Helped by the Dream Big Foundation, the Jimenez sisters realize theirs
Diana, Ionna and Melissa Jimenez at 3 Black Cats Café and Cakery in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. ENLARGE
Diana, Ionna and Melissa Jimenez at 3 Black Cats Café and Cakery in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn.
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By RALPH GARDNER JR.
July 5, 2016 7:07 p.m. ET
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Do the three Jimenez sisters fight? It seems that all siblings do, and that opening a cafe with your sisters might be a recipe for disaster.
“We just had a fight before you got here,” said Ionna, at 34 years the oldest.
“We didn’t even know we were fighting,” shrugged Diana, the youngest. She’s 30. “She’s just annoying.”
The trio is rounded out by Melissa, 32.
With the help of the Dream Big Foundation, a nonprofit that funds and mentors entrepreneurs, the Jimenez sisters are up to something impressive: They’re opening a bakery and cafe in the heart of Brownsville, Brooklyn, an area that has thus far defied the gentrification sweeping through other parts of the borough.
“Harlem is already gentrified,” explained Pernell S. Brice III, Dream Big’s executive director. “Bed-Stuy is getting there. Brownsville has the highest concentration of [public-housing] projects in the nation. Because of these projects, it’s slowed down the gentrification process.”
The sisters grew up in the neighborhood. “When I was younger,” Diana remembered, “there used to be drive-by shootings every day. We had a time to be in the house.”
However, they also remember when Belmont Avenue—where their bakery, 3 Black Cats Café and Cakery, opens soon (they’re awaiting a visit from the NYC Department of Health)—was a thriving commercial zone. “We used to shop here,” Diana recalled. “The avenue was packed with stores and they started closing down.”
“The girls really want to be on this block,” Mr. Brice explained. “They wanted to be part of the new narrative for Belmont.”
Though each sister has her baking specialties, Diana is the true chef in the family. Self-taught, she started a baking business with a couple of high-school friends a few years ago.
“Our dreams weren’t the same,” she said. “We had a falling out.”
But she continued to bake on her own. Not just her signature cherry-cheese tarts, but also elaborate special-occasion cakes.
“She still kept up with her customers,” Ionna explained. “As sisters we saw this is something she was extremely passionate about. We decided to all pitch in.”
They came to the attention of Robert LoCascio, the tech entrepreneur who founded the Dream Big Foundation, and Mr. Brice, who were fishing around for a project to support in the neighborhood.
The connection was made through the Brownsville Community Justice Center. The philanthropists also discovered an aspect of local culture they were unfamiliar with: elaborate children’s birthday cakes that could put many Manhattan bakeries to shame.
“These cakes are very expensive,” Mr. Brice said. “Like $300. It takes time to shape the fondant.”
Diana admits that finding backing for her dream, and more than just her own dream, has been slightly disorienting. The bakery is intended to double as a community center, and has booths and designer furniture as well as chalkboards (“Rob wanted the community to be engaged,” Mr. Brice said) and a professional kitchen in the basement with walk-in refrigerators.
“We thought, ‘Is it for real?’” Diana remembered. “Even going to designing meetings was surreal.”
Those were at Mapos, a Bowery architecture and design firm that has done work for LivePerson, Mr. LoCascio’s tech company. “We shared our vision,” Diana explained. “They helped us come up with different sketches.”
Despite the challenges of the neighborhood there are no plans for security. “It was something we thought about,” Diana said. “We don’t want it to be that barrier at the door, like we think something is going to happen. We just want everyone to behave.”
Mr. Brice added: “Brownsville has gangs. But what we learned at the outset is that it’s more about protection. Brownsville has a number of beautiful murals. Not one has been tagged or defaced. If you do something good for the neighborhood the community is going to support it.”
Diana admits to some nerves as she awaits her bakery’s opening. “But we can’t wait to have that line outside,” she said.
Besides, she knows her sisters have her back.
The name for the bakery came from a bedtime story their mother used to read them.
“We grew up on the nursery rhyme ‘Three little kittens that lost their mittens,’” Diana explained. “The three little kittens were so naughty. But at the end the mother rewarded them with pie. We feel we’ve really been rewarded with the pie.”