Baby Loves...Moving Next Door

Baby Loves Tacos mission statement is “Every Body Eats.” For seven plus years, we have fed tens of thousands of people out of an ill-equipped and very modest space. We pieced together the kind of equipment that you might use to operate a snack bar in a high school football stadium–a single door reach in refrigerator, a few steam tables, a convection oven big enough to hold three half-sheet pans (the kind of oven that a cookie shop in the mall might use to bake pre-formed chocolate chip cookies), and a panini press. We have retrofitted a kitchen out of a building that was better-suited to house a copy center. At every spike in sales, every opportunity to grow, we have gone for it and trusted that the funding would follow. The pandemic dealt us a lethal blow. We had just opened a second location with very high interest short term loans… bills needed paid and we didn’t receive any PPP funding. We had been open for only two months in our second location and didn’t have the sales history to qualify for any of the funds. We eventually closed this second location and ate our losses. We have fought and pushed and grown and learned and built new streams of revenue; cut costs wherever we can. Our brand has only grown and gotten stronger. The food and service is the best it’s ever been. As the weather changes our walk-up sales grow, our breakfast burrito wholesale business increases, and our catering program expands. What started out as a novel taco shop has grown into a real business that desperately needs a space that can support the demand. Our current space at 4508 Liberty Avenue can no longer sustain our business.

We need your help.

The need to move into a new space at 4510 Liberty Avenue has forced us to reimagine what Baby Loves really is. It’s about sharing our favorite things, memories, and hopes of what could be with our community. It’s about the sweet potato-avocado burrito with pickled red cabbage that we’ve served thousands of times to customers who want something that makes them feel good. It’s about the brisket tacos that make people drive through tunnels and cross bridges to get here before we close. It’s about getting off of the plane from Chicago and stopping for dinner. Baby Loves feeds you when you are hungry and feeds the person on the street who doesn’t have enough to cover their meal. We are the place you stop by to tell us you got the house, that your partner just gave birth and asked for Baby Loves for dinner, that you came here on your first date and sat on the stoop to eat and watch the sun go down. It’s about the roast pork sandwich we made you because you miss Philly and can’t get home for the holidays. It’s about love and service and connecting. At one point we dreamed of opening this space as Giacomo’s Sandwich Shop in homage to Kat’s grandfather whose family owned and operated Muscianesi Meat Market in Brooklyn for 80 years. It has become apparent to us that Baby Loves is about serving the food you love. Baby will always love tacos, but it has become clear that this evolution, this move into the right space, this next step in our journey is really about LOVE. BABY LOVES. And Baby Loves you, too.

Over a year ago, our neighbor moved out of 4510 Liberty Avenue. We have been renting that space with the hopes of moving into it. That space is twice the size of our current space and outfitted with an exhaust hood, a fire suppression system and proper HVAC heating and air-conditioning. We have been working on the space with whatever resources we can muster utilizing the tremendous help of our team and friends who are plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

We are in the homestretch and realize that many in the community -- friends, family and customers want to help us get over the line and launch an improved, sustainable and amazing Baby Loves.

Your help will make that possible.

The funds we raise will go to the following items as we move into 4510 Liberty Ave:

What does a sustainable business model at 4510 Liberty Ave look like?

Thank you for your continued support. Up to this point, we have funded our operation with grit, determination and very high interest loans. We really believe in our business and the good we can do in our community. We have donated thousands of community meals and with a partner have fed the Pittsburgh Women’s Shelter weekly for over 5 years. We have mentored high school students, set-up cooking demos for seniors, and fed those most in need during the pandemic.

We want to serve the community for years to come. Your help will ensure that this is possible.

*** We truly appreciate your support and believing in the goals of this move and improvements to our operation. The idea of “asking for and accepting help” is something that we have wrestled with mightily for years. In the past we took out extremely high interest short term advances when disaster struck—equipment broke, when we didn’t qualify for PPP, when our backs were up against the wall. The result was a business that couldn’t get out from under our debts. We are finally in a position to grow into a healthy business that can make our larger goals of community outreach, mentorship, and giving back a real part of our day-to-day operation. After much conversation with customers, neighbors, and friends who asked how they could help and suggested that we set something up from them to help we have created this campaign. Thank you for your support. We appreciate you.