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Cake Shop turning 10, still needs financial help

DOWNLOAD: Cake Shop 2014 End of Year Mixtape (MP3)

photo: Cake Shop in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)
Cake Shop

Lower East Side indie rock fixture Cake Shop turns 10 this year. Unfortunately, despite the successful Pledgemusic campaign that helped them secure a new 10-year lease in 2012, the venue is still having financial problems. They posted a letter on their Facebook today. Here’s an excerpt:

The last two years have been a well-documented struggle. If it wasn’t for the amazing patrons and bands who supported us through crowd funding site PledgeMusic.com, we would have closed in 2012. Now we are starting to fall behind in rent and other bills as we enter the slow 1st Quarter of cold winter months.

We are not looking for a handout, but we need a like-minded investor to come in and buy 25% to 40% of Cake Shop. Now is your chance to be a part of a special NYC venue/bar/cafe/record store, and save a well-curated stage for talented emerging artist (which include comedians and authors). In addition to increasing sales, we have always wanted to grow Cake Shop into other areas of music discovery, but all these things take money.

Cake Shop is looking for a serious investor and there’s lots more details in the full letter which you can read below. Best of luck, Ludow St. would not be the same without you, Cake Shop.

In more pleasant news, Cake Shop co-owner/music fiend Andy Bodor recently posted his annual End-of-Year mixtape which contains lots of great music and you can download that above and check out the tracklist below….

Cake Shop Running on Empty, Needs an Investor ASAP:

Hello Everybody,
Cake Shop has been bringing the best emerging bands to New York City for 10 years in our beloved home on Ludlow Street. With the recent closing of our friends Glasslands, Death By Audio, 285 Kent and the Living Room, we feel it is our mission to keep the New York tradition of well-curated live rock music going strong.

However, we are really feeling the pressure of keeping our doors open. We know there is so much more we could do to make more money, and finally have a little breathing room to grow: but it always comes down to capital and cash flow. People who know us, realize how passionate we are, and how hard we work to keep Cake Shop open. Andy books all the great bands 7 days a week (that is roughly 1460 bands a year for your viewing/listening pleasure). In addition, he is the creative director, and works the venue door on a regular basis. Nick does all the daily business, ordering, hiring, bill payment, etc, and he works behind the bar in the venue to make sure all the wonderful talent and customers are taken care of properly.

The last two years have been a well-documented struggle. If it wasn’t for the amazing patrons and bands who supported us through crowd funding site PledgeMusic.com, we would have closed in 2012. Now we are starting to fall behind in rent and other bills as we enter the slow 1st Quarter of cold winter months.

We are not looking for a handout, but we need a like-minded investor to come in and buy 25% to 40% of Cake Shop. Now is your chance to be a part of a special NYC venue/bar/cafe/record store, and save a well-curated stage for talented emerging artist (which include comedians and authors). In addition to increasing sales, we have always wanted to grow Cake Shop into other areas of music discovery, but all these things take money.

We would use the investment money to directly increase revenue so we can be a viable, profitable long term business with growth potential. In addition to catching up with our bills and consolidating back debt, we would use the investment capital to renovate our tired space a bit, we also need to develop our daytime and late night business (which should include some more food options) as we are open from 9AM to 4AM seven days a week. We know our web-site is horrible, and we always wanted to develop more of a portal for the emerging talent we discover. We really would like to sell a line of t-shirts from up & coming designers and artists we love. Cape Shok Records was always meant to be an incubator for hand picked artists; to put out vinyl records that the bands could sell on tour, or do split 7 inches with good souls in other global cities. We would love to book a Cake Shop Stage at music festivals. Heck, we could even start baking our own cakes! If we are able to come out of this, we would also love to open Cake Shops in other cities like LA or Glasgow.

We are optimistic, but we need your help to spread the word. Please help get this info out there to as many people as possible. And we would really appreciate it if you passed on the email below to anyone you think might be in a position to invest in Cake Shop. We can hold on for a few more weeks, but that’s about it without a significant partner.

For more info and quick response for serious investors/partners (minimum investment 150k) please e-mail:
[email protected]

Tell us how you think Cake Shop should increase revenue and grow with our new partner:
And for Press Inquiries:
[email protected]

Love you all, you are the best,
Cake Shop
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Blurry Bitters – Cakeshop’s Best Of 2014 Mixtape tracklist:
(0:01) SO HIGH by MALES
(2:16) MIND/MOOD by BLUFFING
(4:12) WILDERNESS by BRIDGE COLLAPSE
(7:00) SAY WHAT YOU WILL by MEMORIAL GORE
(9:49) SICKNESS by RADIOACTIVITY
(11:20) EASE UP by 3108
(13:20) DANCE SHOES by LITERATURE
(15:44) WAHOO by MEATBODIES
(18:53) AMBITIOUS PEOPLE by NEGATIVE SCANNER
(20:30) CRACK ROCK AND ROLL by SANDRATZ
(22:45) INSECT EYES by NOTS
(25:18) CRAMSEY by BAKED
(26:49) AGING FACES by PURLING HISS
(29:39) FALLING SKYLINE by COLD BEAT
(32:11) UNCONSCIOUS MELODY by VIET KONG
(35:09) SAND MANDALAS by STEPHEN STEINBRINK
(38:30) CIRCLE LIFE by FANCY PANTS
(42:26) FOR THIS STRUCTURE by ESTROGEN HIGHS
(45:47)BIRTHDAY SOG by FRANKIE COSMOS
(46:53) INTERSTATE FOREVER by DICK DIVER
(49:12) SHE’S A BOMB by ULTIMATE PAINTING
(52:36)NONE OTHER THAN by The PAPERHEAD
(57:09) COMFORT by FLOWERS
(59:33) WIR ZWEI by KLAUS JOHANN GROBE
(1:04:47) BIEDERMEIER-PSYCHEDELIA by TARTU POPI ja ROKI INSTITUT
(1:07:01) ZONK by DISCO DOOM
(1:08:33) BLACKTHORN by Mt. ROYAL
(1:12:00) DIAMOND CORNER by DISCO DOOM
(1:13:07) REAL.NOW.LOVE by JERRY PAPER