University News
IL Small Biz Development Center Helps New Cuba Eatery Open; Mabel & Pearl's Café & Bakery Serves Cuba Community with Only "Sit-Down" Restaurant
July 8, 2016
MACOMB/CUBA, IL — Through the help of the Illinois Small Business Development Center (ISBDC) at Western Illinois University, the owner of a new restaurant in Cuba is preparing to celebrate its grand opening this month.
The ISBDC at WIU is a unit of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA), and through it, prospective small business owners in the region can benefit from its resources and obtain guidance for small, start-up business ventures. According to ISBDC at WIU Director Jim Boyd, Stacy Haggarty will host a grand opening for Mabel & Pearl's Café & Bakery in Cuba Thursday, July 21. The café has been officially open for business since June 2.
Haggerty said the name of the new eatery is in tribute to her maternal grandmother Mabel, and Mabel's sister Pearl.
"Both ladies were known for their baking skills, and the sugar cookies I serve at the café are very similar to my Great-Aunt Pearl's recipe," she said. "I have been in the food industry for the past 20 years. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree in family and consumer sciences, with a concentration in hospitality, and a minor in business administration, I began operating a café in Ellisville [IL]. That was my first business venture. Before opening the café in Cuba, I worked as the kitchen manager for the Neighborhood House in Peoria, where we served 1,000 meals every day to seniors enrolled in the Meals on Wheels program in Peoria and Tazewell counties and to the children served by the Neighborhood House daycare and the after-school meal program."
Haggerty said she contacted Boyd to determine the viability of her business plan before deciding to open the restaurant.
"Jim helped me to understand all of the information I had already gathered, so when I put it together in a business plan, it made sense," she noted.
"After working with Stacy, I am confident she has the skills to succeed, particularly considering her extensive background and experience with this type of business. From a business perspective, she should be able to sustain her operation well, and she is definitely filling a huge gap in the services available to this community," Boyd added.
Mabel & Pearl's Café & Bakery is located at 110 N. 6th St. in Cuba and is the only "sit down" restaurant in Cuba. A previous restaurant owner in Cuba closed for business in December 2015, leaving the town without a family-oriented restaurant for six months. Mabel & Pearl's Café & Bakery serves breakfast and lunch from 5:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday–Saturday and is closed Sundays.
The ISBDC is funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Western Illinois University.
According to Boyd, ISBDC staff work directly with business owners and economic developers across the 13-county SBDC region in west-central Illinois to help start new businesses and create new jobs for the region.
For more information, contact Boyd at (309) 298-3040 or visit www.wiusbdc.org.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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