By Bill Parry
Brooklyn Cupcake has closed its Long Island City location less than a year after it opened.
But the award winning bakery, considered one of the rising stars in New York City’s small business community since opening its first store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, three years ago, still has big plans.
“The people in LIC were very nice, but there wasn’t a lot of support,” owner Carmen Rodriguez said. “It was a pop-up anyway. The lease was going to be up at the end of the month, but we left early because the landlord found another tenant.”
She added that Brooklyn Cupcake’s revenue has increased 35 percent between the original shop and a venue at The Barclay Center while the location in LIC and one in Dumbo were not making money.
“It was worth a try. I honestly thought LIC was a brilliant move,” Rodriguez said. “You only fail when you don’t learn the lesson.”
The story of Brooklyn Cupcake began in Long Island City, where Rodriguez got laid off from her job at the Shade Store Corporate Office, at 32-02 Skillman Ave. To earn some cash during her unemployment, Rodriguez started baking gourmet cupcakes, mixing Spanish and Italian flavors, and selling them out of a bagel shop in Williamsburg.
The cupcakes sold so well that her mother gave Rodriguez her life savings so she could open her own shop.
“A couple of my aunts chipped in, too. It gained traction and rolled from there,” she said.
Rodriguez was honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a Small Business of the Year in 2011.
She believes closing the LIC location, at 543 48th Ave., is not a setback but business as normal, and she is moving on with confidence.
“As a graduate of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business, I am being mentored by very successful people who own companies that have made millions,” Rodriguez said.
Her friend Gianna Cerbone-Teoli, owner of Manducatis Rustica, at 46-33 Vernon Blvd., was a classmate in the Goldman Sachs business program at LaGuardia Community College.
“I’m kind of sad that she closed in Long Island City,” she said. “LIC is very tough to break into in that line of business because people don’t shop in the neighborhood. They come out of those high rises and go to work in Manhattan. That’s where they buy their stuff.”
While Rodriguez didn’t rule out Brooklyn Cupcake’s return to LIC, she did say she is planning to open new locations in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Long Island.
“My motto is failure is not an option, and it’s been working so far,” she said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
