Two savvy moms are aiming to bring north Riverdale a new and unique cafe experience.
Using the website Kickstarter, Heather Kim and Katie Mayer raised over $27,000 from over 205 backers to facilitate the upcoming opening of their coffee shop, Earlybird.
The coffee shop will be “a wish list of everything we desire in a local neighborhood staple — a welcoming, casual yet comfortable environment with delicious, easy pick-me-ups at a reasonable price.”
Meyer, who is a lifelong Riverdale resident and content creator now raising a family in the area wanted to see culinary variety come to the area which is primarily dominated by pizza parlors, delis, Chinese takeout and chain coffee stores as did her partner.
Although Kim grew up on Staten Island, she has experience working in her family’s restaurant and also earned bachelor’s of arts in international management, spending much of her career expanding various small businesses and also in global customer experience where she created training programs for over 10,000 people worldwide.
“We love coffee and we care about our neighborhood. So, we decided to start earlybird as a way
to invest in our community,” the duo put out in a release, adding that “it felt like the right combination of magic, logic and a bit of kismet.”
That’s not all there is to offer at Earlybird, though.
In addition to a “incredible coffee selection from a local roaster,” other creative creative drink recipes, a variety of fruit smoothies, acai bowls and “delicious avocado toast” will be offered to customers.
That’s in addition to merchandise sold ranging from mugs to creative shirts and other apparel, such as take home coffee beans.
Kim and Mayer also stress that the greater mission of Earlybird is to have a focus on the local, northwest Bronx community.
“We’re developing training programs on business administration, leadership development, marketing, customer experience and equality, inclusion and diversity to empower our teams to make a greater impact in our day-to-day operations as well as arm them with ever-lasting skills,” they wrote.
On the Kickstarter platform, messages of support came from many Earlybird backers.
“We’re rooting for you guys!!” one said as another wrote “So excited for this!”
Earlybird’s support spans beyond the Bronx as well, the project is also backed by several people in Boston, San Fransisco, Florida and elsewhere around the tri- state area.
A soft opening is anticipated for June, more on Earlybird can be seen here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/earlybird/earlybird
