List It Out...

Let's start at the beginning of this story by saying that if I had a dollar for every customer that has asked me in the past month for a full listing of the pies we make, I would be a rich woman...

I don't know if I find it more interesting that we opened a business without interior signs advertising our product...or that it never occurred to either of us that we would need signs.  There is probably some psychology as to why, in the history of PJP, you won't find a single sign listing all the pies available for order.  Perhaps we have always been so in the world of pies that we thought everyone knew you could order a 12 inch almond rum raspberry any day of the week.  Or perhaps given our personalities that push against any sort of rules, trying to define what we do and work within that was simply never part of our thought process.

Whatever the reason, a month into PJP Buttonwood has shown that people like to know what we bake and how much each item costs (imagine that).  Several weeks ago, we visited a local sign company for some options.  Around the same time, we started working with Caroline Leemis of Caroline Leemis Design (http://www.carolineleemisdesign.com).  We had known each other about five seconds before figuring out she understood us perfectly and she would make PJP Buttonwood an entirely new visual experience.

So today was actually just ridiculously fun.  Caroline shopped and texted us pictures of things we might like for the front area.  Anything we liked, she bought it and then brought it to us.  And for two people who have been working 80 hours a week on building a product and a brand, such a luxurious service made us feel like the Queens of PJP (only with flour in our hair instead of a tiara).

When she stopped by at 1 this afternoon, she brought Kelly Hoover of Uppercase Living (https://www.uppercaseliving.com).  The master plan is to turn the wall of stainless steel into a massive menu board with the pies divided into three categories - cream, fruit, and speciality.  Rather than creating one board, Kelly is supplying a thin, flexible three inch tall vinyl of each pie type.  The vinyl will be applied directly to the steel.  This should give a texture to the wall and also easily allow for additions to the menu as we (i.e., Jeanne) develops new pie flavors.  Here is a sample we tried out on the wall today to get a feel for size...

It looks like it will take two weeks for the vinyls of all the pie types to arrive.  And like everything else in this rodeo, it won't be cheap.  We anticipate an estimated cost of $650 because the prices are based on the length of each line of text.  That said, how can we sell pie if no one is sure what kind of pie we make?  Whomever came up with the adage "it takes money to make money" was likely at this stage of business ownership, wherein everything costs something.

We are really excited to see how the wall transforms the entire PJP Buttonwood space.  And the plan for the rest of the front space?  OH MY WORD.  We are a little excited for it all to get started...