There’s a whole lot more to Stephanie Ott’s business plan than whipping up some tasty smoothies! Ott is celebrating her first year in business at Base Bowls & Company in South St. Joseph, while getting ready to open her second location on Lions Park Drive at the foot of Park Street. But to her, it’s really about the people: her employees and her customers.
Stephanie bubbles over with excitement when she talks about her employees and their contribution to her successful first year. She recalls that the idea for Base Bowls & Company came out of a family conversation with her nieces, who ended up working for her. Their collective excitement about bringing some healthier food options to Southwest Michigan led her to initially open the first location at 731 St. joseph Drive—an unlikely spot where people usually have dry cleaning or package delivery on their minds.
Stephanie Ott
Now, those customers are more often thinking about sorbet bowls, bases and toppings, or a healthy smoothie, salad or soup. Ott and her staff sometimes have to explain the ingredients and how to put them together to new customers, but they’re happy to do that. They’re also confident there’ll be more customers who ‘already get it’ in their new location on Lions Park Drive—because many will be younger and from out of town. Such is the nature of opening in the Silver Beach neighborhood, with many ‘second homes’ nearby.
Ott and her team have been working for several months on the new location. They’ve had to overcome some serious legal challenges at City Hall, where zoning laws really don’t permit a restaurant at the Lions Park Drive location. However, after working hand in hand with City staff, they’ve fashioned a Conditional Use Permit that will allow a take-out eatery, but no ‘sit down tables’ or booth space.
Stephanie acknowledges that will be a challenge but looks forward to it. She’s looking to fill the remainder of the 2000 square feet of space with some ‘Beach Stuff’ that people in the neighborhood always need, plus something she didn’t have room for in her 700 square foot initial store: an In-House Bakery.
Base Bowls employee Michaela Catania has a life-long dream of owning a bakery. So, she’ll do that inside Ott’s new location. Honey’s Cookie Counter- named after Catania’s Grandmother–will offer homemade cookies and sweet treats, matching well with Thrive Coffee, a special brand that Ott buys direct from the growers. She points out that people increasingly care about where their food comes from and how it was produced and processed. She prides herself on knowing those answers whenever possible.
Ott acknowledges there’ll be some items that customers in the Silver Beach and Lions Park neighborhood will be looking for that aren’t a part of the existing Base Bowls & Company fare. She’ll add a limited menu of standard deli items that beach goes might be looking for, as well as ‘replacement items’: beach towels and sunscreen, for example.
The new location is targeted to open around June 24, “but certainly before the July 4th weekend.” Remodeling is complete, with equipment installation next on the agenda. Ott points out that the building’s owners Thaddeus and Emily Hackworth did a great job rehabilitating the old structure, which housed Outpost Sports for many years and a neighborhood grocery store decades ago.
Ott expects to add about 30 Summer employees to a similar number already working at Base Bowls. Almost all of their positions are part-time. She prides herself on working around the school schedules of many of her employees whenever possible. Ott is a big believer in competitive sports in high school and urges her employees to participate. In fact, she worked for the NCAA in recruiting college athletes and still maintains that association on a part time basis. She majored in Business & Sports in college.
She offers special praise and thanks to her managers Madilynn Gibson and Michaela Catania, ssaistant managers Kelly Johnson and Nichole Kirksey and her fiance’ Blake Williams.
Stephanie Ott summed it up this way: “It seems unreal. I grew up in downtown St. Joe. Now, we’ll have a store there that’s ours. We’re SO excited!”
