The Facade of Sweet Revenge

We’ve all felt this way: you have been working way more than your 40 weekly hours, getting great results and BAM all of the sudden there is new management and you get laid off. For many this is a nightmare; for others, the chance of a lifetime.

This was the case with Marlo Scott, owner of NYC’s newest cupcake & wine bar, Sweet Revenge.  Marlo worked in the media doing sales and marketing for years. That was completely different from the world of food deliveries, wine purchases and baking; but her experience in the corporate world prepared her for the world of the restauranteur.

Marlo was inspired by Magnolia Bakery. It was close to her home and she quickly became addicted to their creations. It was an incredible business model that sparked a desire for something different. That same year she moved to the West Village, was passed up for a promotion and started thinking about opening up her own cupcake place. Shortly after, she received her promotion and went back to the grind of the corporate world.

She took advantage of this time to start prepping for her dream. She started by taking classes at the Institute for Culinary Arts, the New School, writing business plans and doing research on how to best achieve her goals. Then, all of the sudden, new management came in and she was laid off.

This was just the push she needed. Sometimes it is hard for us to get out of the comfort zone to really follow our desires and dreams. Marlo said she “knew immediately that I would not go do another job search or subject myself to a work environment as I experienced it. I was going to create my own fabulous work environment and make people happy”.

She had been perfecting her cupcake making daily, much to the delight of her very lucky friends. She started the search in the end of 2005 and had perfected her recipe by late spring 2006. Marlo tells me “I just sucked, they were horrible”. They sure are not horrible now.

Marlo gives credit to the people of the Carmine Street Association. They welcomed her and gave her tips on things such as how to attain a beer and wine license.

The vibe of the place is bistro-esque, not what you would normally think of as a bakery. There are a couple of reasons for this. At first she was thinking of a very family friendly place for moms and kids. Once she started studying demographics, she noticed that there were men as women coming into these types of shops, and not necessarily accompanied by children. “You really can learn a lot by observation”.

Marlo also noticed something that was key, décor played a key role in the success of restaurants. The French bistro concept seemed to succeed. She read up on Keith McNally (Balthazar) someone she truly admires. She looked at some of her favorite places such as Café Noir. They drew and retained their clients by utilizing color, texture and sound. Many times it made the difference between failure and success between two restaurants on the same block.

Her observations have certainly paid off. Sweet Revenge is inviting, sophisticated, relaxed and unpretentious. It is a place you could go to on a date, with friends or just drop into for an indulgence. When you walk in you will unconsciously sway to the rhythm of Ibrahim Ferrer, Gypsy Kings and Bossa Nova as you bite into the dirty or the Mexican vanilla crusted walnuts.

Marlo’s Vanilla cupcakes: 24 - 30 cupcakes

1 ½ cup self rising flour

1 1/3 cup all purpose

2 sticks butter softened

2 cups sugar

3 TBS vanilla

5 eggs

1 cup milk

With a mixer, whip the softened butter first, then add eggs and sugar while continuing to mix. Alternate mixing in flour and milk, then add vanilla.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, check every couple of minutes toward the end with a toothpick so as not to overbake.

You can jazz up this recipe easily by swapping out and/or adding ingredients. Its a simple base recipe that I like to use when doing "product development" :). For example, to create an Eggnog cupcake, simply substitute eggnog for the milk and throwing in a tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg.

 


Mexican Crusted Almonds



Caribbean Cocktail with Crimson and Cream Cupcake



The Bar at Sweet Revenge



Prepping cupcakes

I've been heading out to Jersey City quite a bit lately. One of our latest finds was Ibby's Falafel on Grove Street. It is a small place with outdoor seating.

Upon entering, the restaurant is small, beautifully decorated and extremely clean.

We walked in and hungrily ordered. I opted for the Falafel, hummus & baba sandwich and my two companions had the lamb shawarma and the stuffed grape leaves. The bill came to under $20 and the food was prepared with speed. The gentleman at the counter was warm, courteus and helpful (need to ask him his name next time).

