PJP Nifong

Well, after months and months of negotiation, we are pleased to announce that we signed a lease this afternoon on a significantly larger storefront. Gulp. And if you need to set the scene, please know that Jeanne was 100% zen as we initialed 46 pages of lease documents and I was a HOT MESS. (Albeit it, a hot mess that had read the lease terms no less than 15 times before we got to that meeting. An informed hot mess, is what I’m saying.)

Let’s break down all the information about our breaking news:

1. What? You are MOVING? Why?: Well, primarily because we are out of space in our current 1,050 square feet and current two oven set up. Stop by on any busy baking day and you’ll see us bumping into each other. Also, we take conference calls in our bathroom.

2. So, how much bigger is this new place? It is 2,100 square feet…so just double our current size.

3. And where exactly is it? 503 C Nifong…three doors down from Hyvee and immediately next door to our friends at The Southern Rose. (Subway is on the other side of us. We don’t know anyone there yet, but let’s hope they like us. I just have way stronger feelings about monogrammed goods than sandwiches.) Not that we plan to, but we could roll our equipment out our backdoor and over to the new space.

4. How will PJP change for the new space? It won’t. Our goal is to have PJP look and feel exactly the same as the current iteration. Just bigger, with more merchandising options, more pie flavor options, and a change from five days a week of PJP to six days a week of PJP.

5. Are you scared? LORD, YES. I am 100% terrified that I will ruin this. Jeanne feels FINE. I’ll give you one guess who lays awake at night thinking about sales volume.

6. When is this all going to happen? Excellent question. The Kroenke Group is installing a new heating and air conditioning unit and duct work, starting late this week or next. And once they finish their work, we will start on our end. By the terms of the lease, we have 150 days to finish from the installation of the HVAC.

7. How will you handle all this during the build out? Well, we will be completely normal at PJP Buttonwood…or no more abnormal than we usually are. Personally, I’ll be a pile of goo consisting solely of anxiety, but I’ll look fine to the unsuspecting visitor.

8. Did Jeanne win her argument to have a walk-in freezer? No, but not for her lack of trying earnestly. As it turns out, walk-in freezers are super expensive. And super expensive to install. And super expensive to wire into the wall, often requiring additional heating and cooling systems on the roof. And you know what I don’t like? Expensive to the third power.

9. What will you add to the baking space? Mainly, space. And two additional ovens, though we will wire for four additional ovens…just in case we win the lottery in the next 150 days. Or someone trips and falls and a new oven lands in our space.

10. Anything else we should know? Well, clearly we couldn’t justify a new and larger space without all the support and kindness we’ve been shown over the past five years, so thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And thank you in advance for all the feedback we will solicit on the new space and for all the times you’ll probably have to talk me down when I start to overthink things. So, here we go: PJP Nifong. It has a lovely ring to it, right?