Sweet Fire Cafe & Studio, a cafe and event space in Williamsburg, is providing space for content creators and business owners to bring their idea to life, all the all while serving up sweet treats and delicious coffee.
Operated by Christopher Sidwell and Micaéla Verrelien, co-owners of the business and partners in life, the cafe and event studio located at 338 Broadway recently went viral for its outlandish, but tasty coffee and dessert pairings and Verrelien's stylish outfits.
The duo are passionate about crafting a menu that is both healthy yet decadent, and the two eschews a no-waste motto. Sidwell said he is inspired to create a healthy menu after seeing his family struggle with various health issues and sees it as a fun challenge to come up with with delicious food that's good for the body.
“[The menu] is dictated on what the greater kind of trends are, like, right now, we're super pumpkin heavy,” said Sidwell. “The recipes and the food philosophy is based on my own theory of cooking; just trying to make things as healthy as possible, using the best ingredients possible.”
For those needing a pick-me-up on their way to work, the cafe serves up organic, all-natural and vegan-friendly cafe items like cinnamon rolls, pizza rolls, specialty seasonal lattes and matchas.
During the evenings and the weekends, the back-of-house space is transformed into a content studio and event space.
Entrepreneurship was always on the owners’ minds, as they combined their skills to build a business together. Sidwell is a trained chef and baker, and Verrelien has worked in media and content creation for many years.
When Verrelien would attend city events and wanted to create content, she noticed it always felt like something was missing—studios had a lot of rules, which made it difficult to have creative freedom.
Instead, Verrelien insists on allowing business owners to have the freedom to use the event space as they see fit. That said, you see the flair of Verrelien all over, as the studio is filled with eclectic furniture and vinyl albums of Black artists on the wall.
Imani Murray, the owner of The Self Care Lab, recently hosted a mental health workshop in the space. Looking for a intimate, warm and welcoming space, Murray said she continuously came across Sweet Fire on social media and platforms like Peerspace.
She was ultimately drawn to the owners and how accommodating they were to bring her event to life.
“I've dealt with certain situations where people may overlook me because I am a Black woman or because I am younger," Murray said. "So I'm always going to champion businesses that are owned by people that look like me. I think it's important to bring that community with us.”
All in all, Sidwell and Verrelien hope to continue to draw in neighborhood creatives to use their space to promote their businesses.
“I love people,” said Verrelien. "My favorite parts are the ones that I've worked with from the beginning to the end, the ones that are the baby showers, then wedding showers. Like, to me, those are so sweet."