The food was quite delicious. My sandwich was made of pita, falafel balls, hummus and veggies. It was a healthy and delicious start to the day. The grape leaves blew me away. I took a bite of the lamb shawarma and was left to salivate. The meat was juicy and flavorful. The hot sauce is spicy, so beware when you liberally squeeze it into your sandwich, if your tongue is not a spice master, I'd day leave it to the experts. The portions were just big enough that I was sated without being overly full.

The day was lovely, the food delicious and the conversation great. I look forward to my next visit and to trying out more of their dishes.

Ibby's Falafel

303 Grove Street

Jersey City, NJ

(Between City Hall & Grove Path Station)

201-432-2400

10am-12am 7 days a week

Delivery Available

We had our 6th event. This time we had Desiree (the assistant store manager of Whole Foods) walk us through the store at the bowery. We started off with a light snack upstairs so everyone cold get to know each other. Then we headed downstairs for the tour.

Desiree explained that Whole Foods was the first store to carry natural products. She explained that all the meats at the store come from humane companies such as Bell and Evans who provides Whole Foods with chickens raised on an all natural diet, with no antibiotics, growth hormones or preservatives.

We also discussed "bird friendly coffee", which left an un-answered question, so here goes: shade groen coffee is good for birds who live in those areas. It also lowers the need for fertilizers and herbicides. The majority of coffee grown is usually 2/3 of a farm. Shade grown coffee can host about 150 species of birds as opposed to non-shade coffee which only keeps from 20-50. The bird population has decreased significantly, for example there are 70% less Cape May Warbles.  So after doing a little research, I'd say its worth it to purchase Bird friendly coffee.

Right after that we hit up the pet food section, Desiree explained the benefits of feeding dogs a raw diet. This is something we truly believe in. Petey (the mascot of FriendsEAT) has been on a raw meat diet for the past 3 years. He eats Stella and Chewy's, it's an all natural, raw pet food made from human grade free range meats and organic veggies. That's better than most people eat, but we have noticed a significant change in his health and attitude when we switched. I remember when my vet kept telling me to give Petey kibble, and I made the analogy of Total. According to the advertisement, Total has 100% of all vitamins and minerals needed by a human, so in theory, if I eat Total at every meal, I should not need to eat anything else. We all know this is not true and it is the same for animals, so I urge everyone to really watch what they feed their pets.

Ok, back to the topic at hand. The most interesting thing I learned about was Vegan sugar. So it turns out that sugar utilizes cow bone char to whiten sugar. Brown sugar is NOT considered Vegan; it is made by adding molasses to refined sugar (which was made with bone char). If this is an issue for you, one way to ascertain that you are going Vegan is to stay away from ALL refined sugar and utilizing turbinado sugar or beet sugar. Just in case you are interested, vegfamily.com (where I got my info) lists the following companies as Vegan friendly:

Florida Crystals Refinery
P.O. Box 86
South Bay, FL 33493
407-996-9072
Labels: Florida Crystals

Refined Sugars Incorporated
One Federal St.
Yonkers, NY 10702
914-963-2400
Labels: Jack Frost, Country Cane, 4# Flow-Sweet
Pillsbury
Makes powdered brown sugar

Supreme Sugar Company (subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland)
P.O. Box 56009
New Orleans, LA 70156
504-831-0901
Labels: Supreme, Southern Bell, Rouse's Markets

We also discussed sodium content and what we should be consuming daily. The US Department of Health and Human Services says we should have no more than 2,300 mg per day (1 tsp of salt). The average American has an average of 5,000 (twice the recommended ammount). Where does this come from? Most likely prepared foods, I went onto http://www.nutritiondata.com/ and checked out a couple prepated items:

A plain hot dog has 710 mg of sodium
A beef and cheddar hot pocket has 960 mg sodium
Lean cuisine chicken and vegetables with Vermicelli has 633 mg sodium

This is where we get in trouble. Also, we have to make sure to see how many servings per package. Sometimes companies will list 250 mg of sodium, but there may be 3 servings per packet making the true sodium content 750 mg. So I guess the thing we come away with is keep your consumption of prepared foods low.

We learned a bunch more stuff, but the best part was getting to know everyone. I'd like to thank everyone that made it out (battling the pouring rain) and special thanks to our host Desiree.