Daily Archives: May 4, 2009

Sugar Sisters needs more dough

sugarsisThe year-old Sugar Sisters Bakery & Cafe has fallen behind on its state and federal taxes, but co-owner Katie Sykes says, “We’re not in any jeopardy of shutting down or anything.”

The restaurant, which is at Central and Oliver, owes about $10,000 to the state and another several thousand to the federal government.

Patty Sykes, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband and three daughters, says they’re “just trying to get caught up.”

“We’ve got a good, steady, loyal clientele,” she says. “We just need to build on it.”

Business dropped about 30 percent starting in August due to the economy, Patty Sykes says.

“A lot of people just quit going out to eat,” she says. “It’s slowly trending back up.”

The family is looking for ways to diversify. For instance, Sugar Sisters now sells cookie dough to go and soon will begin offering take-and-bake entrees.

“We need to look for new sources of revenue,” Patty Sykes says.

But she says surviving isn’t strictly up to her or other business owners.

“If you want local businesses to survive, you have to support them.”

Associated creates, pulls River Festival video

mike-snyderThere’s a video that briefly circulated about the Top 10 things that can get you in trouble at the Wichita River Festival. But Wichita Festivals didn’t produce it — or even know about it.

Associated, which creates the River Festival poster every year, did the video. But it wasn’t a client job.

“We decided to have some fun,” says chief executive Mike Snyder.

“We don’t talk about funnel cakes,” he says. “We talk about some things that are very real. Very human.”

And very inappropriate to print in a family newspaper.

“When you get 100,000 people out, you see all kinds of different things,” Snyder says.

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You don’t say

“I’m joining a gym Monday morning.”

Cirque de la Symphonie guest conductor Michael Krajewski’s comment Saturday night after seeing the toned, muscled acrobats in the show