MUFFIN TOP: Little Café with the Big Tastes

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

What began more than a year ago in a kitchen out of a need to provide affordable meals in the mornings for some employees in corporate Jamaica, has evolved into one of the country's fastest growing eateries - The Muffin Top Café.

Strategically located next to the Knutsford Express bus terminal in New Kingston, the café offers a diversified menu that includes original beverages, great customer service and an intention to get even better in 2012.

"What makes Muffin Top different from other cafés is that there is usually a certain perception that for you to afford a certain type of product sold at cafés you need to be at a certain financial level. What we have focused on is quality, innovative products and affordable prices," says Susan O'Sullivan, one of the owners of Muffin Top.

The café offers mouth-watering omelettes, bagel specials (the cinnamon bagel with bacon and cream cheese and plain bagel with turkey and cream cheese are exceptional), paninis, tasty salmon, turkey and tuna sandwiches, as well as unique coffee-based beverages that include their top-selling Guinness frappuccino, a popular delicious Red Stripe smoothie and delicious lattes. "The demand for the Guinness frappuccino is exceptional. The demand is more than we could have imagined," O'Sullivan beams.

Filling a gap

The need for such an eatery was pretty apparent for engineer Sadiki Thames, who after getting to work each morning found himself with a familiar challenge. "Based on where I work, everybody, complained that they come in in the mornings, they sit down, and they get hungry. They get up and go buy something and then come back and complain that they can't believe they spent so much money for food. This was in October of 2010," Thames recalls. He then got together with his girlfriend Jhordanne McDonald and began making sandwiches in their kitchen and taking them to work. "We moved from 10 sandwiches to 20, to 30, to 50, and then we couldn't handle it anymore and, because we all had nine-to-five jobs, we stopped. We then started delivering to after-school programmes until the contract expired (In May 2011).

Thames said, one day, sometime later, he stepped out of his car near his office and saw the crowd gathered at the Knutsford Express bus terminal along Grenada Way and a tiny unoccupied building right next to it. They leased the property and took it from there.

The success was almost instant, primarily because of the Knutsford Express bus service. "Knutsford Express was not offering its patrons that kind of meal service, it's not the business that they're in," O'Sullivan said. "The patrons are very happy that they do have somewhere to stop to get a meal." She explained that patrons can reach them using Blackberry Messenger or text messaging, so they can order ahead and pick up their orders when they arrive at the terminal. "We utilise a lot of social media, we're on Twitter, we're on Facebook and it gives patrons an opportunity to have visibility of our products. It also gives us an area to get feedback from our patrons as well. so that has definitely helped to grow our business." Muffin Top has also been attracting walk-ins from nearby businesses because of its centralised location, and they have been offering 'walking deliveries' to businesses within the vicinity.

They have also recently extended the delivery service in conjunction with Aklamar Courier services that, they say, will deliver orders rather speedily. It's part of what also drives the success of this company, O'Sullivan reveals; it's willingness to evolve.

McDonald has been content with where Muffin Top is, for the time being.

"This is my dream, so to see it being fulfilled, it feels very good," said the diminutive McDonald. "The highlight for me is the innovative ways of making new products, coming up with ideas of what would draw people to come and the different tastes, the different seasonings, specials."

Success has been so sweet, Muffin Top could become a franchise by the end of this year. "People have been very receptive to the idea," Thames said.