Nothing Says ‘I Love You’ Like A Piece Of Cake Delivered To Your Door
HALIFAX – “Two men looked out from prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars.”
Ciaran Doherty heard that piece of poetry from his articulate father many times while growing up. Now, as he and his wife Lacey try to keep their business afloat through a worldwide pandemic and government restrictions, that one line resonates with him more than ever before.
“You can choose to look at the doom and gloom, or you can choose to look at the stars,” said Ciaran.
“We’re the ones who own the business; the onus is on us to get the word out there and deliver good service.”
Ciaran and Lacey are the owner and operators of The Middle Spoon Desserterie & Bar and have two locations in the HRM. Like most restaurants, they have had to layoff most of their staff and survive through takeout and delivery only. But the duo refuses to dwell on the negative and are focussing on creating solutions to an unprecedented problem.
“Darwin’s survival of the fittest- it’s not the strongest that survive, it’s those who can adapt,” said Ciaran.
“We’re essentially building a new business here.”
One of their most creative ideas was inspired by a customer who wanted to give a gift to his father, who couldn’t have visitors on his birthday, due to self-isolation.
“A guy called, wondering if we could deliver a single slice of carrot cake to his father. It was his father’s birthday…and he was alone,” recalled Ciaran.
“I started thinking about that guy when he arrives home from work and finds this carrot cake sitting on his front porch. That’s probably going to give him a little bit of lift. ‘I’m still loved.’ it says.”
From that specialized order, the Dohertys began offering “Isolation I Love You” deliveries. Customers can choose to send cookies or truffles to someone they can’t see in-person right now, along with a personalized message.
The first batch of these isolation-o-grams went out on March 23. The launch day was quite a success with 30 orders, and they’ve averaged 60 per week since then. Some of the personalized messages were pretty typical, such as “I miss your body.” Others were much more coronavirus related, with notes like “I hope you’re washing your hands,” and “Please don’t kill Jimmy, we need him at work.”
Ciaran and Lacey both got to smile and chuckle over the light-hearted messages people were coming up with.
“There’s friggin’ enough negativity out there, let’s spread some positivity,” said Ciaran.
Ciaran and Lacey are also looking for ways to make money from the drinks they serve, while also lending an olive branch to Halifax bartenders who may be out of work. The Middle Spoon has a unique license that allows the establishment to bottle and deliver cocktails.
With that in mind, The Middle Spoon put a call out to local bartenders to submit unique cocktail recipes. If accepted to the Middle Spoon menu, the bartenders will have a chance to make money from the sales their recipe generates.
So far, Ciaran says they’ve added cocktails to the menu from 14 area bartenders.
One of the Middle Spoon’s most popular moves was to offer $50 gift cards for just $40 – a 20 percent discount. Ciaran set a goal to sell 1,000 of these cards (for a total of $40,000). With that amount of money, The Middle Spoon can take care of upcoming expenses and may be able to give some money to their employees if there’s anything left over. They’ve already sold dozens of these gift cards within the first few days of advertising on social media.
“We want to help our employees out. If you’ve ever been in The Middle Spoon, you’d know that’s what makes the place so special,” said Ciaran
“You recognize that them getting EI is not the same thing as what they’re putting in their pocket, because so much of it is tips.”
While these creative business ideas have proven popular with customers, it’s still early days. Business still needs to pick up for The Middle Spoon to stay open. With that in mind, Ciaran and Lacey are still mauling new ideas over in their head.
“We never make the assumption that something is going to be a silver bullet solution,” said Ciaran.
“We are constantly going: what else can we do?”