“We are working around 70 hours a week. Six and sometimes seven days a week, whatever you have to do to keep business running,” said Renata Ferraro.
Renata Ferraro is the executive chef and partner at Flour & Weirdoughs, a hidden gem located on Key Bisycane. The concept started by Renata and business partner Carlos Flores opened in February, right before the pandemic hit.
It was an addition to a decades-old island eatery called Oasis. Both were operating together for about five weeks. Eventually, they had to choose which one to keep open, sticking with their newest concept, the bakery.
“The biggest challenge for us was the Cuban cafeteria worked with a [big] volume of people and we knew with the pandemic we weren’t going to have that volume anymore,” said Renata.
“At the beginning everyone was kind of like, where’s Oasis, but slowly but surely we were able to seduce people with our pastries and bread,” said Carlos Flores, owner of Flour & Weirdoughs.
The ingredients used and the only artisanal bakery on the island, helping them stand out.
“We mill our own flour in-house and everything is made from scratch, we proud ourselves in doing that. Also when we opened the concept, we wanted no rules in terms of creativity,” said Carlos.
The teamwork, making it possible to stay open.
“Fortunately when you have a strong partner that can carry you through the rough times and also through the good ones, it makes it easier,” said Carlos.
“We really believe that we were taking the right decision for the business, employees and for the actual company and we stuck with it,” said Renata.
Flour and Weirdoughs is located at 19 Harbor Dr. They’re open everyday from 8 am to 4 pm. For more information, click here.
