Sweet Spot Studio, a baking school geared towards home cooks by pastry chef Josse Lukacik, is pausing its operations for the summer as Lukacik looks to adjust the business to a post-pandemic audience. 

When North Carolina went under a stay-at-home order, Sweet Spot Studio shifted to virtual classes, selling kits for students to use while following instruction from their own homes. The kits were successful until restaurant dining rooms reopened, Lukacik says. Sales dropped around 90 percent, forcing her to reconsider selling them. She decided closing for the summer was the safest option, especially considering how coronavirus cases in North Carolina are on an alarming upward trend.

“It doesn’t do any of my employees any good if there’s no business for them to work at this fall, because we would have made it maybe another two months with what I had,” she says. 

While baking classes have been quiet, however, Sweet Spot Kitchen, the commissary kitchen she runs geared towards bakers, has been steady. So as she made the decision to pause Sweet Spot Studio, she began working to grow the kitchen. 

“What has become apparent through that is that the commercial kitchen can survive a pandemic,” she says. “So to me, that is the most stable aspect of the business.” 

She’s leasing another space in the same Monroe Road office park as the studio and current kitchen, and hopes to add five more vendors to the space. Like her existing commissary space, it will be geared toward bakers.

“It seems like a lot of people are kind of turning to wanting to do their own thing, whether they’ve been laid off or whatnot,” Lukacik says. “There’s a definite need for more kitchen space for bakers.”

Also launching soon is Sweet Spot Supply Company, a retail outlet in front of the existing Sweet Spot Studio space that will sell professional-grade supplies in quantities that make sense for the home cook. Expect tools, flours, and chocolates, as well as ready-to-use items such as buttercream, purées, royal icings, and cookie dough. There will also be gift baskets that include items from local vendors.

Sweet Spot Studio, however, is not going without adjustments. The space, which fits 12 students, will get barriers between cooking stations and a changed layout that enables socially distant classes. A subscription virtual offering is in the works, but classes likely won’t return until September at the earliest. And when they do, safety will be taken seriously, as Lukacik has a close family member with several factors that make them high risk.

“When we do open for classes, there’s going to be things that I expect of my students,” she says. “They’re going to have to sign that they haven’t got on an airplane for two weeks. We’re going to change our cancelation policy so that if you have any symptoms of feeling sick, you automatically get a credit for another class. So it’s going to be very much kind of a mutual respect situation as far as safety.” —Kristen Wile

 

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