It’s not very often, maybe once or twice a year, that I choose to share a story with you in this space after someone appears on our Sunday morning television show. Sometimes there are opportunities for cross promotion, but generally I have always thought the approaches to be different. Yes, I tell a good many feature style stories in this space, but our television show has never been limited to the Savannah/Hilton Head Island region. As a result, I’ve always believed the consumption to be different.
One of the instances for cross pollination came up last week in form of a young lady in Savannah’s Victorian District who moved here not quite a year ago with a vision and a dream to do what she loves in a city would embrace that vision.
Jen Krzmarzick and her husband moved to Savannah from Fairbanks, Alaska during the last year. They met in South Korea a handful of years ago, got married and moved to Alaska. Three or so years later, they received orders to move to Fort Stewart. Savannah would be home for a while.
While in Alaska, Jen took her talents as a baker and turned them into something of a hobby/business while she awaited her green card. You see, Jen is Canadian and required the documentation in order to find full time employment. Before she could become official on US soil, her cookie and baking enterprise had taken off to the point where she kind of knew that is what she would be doing.
When the time came to move to Savannah, the plan was to buy a house with a large enough kitchen and front room space to operate a small tea room. An elegant little hideaway where tourists and locals can come enjoy freshly brewed teas and homemade baked goods.
It all fell together in a home on 31st street near Price Street in the heart of Savannah. Those that aren’t familiar with the area may think it to be a questionable part of town for a tea room. All it takes it one trip to see “Kitchen Vixen” to see that their neighborhood is just one of a flurry of areas in central Savannah that has cleaned up, changed and welcomed young professional couples and families.
About 6 weeks ago, Jen opened for the first time on Saturday mornings to a full house. That full house was due in no small part to her aggressive marketing and promotion as she ramped up her newbie business. I had seen her work, but watched via social media how Kitchen Vixen made inroads with Savannah’s social scene in less than a year. Many many times it takes others much much longer than that to connect all of the dots in this town.
If you get Bunny Ware at one of your events, you are on the right track. She was pushing all of the right buttons. Including the one night she approached me at gala in October. She told me I needed to know who she was. Frankly, I admired the bravado, but I already knew of her work. Her talents as an artist are obvious.
There was a tiny bump in the road with the City of Savannah regarding exactly what she was and wasn’t allowed to do, but that has been evened out. How this circles back to our television show is that the issue with the city was resolved after our deadline for TV. I couldn’t mention her tea room on the show because we didn’t know when it would be able to re-open.
Kitchen Vixen’s first Saturday back on the grid as a bona fide tea room comes up this Saturday morning, December 23rd. It will be part celebration of the return of her tea room, but part offering of Christmas cheer. If you are in the area Saturday from 10am until 4pm, stop by say hello and see why you should keep Kitchen Vixen in mind for your cookie and sweets needs going forward.
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