Resilience Is the Word.
"We're Doing This All Over Again..." I said.
I looked at Michael from across the table with my salty margarita in hand and said “We’re doing this all over again…”
The best way for me to process the actual sh*t show of a storm that happened in WI last week is to write it out, so here I go. I’m sharing how the power outage stole our thunder…. but we came out alive and better than ever.
WE ALWAYS DO.
It all started with a text from my dad. I have in my Power Outage Notes (yes, I created a document of all the things to be prepared for when the power goes out for this business) to take the text from your father seriously when he warns you about the ice storm 5 days in advance….
“Hang on to your britches on Thursday. Stock up on firewood.” his message says.
Thursday morning came and I thought we were in the clear. A few flickers of power here and there, but nothing serious. About 1:30P and the lights go out. They aren’t coming back on…
But they will…
No they won't…
I called Michael and said to dig out the generator from the back of the garage. Gina, Christie, & I were coming to pick it up and get everything in the kitchen back up and running. I’m not sure what every other restaurant biz is doing…. but if you have a generator, you use it and you plug in all of your coolers & freezers to keep things running smoothly. A few powerful extension cords — the big ones — and all is well. For now...
The closing team stands there… wondering what’s next. Staring at me like I have a plan. I don’t. But trust me - we will figure this out.
WE ALWAYS DO.
“I’ll keep you all posted on what our day looks like tomorrow, ya’ll! See you all later - stay safe!”
The team heads out. Gina drives to her land to get a back up generator. Jenny stays. Jenny’s Matt comes with more heavy duty extension cords. Shows up for support.
Are we going to be able to bake tomorrow morning? What about the mixers…? It’s Easter weekend - how are we going to bake all the special orders? How are the registers going to work? What about the online orders coming in…? Are we refunding everyone?
I need to go let the dogs out. They should get a walk. I need to eat. I think water would help. Can I even use the toilet? Do you need power for that? What about our fridge at home? Who cares. Should we drink a beer?
We sit there for a bit, brainstorming & making sure the generator stays running. The power has gotta come back on in a couple hours…
While we wait, let’s go get tacos & margaritas where there’s power. That should help. We arrived at Tulum, sit in the booth, and immediately scarf down the chips and salsa. It’s 8PM and while Michael & Matt are discussing solar power batter technologies, I say to Jenny “I shouldn’t be here… there is so much to do.”
“You need to eat.” she reminds me.
She’s right.
I text Logan & Colby in Mosinee. “Any chance you guys still have that oven we used about 3 years ago when our bread oven died? Yeah… we might need that again — tomorrow morning…”
They respond with open arms. Of course they are willing to wake up in the middle of the night, have the deck oven on and the fridges cleared so we can store loaves of bread and bake in their commercial kitchen… just like the good ol’ days of September 2023…. Let’s reflect on that with some photos :
I looked at Michael from across the table with my salty margarita in hand and said “We’re doing this all over again…”
Once again, the level headed Jenny says to me… “You know, you don’t HAVE to do this. It’s just baked goods and our customers will understand.”
She is 1000% correct AND I also knew that I now had a plan and there was no stopping it…. unfortunately haha.
Jenny is so good. She is there to keep me from going a little TOO far off the deep end… haha. Sometimes in these moments, I truly believe that ANYTHING is possible. And it kind of is. I knew that our team mixed and shaped over 100 loaves that day, and those loaves deserved to be baked. We had stacks of orders that needed to be fulfilled and I knew we could do it.
It would just involve not sleeping.
I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD.
We headed to the store after dinner to grab way too many bins (for loading up bread baskets to Mosinee) and an extra extension cord or two just in case.
Headed back to the bakery to check on everything, dropped off the bins, prep for the Mosinee trip, and headed home.
Started a fire in the wood stove, lit the candles so we could see where our toothbrushes were and set our alarms for 2AM. Why even… it’s not like we slept. I called the bakery phone a few times to see if the power magically came back on. It did not. I just hear the lady say “This phone is out of service and not answering calls at this time.” Wah wah wah. I lay there awake thinking of all the details we needed to take care of in the morning if we wanted to be “open” …
Michael & I headed to Mosinee - filled up all the bins with loaves stacked up and ready to rock. A deer walks along the side of the road, I’m listening to some oldies station, and following Michael onto the highway. Meanwhile, our team is starting to trickle in come 4AM, following Gina’s lead (and backup generator) and trusting the process.
