A Radio Show, a Line of Cars and a Call From City Hall

The day before we opened our cottage shop, Donutste got a shoutout on Johnny's House, a popular morning radio show on XL106.7 in Orlando.

We had absolutely no clue it happened.

Then we opened, and there was a line of cars in our neighborhood.

People were showing up. Traffic became an issue. There were problems with neighbors. And eventually we got a call from the city, because we had to figure out how we were going to handle what was happening.

One of the biggest challenges we had as a cottage bakery was how quickly we grew, and having to create systems as we went. We were not prepared for that kind of growth. We had to build a system to fix the problem while we were already in the middle of it. We figured it out.

Neighbors can be among the first to notice

When a home bakery gets busy, neighbors can be among the first to notice. Other bakeries have run into versions of that. These are accounts as news outlets reported them, and they do not tell us who was right.

In Wilmington, Massachusetts, NBC Boston reported in April that a neighbor of a home bakery nicknamed the Bread Shed complained to the town about weekend crowds and called police about the number of cars on three straight weekends in March. The town's zoning code limits a home business to 10 vehicle trips a day, and the town manager said the bakery sees closer to 100 on a busy Saturday. The Boston Globe reported in September that the bakery has since moved to pre-order pickup only, with the town's approval.

In the Las Vegas Valley, Fox 5 reported in August that Clark County code enforcement issued a notice, which the station called a cease-and-desist order, to Mama Llama Bakery, a cottage bakery known for cinnamon rolls. The county said it had received complaints about customers coming to the home, and that the zoning code does not allow that without a special use permit. The owner said she believed she was operating legally, and she started a petition asking for changes for cottage bakeries. Fox 5 later reported that on September 1 she began a limited-time collaboration with a local cafe, using its permitted commercial kitchens.

The details differ, and so do the rules. A cottage food law is a state law about what you can sell. How many cars can show up at a house is mostly a local question, decided by a town or county. One New Jersey township's code, for example, limits pickups at a home cottage business to one car every 15 minutes. Norwich, Connecticut, lists retail sales at a home as not permitted.

One broadcast, one morning

A home bakery usually has a driveway and neighbors where a storefront would have a parking lot and a lease. So when word gets out, it gets out to the whole street.

For us, it took one radio mention we did not know about, and one morning, to turn a cottage shop's opening day into a line of cars the neighborhood could not miss.