Hollin Hall Pastry Struggles to Recover After Outage
Shop is accepting donations to help bakery stay open following last week’s storm. Calling on loyal patrons to come in and spend, donate.
Hollin Hall Pastry Shop is accepting donations to help the store get back on its feet following a four-day power outage that spoiled all its supplies and left the shop closed for six days.
The shop reopened Friday with a supply of breakfast pastries and plans to have sweets filling the showcases by Saturday. However, the store’s insurance policy didn’t cover the losses incurred during the power outage, which totaled about $35,000, said General Manager Tammy Swann.
All supplies in refrigerators or freezers were a total loss, Swann said. The shop also runs a wholesale business, supplying local restaurants and hotels with desserts, which will take even longer to restart, she said.
As a small business with little cash on hand, the shop’s owners are asking loyal customers to patronize the business to get cash in the door and consider making a donation to the business.
Swann said due to an oversight by store management, she assumed all losses would be covered by insurance, as was the case with the shop’s previous policy.
“It was an oversight on our part. We didn’t read it,” she said. “So what we’re hoping is we can get an influx of cash in here and get the supplies we need to keep us going, and hope that our creditors will give us a little time to catch back up.”
A donation jar has been placed on the store counter, and Swann said she is considering offering a voucher program in which customters buy, say, 100 vouchers that can be used throughout the year.
“Our customers are great,” Swann said. “They are so helpful and so caring. We are really lucky.”
Anyone wishing to make a donation can visit the store, located at 7920 Fort Hunt Road, or call 703-768-9643.
Curveball
12:08 pm on Saturday, July 7, 2012
Very, very poor decision-making to inadvertently go uninsured for having not paid attention -- to the policy, to our weather and to the disaster-prone infrastructure that is our power grid.
With that said, I hope the shop remains viable.
But as for any donation, I'll wait until you develop some gluten-free offerings -- however much that might sound like a crass digression. For baked goods, I put my money where my stomach is and drive to Old Town and Del-Ray.
It's only a matter of time until another entrepreneur opens in Fort Hunt/Mount Vernon to take advantage of that significant growth area for baked goods, along with their traditional wheat-based offerings.That's the (near) future.
Amanda M. Socci, Freelance Writer
6:27 pm on Saturday, July 7, 2012
I am so very sorry this has happened to Hollin Hall pastry shop. HH supplied our daughter's birthday cake several years ago and also generously donated its day-old sweet goods to me to donate to local school teachers. Hope to patronize the shop again soon. For now, I send the shop and its employees my best wishes and a prayer that things get better quickly.
C Cooper
5:47 am on Sunday, July 8, 2012
If they were a little friendlier at the pastry shop, I'd go there more often. I'm surprised that $35,000 can put them in such a bind, considering their prices.
Isle D Belle
9:37 am on Monday, July 9, 2012
Wow, it takes a lot of chutzpah for a business like this to ask for donations because they failed to pay attention to what their new insurance policy covered.
dusty
11:23 am on Monday, July 9, 2012
Couldn't agree more.
Greta
12:40 pm on Monday, July 9, 2012
And after they failed to pay taxes a few years ago. Needs new management, new staff and new recipes.
Keith
11:15 pm on Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Wow - tough crowd. Would you rather have another shuttered space in Hollin Hall to accompany the former Village Wharf? Or do you just prefer to have to drive to Old Town every time you want a bakery? Businesses in small communities sometimes need a little extra support, particularly if we want good ones like Hollin Hall Pastry.
Susan D.
10:40 am on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Really, I guess none of you have ever owned a small business, because if you did, you would fully understand how truly difficult it can be. And I hardly doubt it was an oversight on the management side of the insurance fiasco, most insurances do not cover Acts of God, unless a tree slammed down on the building. They just don't. Running a small mom and pop business is a step up from running your household. Could you go 4 days without the influx of cash, loose all of your belongings and have to come up with 35,000$ in a flash to get yourself up and running again. I think not. You would be crying for the government to come bail you out, and small businesses do not have that option. So unless you are in this person's shoes, you have NO idea what is going on.
Nadia Patnode
11:22 am on Friday, August 10, 2012
Thanks to the community and everyones gracious support Hollin Hall Pastry Shop has been doing Amazing.. Please come by and get a delicious treat or order a cake for a special event!
703-768-9643
Thank You Again,
Nadia
Manager