocery items, and then we got really busy, because people were looking for alternatives to big grocery stores. They felt safe at Crust. We went through the summer doing business with all that demand, and the staff was understanding all the protocols and expectations, because they were happy we stayed open.
Why did you expand to West Boylston Street?
In August, the opportunity presented itself to open a second location. I thought it was insane, and I didn’t think I could do it, because I now had a toddler. But we loved the space. We knew it would be tough to get off the ground, but Nate said we needed to do this because it was such a good opportunity. Our biggest complaint with our Main Street location is it doesn’t have a parking lot, and West Boylston Street has that.
We opened within a month of signing the lease; we didn’t even have time to get a bank loan. For the first month, every day we were open we were losing money, and I was freaking out. But we kept our head down and kept moving forward. We have since turned that around.
What was the impact on your Main Street stores?
We lost a little business at Main Street, but our kitchen is there, so we will keep that open.
We are phasing out our other business at that location – North Main Provisions – because we need extra refrigeration space and extra table space for Crust, and the space we have for Crust on Main Street is not very big. We felt the best logical move was to move into the North Main Provision space. We will keep selling most of the North Main Provision items at Crust both on Main Street and on West Boylston: the jams, cheese, and charcuterie I love to source. The only thing we didn’t renew was the liquor license.
How has being a new mom changed your role with the business?
It was a really weird year. We accomplished a lot, but I didn’t work hard the way I normally do. Before I was doing a lot of the hands-on work in the bakery, and I struggled to relinquish that role even as the business grew. But after I became a mom, I was forced to give up some control and focus more on being the owner.
How is it going now at West Boylston?
People have been so happy with that location, and that makes me happy. As a small business owner, you are often just focused on the day-to-day, on the next thing. The new location has given me the opportunity to understand why people are so happy with Crust. Through it, we are bringing joy to people, and that makes us love what we do. That joy is fuel for us.
The new location has the convenience and the visibility. Driving right down the street, you can see our sign. The space is less of a hole-in-the-wall, which is what Main Street is right now.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Brad Kane, WBJ editor.
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