What Do You Bring To The Table?
In collaboration with independent + small business owners we are launching a new project called "What Do You Bring To The Table?" During these uncertain times I have seen so many amazing people rise from the ashes and create new and exciting opportunities + projects for themselves, and even recreate the businesses that they already had established . I want to highlight these hardworking people and celebrate all that they are doing in these new times. At Birdy Creative we believe in celebrating others and working together to create something beautiful!
Polished Penny Co.
Jessica Reed
Officially launched in March, 2020 Polished Penny Co. was born after years and years (20+) of selling home goods and clothing as a hobby and to support my love of fashion, home décor, and sustainable living but on a dime. In 2016, leading up to my wedding, I sourced and sold items through third party Instagram shops setting goals to pay for things like photography and flowers with the extra income. In 2019, during a battle with cancer listing items was a welcomed distraction from the year + of cancer treatment and a helpful source of income to pay down the mountain of medical bills I was under at the time. (I am happy to say that I am now cancer free!) After losing my director position in the event industry in July due to the pandemic, what was once my hobby has become my livelihood. Building the foundation I did over the years was key to a successful launch. Shopping small is more important than ever and Polished Penny Co. offers affordable and thoughtfully curated home goods and clothing for any budget.
Jessica comes from a background in retail, sales, hospitality and design but her true calling and self-proclaimed, “top five talents” is that she is a master shopper. Finding the ‘look for less’ fuels her creative (and competitive) soul. Jessica started Polished Penny Co. as a way to bring beauty into homes and lives and as a reason not to have to pass up incredible thrifts and estate sale finds just because she didn’t ‘need’ them for herself. Polished Penny Co. has taught Jessica to be disciplined when it comes to sourcing and focus only on items that look beautiful together and work with other items in her shop. She is particularly fond of brass, sterling silver, copper, natural stone, handmade ceramics, unique items used to entertain, decorative and educational books and natural fabrics such as wool, leather, linen and cotton with the occasional wild and unexpected statement piece.
The Easy Vegan
Alexi Mandolini + Taylor Herbert
The Easy Vegan is an approachable, thoughtful, vegetable-forward restaurant pop-up. The goal is that no one will compromise their dining experience by eating vegan with us.
We had planned to launch The Easy Vegan as a handheld-focused food truck in 2021. When Covid hit, Lex lost her culinary job and Asbury Provisions, where Taylor had tended bar, was only able to do takeout. We smashed the FF button on our plans. The owners of Asbury Provisions let us takeover the space twice weekly to veganize the bar and kitchen to host a restaurant pop-up. Once we started building food & drink menus, we knew we could do more than throw our skills into a hotdog bun.
Currently you can order their amazing food + cocktails Sundays + Mondays for takeout and dine-in. Click on the link below for menu and ordering information.
photo McMac Studio
Angie’s Vegan Cakes
Angela Wells
Happy First Birthday to Angie’s Vegan Cakes!
Vegan entrepreneur Angela Wells has a love for all thing’s cruelty-free; she launched Angie's Vegan Cakes in March of 2020 after she struggled to find vegan cakes locally with the flavor she craved. The month before launching she made her own birthday cake and after sharing it with friends, Denver quickly got hooked to her moist yet rich cakes, delicious flavor combinations unique + designs.
Angie is a self-taught baker with a goal of helping the world turn vegan, one delicious crumb at a time! Angie's design offerings are not limited to her menu so feel free to get creative and request the cake of your dreams today!
Ordering is done by viewing the menu in the highlights section of the Instagram page + direct messaging your order. You can also contact Angela by calling her directly at 720.837.9703.
Moon Racoon Baking Co.
Kate + Zoe
When Kate + Zoe worked at a local bakery together a couple of years ago, they quickly bonded over their love for laminated doughs, local produce, and live music. The summer of 2018 they took a trip to Europe which bonded them for life through another experience - getting food poisoning. They suffered through three days of gastrointestinal hell in Munich together, praying that they would make it onto their return flight home.
After that experience they knew that they could do anything together. Prior to getting sick they had been touring bakeries in Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels. There was a quality to the viennoiserie that they had seldom seen in the United States. During long train rides and walks through cities they discussed how to bring the pastries they saw back home with them. What would it look like to create pastries like those, but using Colorado fruits and flour?
Fast forward to the early spring of 2020. Kate is working at Watercourse Foods as a kitchen manager, and Zoe as the pastry lead at Uchi Denver. COVID-19 hits. They both got furloughed from their jobs at restaurants came to a screeching halt. Knowing they would return to their jobs eventually (and hopefully sooner rather than later) they realized, this is the moment to test drive our bakery concept. So, they started doing weekly deliveries of pastries. They spent time talking about what they wanted their bakery to evolve into. Some of their previous job experiences showed that large scale baking was not for them. So... what if they went in the complete opposite direction - what if they started a micro-bakery? Just the two of them, sourcing ingredients as locally and fairly as possible. Moon Raccoon Baking Co. was born. Moon Raccoon Baking Co. was born. As Kate + Zoe have gone back to day jobs, their ideas for Moon Raccoon have blossomed. They are currently working towards renovating Zoe's garage into a bakery fit for two under the Cottage Foods Act. Until that is completed, they will continue baking out of their homes whenever they can. They also plan to start more regular production in spring of 2021, in time for farmer’s market season.
