We are a new business in Knoxville. We opened up on the square in April 2013. The name of our store is Red Ribbon Bakery but we had to drop the “bakery” in order to save funds for the equipment we needed. We now do lunch (sandwiches, soups etc..) to make enough to open a separate location for the bakery. Our goal was January 2014 for the bakery. We have a huge local following that was demanding a bakery in town! We had funds saved but due to the city’s “street scape” project we are having to use those funds to hang on. The “street scape” project has taken away parking, sidewalks at times and we had to shut down for the water and sewer replacements. This has affected our business greatly. We hope to be able to stay open until the project end date of November 11th. We would love to have a grant to help us open our “dream” in January 2014! Knoxville has some great businesses on the square but we need more. There is a lot of empty space here that needs to be filled to help our city and community shop local!! I have been cooking and baking with my Grandmother since I was tall enough to reach the counter. We have customers calling at 8:00 o'clock in the morning wanting to know what the dessert for the day will be and to hold some for them. We sell out of dessert everyday! Our weekly specials sell out and we have customers making requests to bring back a special they loved. We have a huge potential here. Everything is made fresh everyday and all the food is made to order. We are trying to bring something a little different to our customers and our town who have showed their love and support of our little shop!