Blog

Not in Kansas Anymore!

Posted on: August 20, 2013

A big hallo from Washington D.C.! I’d like to introduce myself as another member of the Broodjes & Bier team!

I’ve only been here for two weeks, but it’s been a busy two weeks! So far, I’ve gotten to catch up with Frim, celebrate my 25th birthday, start work at the Silver Spork, and dive into some Broodjes & Bier projects. We’ve already completed our first major catering order for a well-known D.C. nonprofit, got our new Broodje Co. cart rolling (around the backyard—we still have some work to do before we take it out on the town!), and exhausted ourselves developing new Broodje Co. recipes (which resulted in launching a new broodje called De Pijp)!

Already, I’ve learned so much. I now know when and when not to blend Greek yogurt, how to strip paint (and how not to leave the project in the rain), and how to keep my cool when I deliver platters of beautiful broodjes to a room full of hungry people.

Out of everything I’ve experienced while moving across the country and helping out with Broodjes & Bier, two things continue to inspire me. The first is that Frim is the hardest working, most passionate and good hearted business owner out there. The second is that Broodjes & Bier is making great progress!

I’ll let the next blog post inform you about the most recent accomplishments in detail. I wanted to use this opportunity to reflect on and share my experience with working first hand with the Broodjes & Bier team.

I am so impressed with the amount of hard work and passion that has gone into this company. The work never stops and this is the reason that they’re making the amazing progress that they are. Frim is putting her heart and energy into this company — every hour of every day. I am so moved by her enthusiasm. She is fueling the fire to the point that I would pick up and move across the country to help her and the team make this dream a reality! Her passion is contagious and her leadership is inspiring.

This is going to be a fun and exciting journey and I’m so happy and grateful that I am going to be a part of it for a while!

Check back soon for a detailed update on our most recent projects!

#broodjetasting

Posted on: July 12, 2013

Greetings on this blustery and slightly soggy afternoon! At this very moment, the Broodjes & Bier team is hard at work preparing for what is sure to be an exciting evening. If you can recall back to the early days of our venture, also known as the Kickstarter campaign, a donation of and over $150 qualified you and three friends for a private sandwich and beer tasting. Tonight marks the first of said tastings.

While we will be featuring many of the broodjes already available in the Silver Spork and on the catering menu, we will be spotlighting two newcomers. What are they, you might ask? I can only say that I’ve already said too much…

Tonight represents a great milestone for our little company. While the money raised from the Kickstarter campaign has turned dreams into Broodje Co., it’s only the first step. Think back to the promotional video. A brick and mortar with our name on the welcome mat is the ultimate goal. The tasting tonight allows us to continue this concept-testing phase as we introduce several hot sandwiches (something that Broodje Co. can’t do yet) and their beer pairings. Ladies and gents, it’s the brick and mortar dream come to life! However, it’s someone else’s brick and our mortar.

So, off of the internet and into the kitchen I will metro! Please follow along for I will be live tweeting (yes, this might as well be the premiere of Catching Fire) and instagramming using #broodjestasting. -Carrie

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Broodje Co. Is Coming Downtown. Are You In?

Posted on: May 31, 2013

Fresh baked ciabattas. Imported aged Goudas. Fig spreads and balsamic reductions. Bacon Nutella spreads and Avocado Egg Salad.

No line and no wait. Each and every broodje made a few hours before, for your belly only.

Broodje Co. is gearing up to bring fast, easy, and fresh sandwiches downtown. Are you in?

Sign up below and we’ll let you know when we’re in your neck of the woods. We’re not sure who said lunch couldn’t be fast AND healthy. That just doesn’t make any sense to us.

[contact-form subject='[Broodjes %26amp; Bier ‘][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Where can we find you? ‘ type=’select’ options=’Foggy Bottom,Capitol Hill,Farragut Square, McPherson Square’/][/contact-form]

Building a brand

Posted on: May 9, 2013

So, I want to focus this blog post on brand building, specifically as it relates to social media. Admittedly, the true broodjes authority to speak to this is Janny (our marketer/my sister), but she’s too busy being a social media guru for Planned Parenthood and others to add any concrete insight to the conversation.

I’d like to preface this by directing you to our About page. I’m just a kid who loves sandwiches and is running a sandwich company. This is my first foray into business and so, a lot of what Broodjes does is trial and error.
It seems today that brands are built online. Of course, that depends to a degree on your target audience, but I would say that unless you’re catering to a 40+ crowd, you need some kind of digital presence.
I’m not an avid tweeter and I try hard to not follow businesses on facebook. Regardless, there are a few companies so witty, so cool, and with such timely content who I let blitz my wall every so often.
The week prior to our hard launch, I started thinking seriously about how we could become one of those companies.
How do we convince individuals to let us into their virtual stream of consciousness? How do we make people care about what we’re saying and then, more importantly, take part in that conversation because ultimately, yes, we want 5,000 ‘likes’ on facebook, but we also  want to engage individuals.
For now, I’m thinking it’s the content piece. Broodjes needs to be a reliable source of information on the sandwich space, specifically the Dutch sandwich industry.
Given that particular market in the US is small/nonexistent, our focus needs to be on those differentiating factors that make this industry unique: quality of ingredients and taste.
For the next month (or shorter if it is clear this approach doesn’t work), my focus will be sharing this type of content with our network.
It’s my hypothesis (technical term, waddup), that by doing this we will gain more followers or individuals who want to include us in their digital lives.
Now, for the engagement piece. Having people ‘like’ us (on facebook and literally) is awesome, but we also want to have conversations.
Engagement is key to building a customer base we can depend on as well as checking the wants and wills of the people.
The hypothesis on this front is that we need to state opinions. It’s not enough to be an encyclopedia of sandwich knowledge. We also need represent a point of view on what’s out there so we can instigate conversations around it. As a result, we’ll learn more about our customers and they’ll learn more about us, all factors key to healthy growth.
This is the social media project for the month! Let’s see if we get any bites..Frankly, it should be easy to check. It’ll all be on the wall.
Posted on: April 18, 2013

My wrist will never tire from saying thank you to our awesome backers. Not pictured are an ice pack and unopened bottle of aleve. Let’s do this!!

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