Neighbors Bring the Dough for DUMBO Patisserie’s Return

When Hervé Poussot found the basement of his French patisserie flooded with over 8 feet of water after Superstorm Sandy, he got a bucket and started bailing it out by hand.

Even though the water filled the basement to its ceiling and all the equipment was submerged, he engaged in what seemed like a futile task. He said the main purpose wasn’t to bail water, but just to keep himself busy in the aftermath of the storm.

“When you lose all your work in ten minutes, you have so many things pass [through] your head,” said Poussot in his recently reopened award-winning shop, Almondine, located at 85 Water Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO.

In reality it took five days of pumping out water and four months of repairs before he could open his doors again. But his initial reaction of doggedly refusing to accept defeat became the defining characteristic on the road to reopening.

Replacing decimated production equipment came with an enormous price tag, and Poussot couldn’t get FEMA funds or an insurance payout. In the face of such a tremendous personal, professional, and financial crisis, he didn’t figure on the community rallying to his aid.

“Where I come from we don’t have this way of asking for help,” said Poussot, who’s originally from eastern France. But the neighborhood where he has operated since 2004 had different ideas.

Some loyal customers convinced him to start a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign Web page to raise money. It worked.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Crowdfunding pools numerous small contributions to boost businesses or projects. In four months, 181 people contributed a total of $28,725 to Almondine, with individual amounts that ranged from $20 to $2,500. Though the fundraising goal was $200,000, the GoFundMe campaign still made a world of difference.

Some of the contributions came with heartfelt notes of encouragement.

“The significance of my donation is that the number ‘3’ in Chinese means ‘to live and to survive,'” wrote Anita Chen, who donated $333. “Here’s to Almondine’s restoration and preservation!”

The bakery has some very young supporters, too.

A message from Alexandra Warren that came with a $20 donation stated that her 9-year-old nephew had “declared Almondine the best bakery on the planet.”

Poussot recalls that at one point, a very young girl who was about 6 years old came into his recovering shop with an envelope filled with money. The little DUMBO resident informed Poussot that she had baked a cake, sold it at school, and was delivering the proceeds to help him rebuild his business.

“The point wasn’t the money,” says Poussot, when asked how much the envelope contained. Instead, he points out that that the girl’s real contribution was her tremendous gesture of such heartfelt support.

“DUMBO is a small neighborhood,” notes. “Everybody knows everybody. This [kind of help] is something that would not happen in Manhattan.”

In December, he also got some help from friends and fellow chefs who helped create a two-day “pop-up store” that brought in $10,000. The chefs, some of them world famous, made all of the products themselves and put the proceeds toward Almondine’s recovery.

There were other bits and pieces of sunlight that bolstered Poussot, including a $25,000 loan and a $5,000 grant from the city of New York, and a very supportive landlord. But it was the unwavering support from the people around him that made the difference.

“I would be closed at this time [if the community hadn’t helped],” he says.

Poussot has had to make some difficult decisions, too, like closing his other shop in Park Slope. Though his DUMBO patisserie survived, at just three weeks in, it is operating at 65 percent of its previous capacity. Repairs have already cost $150,000, even without replacing all of the destroyed equipment. But Poussot won’t give up.

“You have to do something to make a living,” he says in a no-nonsense way when asked why he didn’t just cut his losses and forget about reopening. If the loyalty of his customer base is any indication, he’s in a good position to be around for a long time.

Scott Moe and his colleague Rebecca Hume work nearby and say that they both come to Almondine at least once a week.

“To me, it’s extremely French; they take their food very seriously,” said Moe while enjoying a chocolate éclair. “The food is awesome—it’s the real deal.”