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We did it! We signed a lease on a new retail shop!
The Intrigue Chocolate team is on cloud nine. It's not only a big step for the business, we also know an easier to find street-level shop means we will see many of you more frequently, and that's awesome.
A fund raising campaign is up and running through Community Sourced Capital. Micro-loans of $50 or more are matched dollar for dollar, so your contributions have a significant impact. A bit more about CSC and our plan is on the campaign page. If you are able to and choose to help us with a micro-loan, you have our sincere gratitude!
Improving the Retail Experience
If you've ever visited our current kitchen/retail workshop, you know it can be a bit difficult to find. The hallways and stairs to and from our door...um...have a lot of character. Those that make it to us are rewarded with a chocolate tasting, but we know we lose some folks along the way.
The new retail shop is just east of the intersection of Jackson and Occidental. We'll join the walking avenue with other eateries such as London Plane, Bar Sajor, and Rain Shadow Meats, as well as the always active Starbucks, Cafe Umbria, and Zeitgeist Cafe. This is an up-and-coming section of Pioneer Square and our shop will have plenty of visibility.
We hope this space will mimic some important elements from our "behind-the-scenes" converted kitchen experience that customers enjoy now. Namely, the conversational elements of the tasting flights, seeing and smelling the spices mixed into the chocolate, and the simple and welcoming aesthetic of practical materials. What we hope to add is an easier purchasing process and more retail display for fun items like flavored sugars, tea blends, and tempered chocolate bars.
Last Thursday we had the fortune of hosting architects and interior designers from Olson & Kundig in our new space. They broke the box with cool ideas and vision for how a person can experience the space. Below are a few pictures before it really got packed in there.
About Community Sourced Capital
To accomplish the construction of our tasting bar, building a scullery, and painting the walls, we have enlisted the help of Community Sourced Capital. CSC helps small businesses acquire loans smaller than banks like to offer.
CSC can offer us this smaller sized loan by aggregating micro-loans from you, our community, neighbors, friends, and family. CSC calls these loan segments “squares”, or $50 increments of the greater total loan. The minimum square is $50, the maximum being $1,000 per person. Every month CSC will work with us to review our profit numbers and determine a responsible payment back to the lenders based on our net profit, plus a $100 fee to CSC for the service and to encourage quick repayment.
If you would like to help support this effort of ours, please check out the CSC campaign page here: http://csc.rocks/intriguechocolate. Thank you in advance!
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Karl
March 17, 2015
Thank you so much for the enthusiasm! It is an exciting but crazy process (as you well know Karen, chuckle). Can’t wait to have you all by the see it when it’s completed.