We recently connected with Hannah + Jon Young and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah + Jon, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

I believe the most innovative thing we’ve done in our career is honestly how was started this business. At the time, we had no idea what it would grow into–or that is was innovative at all. So here is our story:

For years, decades even, Jon and I have worked in the service industry. I was working front of the house since I was 14, and he spent his whole working life as a chef and manager. As many do in our industry, we found ourselves frustrated with the way employees are treated by owners in many establishments, and the general thanklessness of working for someone else. With our years of knowledge, we always kind of felt like “why not us? Why couldn’t we have something of our own?” Obviously, it is no easy task to come up with the capital to open a restaurant, so that dream always lingered on the back burner.

When the pandemic came, it shook everything up–just as it had for virtually everyone in the country. Somehow we came up. with the idea to start making bagels and pastries and set them out in a little hand painted stand in our driveway. it felt like a scary leap even at that small scale. Jon would roll the bagels before he left for work, and Id boil and bake in the middle of the night after coming off my bartending shifts. It was exhausting–but nothing two working parents of young children weren’t used to. The first day of, what lovingly became referred to as “the stand,” we started with a dozen bagels, and a handful of cookies, muffins, and scones. Within weeks we were selling out of dozens of each–everything our tiny camp style kitchen stove could handle–and quickly!

After a year of the stand, we found a small space in a repurposed old velvet mill in our town. We spent the next few months making it our own before taking the next leap. We were stunned our first weekend open by how many people came. We had lines out the door–and over the next 2 years, it never let up. At this current moment, we have just finished renovating our very own sunny store front and are beginning our next chapter.

We feel so fortunate to have come from a tiny driveway stand, to a successful business. We know that it is not usually the case to find immediate success and are so grateful for our loyal customers.

Hannah + Jon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

What we do is make hand rolled, sourdough bagels, breakfast, lunch, espresso, pastries, etc. We are very proud to provide a space for the community to gather over our offerings. We use, fresh, local ingredients to perfect the eclectic and delicious menu. Our bagels and breads do not contain preservatives or sugar, and sourdough provides even more health benefits. We enjoy supporting the community and local charities as much as possible. As parents, we also pride ourselves on creating a family friendly enviroment

So much love and attention goes into everything we make. Bagel making is certainly an art and takes lots of skill. We are proud to offer this to our community.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Yes! Right out of college I got a job in New London, CT at a “fancy” pizza shop as a waitress. I was at a very transitional time in my life, moving out of my college town, ending a serious relationship, and starting my life as “an adult.” After a few months working in the shop, I was invited out to the Chef’s birthday by another waitress. He and I connected instantly over a love of music, celtics basketball, and a myriad of other topics. We were pretty much inseparable from there on out. 13 years later, we are married with kids and our new business.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have always had an interest in social media and even freelanced part time with local companies running their accounts. I love the creativity that curating content provides. With this particular business, I believe the unique nature of how we started garnered a lot of attention. People loved seeing “the stand” and watching it grow into a real brick and mortar business. I feel like social media allowed people to feel like they were on our journey with us–like they had a little ownership in our story–and that made them feel more deeply connected to what we are doing.

I also believe taking great pictures caught a lot of eyes and drove them toward our business! So my advice is to take nice, well lit pictures! Invest in some good photo editing apps to maximize the quality of your content. Find the times that work best with your audience to post–utilize tags and hashtags as archaic as that is starting to sound–it works! Take the time to learn how to make engaging reels/tik toks–they seem to garner more attention than static posts. And of course, have fun building your identifiable style and brand

Contact Info:

• Website: https://flourshopbagels.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/flourshopbagels
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/flourshopct
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPHwyJ8epyI
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-flour-shop-pawcatuck