Christie stops in to check on the crew. Snaps a few photos of them shaping dough by hand fully lit up by Michael’s shop lamp. What a glow.
While our unstoppable team is working with WHAT THEY GOT, the sun is coming up and I’m loading the oven in Mosinee. Michael is romping around with the bakery car, transporting it back to the display racks, ready to sell! The crew gets the registers plugged into the generator and we are somewhat able to accept orders, keeping an eye on online orders from the back end, AND OPEN by 7AM. Unreal.
Kelsie snaps this photo of the front counter and sends it to me. “You can let our customers know we are open!” — I truly almost broke down and BALLED MY EYES OUT. Because of the storm, we had quite the slow day on Thursday, so lots of leftovers (still amazing)! The team made SOMETHING out of NOTHING and I couldn’t believe it. The counter was full. Easter is a big weekend for us, so being open was crucial.
THE TEAM MADE THIS HAPPEN
I posted on our social media and…slightly begged our customers to show up :) And YA’LL SHOWED UP. I loaded the last of the baguettes, cleaned up the kitchen, left two loaves of bread & a sweet roll for Logan & Colby, loaded up the car, and headed back to Stevens Point around 9AM.
“THE POWER IS BACK ON.” texts Michael.
I didn’t quite trust it. Is this real? We can breathe. We can bake the special order cakes for Easter. We can run orders like normal. We can still load up the oven and bake fresh baked goods for this morning. And boy did we.
I pulled into the bakery parking lot, got out of the car, saw Michael unplugging the generator cords and we just HUGGED. In the middle of the parking lot. For a long time - ha!
I walked into the kitchen and without pause, the team was IN ACTION…. as if they have done this before. As if this is normal. Putting things back, taking down lights, rolling up extension cords, bringing warm fresh baked goods to the front counter, greeting the lone line of customers, answering the phone, shaping dough, and I just stood there and thought —
WE ARE BADASS.
WE ARE RESILIENT.
WE ARE UNFAZED.
WE ARE MGB.
I asked them if they could describe today in one word, what would it be. To my surprise, they said “Fun.”
The power stayed on. My dad kindly reminded me that there was still another ice storm AGAIN that night. Mmmmmk.
BREATHE. TRUST.
We kept going. We were open all day. Stevens Point was able to get their fresh bread, eat their chocolate chips cookies, enjoy lunch, and come together. We were busy!
And we still continued. Late night baking and prep….Kelsie and I had Culver’s for dinner at the bakery because duh.
Specialty cocktail with lemon & sage sent over from our besties at Daisy Lounge to keep our spirits high (love you), anddddd peanut butter pecan mini concrete mixer.
The power stayed on. We went home.
Yes, I called the bakery about 10 times in the middle of the night to check. It rang - thank goodness.
We opened back up on Saturday per usual and will catch up on sleep later.
I couldn’t DREAM of a better team. I had to remind them that if I started going off the deep end and think that ANYTHING is truly possible, they may need to stop me - ha! That wasn’t needed and in fact, they were right there with me every step of the way. Didn’t question anything - showed up to do the work…. truly incredible.
We’ve gone through it all… and yet, this is another moment that shows us how strong MGB is.
I AM INCREDIBLY PROUD OF US.
OPE!
Let me share our specials for this week real quick ;)
Bakery Special | Lemon Poppyseed Muffin
Eatery Special | Leek & Pastrami Grilled Cheese
Don’t forget! We are now OPEN DAILY!
Yes, we will see you this Monday 7A-2P!
USE COUPON CODE MONDAY15
for 15% off baked goods or lunch on Monday, April 13th!
Valid for orders scheduled online or in house on Monday 4/13 only
Enjoy the weekend folks!
xo - sarah jo
Wow! What a story! Thanks for sharing it, and congratulations on pulling off a feat. BTW, sometime I'll tell you a similar story from my old days. Interestingly, when it was over, we came up with the same reaction: Fun! There's nothing like a major emergency to focus a team, and when you get through it as a team, it feels really good. You certainly captured "really good" in your narrative. All the numbers, Kido. :-)