SYRACUSE — 83 & Company, located on Syracuse’s Northside, is a bakery specializing in custom cakes and offering delivery service for the Central New York area. The bakery first opened as a commercial kitchen in July 2010 and transformed into a retail store open to the public last Nov. 29. Esther Houston, whose family owns […]
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SYRACUSE — 83 & Company, located on Syracuse’s Northside, is a bakery specializing in custom cakes and offering delivery service for the Central New York area. The bakery first opened as a commercial kitchen in July 2010 and transformed into a retail store open to the public last Nov. 29.
Esther Houston, whose family owns the bakery, says the driving force behind the store is her grandmother, who always treated the people around her with love and fed them with love.
“Being able to incorporate the recipes of my grandmother and mine really keeps her spirit alive,” Houston says. “I can see the same reactions from my customers when I take care of them and feed them well.”
The 1,100-square-foot 83 & Company generated $121,000 in revenue in 2013 and Houston is projecting $250,000 in 2014. Houston says she initially funded the kitchen through a small loan, the details of which she declined to provide. Houston and her family then reinvested the profits generated from the business to support its expansion. In all, they invested $15,000 to open the current retail store on Green Street.
83 & Company provides customers with four major types of cakes: cupcakes, wedding cakes, custom cakes, and cheesecakes. The business started offering a lunch menu in the middle of January. Houston develops the recipes of her cakes based on family traditions, adding 12-15 different flavors. She is the fourth generation to use these recipes.
Houston says the number 83 comes from her birth year and the word “company” represents everyone else with whom she works. “It’s more like a partnership as opposed to I am an employer and they’re employees,” she says. Currently, Houston, her mother, and two brothers, co-own the store. Houston and one other full-time employee run the store.
Houston’s family firmly supported her when she decided to start the business, which she described as a “scary period” that came with challenges. “When you’re starting your own business, there are no guarantees, no weekly paychecks or biweekly paychecks. It’s a self-motivated job. If you don’t wake up and work, you don’t make any money, period,” Houston says.
Houston’s background
After graduating from Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh in 2002, Houston worked at the Biscotti Café & Gelateria in Syracuse for two and half years. She then served as an administrative assistant at SUNY Upstate Medical University for four years. Houston also worked for two more companies briefly but her dream to become a pastry chef never faded away. “I’ve always wanted to be a pastry chef,” Houston says. “I used to watch my grandmother bake when I was younger, which really cultivated my interests to all things sugar-related and pastry-related. And it was after culinary school that I found my niche was custom cakes.”
The target audience for the bakery primarily includes working women between 25 and 50 years old, Houston says.
Among her products, Houston’s favorite personal picks are “Wild Strawberry,” a vanilla cake filled with signature strawberry cream cheese frosting and frosted with vanilla butter cream. She also likes the Sweet Potato Pie made with the family’s secret recipe, known only by two living people, Houston and her mother.
When asked about the competition, Houston says in general all the other bakeries in Syracuse are competitors. In terms of custom cakes, Biscotti Café & Gelateria and Syracuse Cake Art are “doing the same level of work as we do,” she adds.
Houston says 83 & Company’s biggest advantages are that everything is fresh and custom, and customers can come with “no idea, half an idea, or a completely solid idea that we will be able to create the entire thing for.”
83 & Company engages in social-media advertising and marketing on Facebook, Twitter, and its website. It also advertises on CNY Central Deals.
Houston says she would like to open at least one more location by the end of 2014 and become the premiere bakery source for wedding cakes and custom cakes.
While continuing to serve the Central New York area, Houston plans to ship the bakery’s cheesecakes nationwide.
83 & Company rents its current place from the owners of Laci’s Tapas Bar. The bakery is open Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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