Sara Fatell is on the right.
Sara Fatell started Grassroots Gourmet four years ago as a small catering company out of her home.
Having come to Washington six-and-a-half years ago to work as a political organizer, she found baking a good way to de-stress.
"I loved following a recipe and getting this thing at the end,” she says. “When you’re working with politics and elections, you work all these crazy hours and there’s not a lot of instant gratification.”
Fatell would bake for office birthdays and for friends. Eventually enough people told her variations of “No, I’m serious — this is really good. I would totally buy this,” that she decided to go into business. She also sensed a niche for locally made products for D.C.-area non-profits tired of patronizing big-box companies for their catering needs.
She eventually convinced her cousin, Jamilyah Smith-Kanze, to join her as a business partner and they opened their retail location in November 2012 at 104 Rhode Island Ave., N.W. in the Bloomingdale/Eckington area where they sell everything from blueberry crumb muffins, Aunt Nat’s apple cake, chocolate chip scones, vegan cranberry swirl crumb cake, hand-painted sugar cookies and much more.
“It’s been crazy and fantastic,” the 29-year-old Havertown, Pa., native says. “We’ve done a lot of weddings and baby showers and birthdays for the same families and we really love getting to be part of their lives in a continuous way.”
Fatell is single and lives near the shop. Though she says owning the business has not taken the fun out of baking for her, one of her favorite ways to relax is having someone else cook. She also enjoys live music and dancing in her free time.
1 comment:
Sara and Jay are AWESOME! I love their cookies and cupcakes (a little too much), and the dragon cake that they made for our son's first birthday was adorable. However, the BEST part about Grassroots Bakery is how friendly and welcoming they are. My family likes to stop in for a visit whenever we walk by the store. Last time, Sara and Jay joined us for an impromptu toddler dance party! They are part of the reason we love living in Bloomingdale.
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