Entrepreneur Friday

Entrepreneur Fridays: The Petite Cafe, Home of the Stuffed Cupcakes

Posted by Jean

WHO: Keith and Maureen Jaret
 
WHAT: The Petite Café, Home of the Stuffed Cupcakes
 
WHERE: Nutley, NJ
 
WHEN: 2001
 
HOW: “I was in corporate and always felt that I would have my own business,” says Maureen Jaret, a veteran of Wall Street. Looking for an outlet from the world of finance, Jaret took a job as a hostess at a nearby restaurant, and it was there that fate began to take its course. While working at the restaurant she met Keith, an Executive Chef from the Culinary Institute of America who would later become her business partner and husband.  
 
After they wed in 1987, the couple continued to add to their food industry experience, running a catering company and several restaurants.  In 2001 with $100,000 in savings, they launched The Petite Café in Nutley, New Jersey. “We served breakfast, lunch, dinner and did catering,” explains Jaret. While the Petite Café prided itself with being ahead of the curve with trends and products, there was one area of the business where they struggled.   “The one area where we could not attract attention was with desserts,” says Jaret.
 
That all changed when Jaret decided to put her chocolate cake on the menu. “I made a chocolate cake that had always been popular with friends and family, so we chose to put it on the menu.”  To promote the treat, Jaret decided to bake the cake in cupcake form and sell it during the busiest time of the week: Sunday brunch.  
 
Keeping with their tradition of having unique items on their menu, Jaret decided to mix things up a bit and fill the cupcakes. “My husband and I developed a recipe for a peanut butter filling.  The following Sunday, I prepared 200 chocolate cupcakes, filled with the mixture…it was an instant hit.” While Jaret expected customers to rave about the chocolate cake, they sang the praises of another aspect of the dessert instead.  “Instead of asking about it as a cake, we were inundated with inquires as to what other flavors of filling we had,” says Jaret.  
 
Jaret took the hint from her customers and began baking cupcakes filled with everything from hazelnut chocolate cream to margarita custard.  Today, the Jarets have over 130 different varieties of stuffed cupcakes on their roster and the Petite Cafe is known as the “home of the stuffed cupcakes.” This year, sales of the cupcakes will likely be around $1 million—and that’s up from the $600,000 the cupcakes brought in last year.
 
Today, the Jarets are continually looking to expand sales of their cupcakes into new markets.  “We have entered the wedding market with cupcake tiers and wedding cakes,” says Jaret.  In the future, the couple one day hopes to establish stuffed cupcake franchises.  
 
HER ADVICE: According to Jaret, dedication is key. “I would tell anyone starting their own business to be prepared to devote your life to nurturing and growing your company,” she advises.