spring 2007 newsletter

Spring 2007 Newsletter
I. Spring already?
II. Flour2!
III. New website
IV. New look
V. Charity events
VI. Suggestions

I. Spring already?
As I'm writing this I'm realizing that the last newsletter we sent out was way back in September. Where did the winter go??

With the longer days and milder temps come a few changes that always make our customers and our staff happier. First, as many of you may already have noticed, we have set up our outdoor patio area! The addition of about 15 new seats means that there's more room for all of you to spread out and the dining room won't feel quite so tight all the time. Second, starting April 22nd, we will also switch to our Sunday Summer hours - we typically close at 3pm on Sundays but for the summer we stay open till 5pm. We can't wait!

II. Flour2!
We affectionately call our new sibling f2 but please know that it's actually more like a twin. We've done everything we can to make sure that the food and service are the same at our new location as the original. Flour Bakery + Café in Fort Point Channel opened late January with a bang and we've been thrilled with the response. Thanks to all of you who have stopped in to say hello - the folks from f1 who transferred over always get a huge kick out of seeing familiar faces among the new customers. And in true Flour fashion, the customers at f2 have become as loyal and welcoming as those at f1. We have our new regulars who stop in several times a day and whose drinks and sandwich preferences we have down to the letter.

Flour at Fort Point is located at 12 Farnsworth Street behind the Children's museum off of Congress Street. Our hours are 7am-7pm Monday - Friday, 8am-6pm Saturday, and starting on April 8 we will open Sundays from 9am-3pm. The menu is the same although the specials are different - each location's chef creates his own daily specials based on what he has in-house. We are not offering dinner specials at the new location either...yet. We'll keep you posted about when that will change.

III. New website
With the opening of our second location we realized that our website could use a little sprucing up, especially now that it is representing two Flours. We've enlisted the expertise of our very regular customer and friend, Daren Bascome, who owns Proverb in the South End, to help us create a new presence on the web. Daren's been busily putting together ideas and images and we're well on our way to a new look online. We hope that our new site will be easier to navigate, that it will hold more information such as staff bios and recipes, and that it will be a closer representation of who we are with more design elements and stories included. It will debut in the next month or so - please check it out and let us know what you think!

IV. New look
So not only did we decide we needed a new look on the web, we also decided we needed to jazz up our Washington Street location, especially since f2 just opened with glistening new tables, chairs, and counters. Studio FKIA, an amazing design-and-build woodworking outfit in South Boston, helped create the clean and slick new look at f2. They are working on new counters and other areas for f1 which will make the bakery shine. We have also updated our chairs - finally - to a more modern style (the old ones were donated to a local church through a friend of our chef) and we are getting new artwork as well.
V. Charity events
We are taking part in a number of charity events over the next few weeks and we'd love to see you there!

1. SOS anniversary event on April 23 at Tremont 647: Andy Husbands spearheads this fundraising effort for SOS (Share our Strength, a national hunger relief organization) and he's gathered an impressive roster of chefs to donate each course of this spectacular meal. Call up Tremont 647 at 617-266-4600 for more information. We are making our hazelnut-almond dacquoise with espresso buttercream and chocolate ganache.
2. NARAL 24th annual Chocolate Madness fundraiser on April 24 at the Cyclorama: This benefits reproductive rights for women and is an annual chocolate extravaganza! We will be making something rich and chocolatey and delicious. For more information email Pem Brown at pem@ProChoiceMass.org or call 617-556-8800 x14.
3. Rosie's Place gala on April 25 at Fenway Park: This event is a celebration of food, music and friends to benefit Rosie's Place here in the South End. For more information please visit www.rosiesplace.org. We will be designing a dessert course specially for this dinner.
4. Beyond Shelter 20th annual fundraising event on April 26 at the State Room: We've participated in this event since we've been open! It benefits Friend's of Boston's Homeless and it's a great time with lots of super restaurants taking part. We will be serving our milky way tartlettes. Please contact 617-534-2526 for more information.

VI. Suggestions please
We couldn't do what we do without the support and feedback from you, our customers. Please continue to let us know how we can be better! We are constantly pushing ourselves to offer even better service with even more delicious food in an even more delightful atmosphere. It's pretty amazing to us that we can do what we love day-in, day-out and that you all seem to love it as much as we do. Thanks to each of you for your patronage and please don't hesitate to send us an email or give us a call or talk to us with your suggestions.