Sfoglina Denver
Jesse Albertini
Jesse Albertini, a native New Yorker, moved to Colorado in 2004 after graduating college. She came for a winter, decided to stay for a summer, and sixteen years later, is still in love with this State. Dedicating herself to the hospitality industry, Jesse has worked her way through the kitchen ranks of many well known and respected Denver restaurants. She learned how to command a kitchen from Chef Elise Wiggens, how to run a line from Chef Kate Horton. Finally, she grew a sense of craftsmanship from Chef Steve Redzikowski, to name a few.
Along the way, Chef Jesse helmed the wheel and honed her craft as executive chef at Cafe|bar, the Hive Bistro, and Gaijin. She also was part of the opening team at Jovanina's Broken Italian, where she was able to help develop the pasta program.
Jesse is also extremely passionate about responsibly sourcing seasonal produce and humanely raised animals. Reducing waste and being mindful of the environment will continue to be a focal point in Jesse's career and the driving forces behind Sfoglina.
Jesse has been working on the business plan for Sfoglina for about two years. The original plan was for a brick and mortar specialty shop with a small chef's counter. The shop was to feature fresh and dry pasta, sauces, stocks, and other food items made in house and by local small businesses. When covid hit, the hospitality industry crumbled, and I thought Sfoglina died with it. Instead of giving up, I spent a couple of months looking at my project and figuring out how to pivot. With my family's safety in mind, I decided to boil the business plan down to a much smaller version of itself. I introduced just the dried pasta at the farmer's market in the early fall. This winter, I plan to continue selling the dried pasta directly to consumers and introducing pasta meal kits for at-home cooking.
Healthy Denver, Inc
Sharon D. Thompson + Rebecca Michelle Gibbs
HEALTHY DENVER, INC. is a nonprofit organization established in 2018 by founder and CEO, Sharon D. Thompson. Sharon is also the founder of the Healthy Memphis Festival, the Healthy Denver Festival and Mocha Enterprises, LLC. As a professional Health Advocate, Sharon has a wealth of experience and is passionate about helping improve the quality of health in the undeserved communities. Rebecca Michelle Gibbs came on board in 2019 as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Healthy Denver Festival and moved into the COO position of HDI in 2019; she brings her dynamic personality and passion for people to HDI. Rebecca is also a Financial Representative with Modern Woodmen of America and a Community Activist. Together, Sharon and Rebecca have made an incredible impact in the Denver area, continuously building HEALTH EQUITY in the community.
The HDI mission is to promote health for the mind, body and spirit by providing health and wellness professionals with resources, classes, recipes and ideas that help improve one's way of life. HDI has 5 areas of focus: Sports and Recreation, Food and Nutrition, Music and Art, Health and Wellness and 'The Kid's Corner’. One example of their work is product research and testing: focusing on all-natural, holistic and environmentally-friendly and sustainable products, they test everything from Nutritional Supplements to exercise equipment and gear to see what is the best out there.
As 2020 brought health and wellness to the forefront, Sharon and Rebecca realized the importance of their work. Although their pubic meetings and fundraising events were hampered as the pandemic raged on, with the help of friends, volunteers and colleagues, they learned to adapt to this new world. Undeterred by these challenges, they managed to execute some amazing projects such as:
“Mask On” - a campaign giving away over 400 masks in 6 different States, including the Navajo Nation.
“Colorful Conversations about Race” - a panel discussion they hosted featuring NAACP Denver Chapter President, Sondra Young and Colorado State Representative, Leslie Herod creating a safe place to discuss racial issues, the Black Lives Matter movement and politics in Denver and throughout the Country.
“Back-to-School” - with the help of Good Business Colorado they had a teacher gift bag giveaway, donating PPE and $2,000 in gift cards
Currently HDI is boosting its online platform and will soon be offering classes in yoga, fitness, meditation and relaxation. Cooking demonstrations.., educational classes and workshops for children and adults.
Denise Smith Real Estate
Denise Smith
Denise has been in the hospitality industry for 25 years, most recently as the Director of Sales and Marketing for a large local catering company. After riding the COVID wave for a couple of months, the pandemic ultimately proved that it was going to last longer than her position. She was laid off at the end of May and was faced with, what's next? She quickly shifted and obtained her Real Estate Broker License at the beginning of August. Denise has been following this market for years, as real estate has always been a hobby and passion of hers. Leaning on her 25 years of living in Denver and being in the “people business”, sales and management, she knows that the key to success is all about relationship building and understanding the product that you are selling, which luckily, came second nature to her.
Denise loves working with first time home buyers, she finds educating and assisting them through the process extremely rewarding. She closed her first deal mid-December and already has her next clients out looking for their dream house. Denise loves the house hunt, negotiating the deal and ultimately delivering a successful transaction for her clients.
