Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Local Business’ Success Just Icing on the Cupcake

For the past seven weeks, students walking down Potomac to M Street have encountered more of a crowd than usual. With customers spilling out the door, Georgetown Cupcake, the deliciously popular bakery that opened on Valentine’s Day, has been satisfying the town’s sweet tooth.

The owners of the “cupcakery,” sisters Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne, bake and ice all of the cupcakes they sell – and more often than not, they sell out before the end of the day.

Yesterday, there was a small line of customers waiting for cupcakes at around 11:30 a.m. By 3 p.m., only four hours after opening for the day, Georgetown Cupcake sold out of the 1,000 cupcakes Kallinis and LaMontagne had baked that morning. The sisters re-opened at 5 p.m. with a new batch of 500 cupcakes.

Kallinis and LaMontagne also baked an additional 10 dozen cupcakes for a special “call-in” order. By closing time, a few dozen red velvet cupcakes were left.

Customers have attributed the small store’s popularity to the quality of the cupcakes, which they have said are flavorful, moist and just mouthwatering to look at.

“This is new, it’s different,” Maggie Guerrero, a first-time customer yesterday, said of her choice to go to Georgetown Cupcake.

Georgetown Cupcake employees, eight of whom are Georgetown students, work on decorating the cupcakes. LaMontagne and Kallinis choose 12 flavors of cupcakes from their menu of 24 to bake each day.

Besides its usual daily baking, Georgetown Cupcake also sprinkles in the catering business. LaMontagne and Kallinis said they have had to limit the amount of catering jobs they take on to roughly 25 percent of their business, although they will try to make exceptions for charity events or the possible birthday party.

“We just want to give back to the community,” LaMontagne said.

The sisters, who grew up baking with their grandmother, did not originally consider baking as a career path. LaMontagne, who was a molecular biology major at Princeton University, previously worked for a venture capitalist firm. Kallinis, who studied politics at Marymount University, previously worked in the fashion industry for Gucci.

“We’ve always wanted to go into business together, and we’ve always loved baking so we thought we should just open a bakery,” Kallinis said. “We’re obsessed with cupcakes.”

LaMontagne and Kallinis stressed their desire to accommodate every customer. LaMontagne said she even tries to save a few “emergency cupcakes” so that she can avoid disappointing any children who wait in line for a cupcake.

Kallinis and LaMontagne said one of their plans for future expansion is to create a satellite kitchen where people can only come to pick up orders. They say this will allow them to accept more catering jobs, such as weddings, that they currently do not feel that they can “take on.”

“I think it’s important to prove the model for the first location,” LaMontagne said, though she and Kallinis do have plans for future expansion.

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