With a basket of freshly baked cookies in hand, Adrene Thompson greeted her neighbors at 230 E. 167th Street to promote her new business – Adrene’s Good Baking from the Heart.
Not quite knowing how to respond to the gesture, Thompson said she assured everyone the cookies were safe, and seemingly more important, free.
Before her journey out, Thompson said she told herself, “If at least one person eats it, that’s good.”
Out of approximately 30 tenants that were home that evening, she happily said her cookies were well received.
Having worked at a Manhattan bakery for nearly three years, Thompson said her interest began as a child growing up in Jamaica, under the baking advisement of her mother and grandmother.
“I thought it was really cool to make something people would love,” she recalled of her younger years.
While she’s always loved baking, Thompson said it wasn’t until approximately three weeks ago that she thought of opening her own shop.
Describing her current job at a bakery as a “home away from home,” the place she met her husband and a venue to explore her culinary creativity, she explained it’s only because of her personal aspirations that she’d ever leave.
Beginning her own business in her sixth floor apartment, Thompson said the first step was promotion.
First thinking of distributing cupcakes to the neighbors, she said she quickly changed her mind to the classic cookies – with a twist.
“I changed them to suit my taste and what I thought people would like,” she explained, adding, “I wanted something not everyone has eaten before.”
Preparing oatmeal raisin cookies, “with chocolate chips just for the chocoholic,” and gooey butter cookies that contain a unique blend of cake mix and crème cheese, Thompson received rave results her first time around.
With boosted confidence she baked up a batch of almond finger butter cookies and headed up the block to the laundromat.
Once again, she said success was on her side.
Starting at just 50 cents a cookie, Thompson said she’d love to service the neighborhood’s sweet tooth. For more information or to order, contact Thompson at (347) 297-2817.
