Happy 1st birthday to Paper Fig Desserts

On Tuesday 26.01.2016 we had a fabulous celebration commemorating our first birthday ever. It was all made possible thanks to my very hard working team, loving family and friends and our dearest and to all of you who are my number one supporters.

We have been planning this birthday celebration for a few months but it was the last 3 weeks that were so intense -- finalizing every little details to make the one day event unique and very special.

So these are the things we had for our very special day:

Coffee, coffee, coffee and lot of coffee!

Just for one day, we had a pop up coffee booth outside and placed a sustainable seating area using old woods/crates stacked to form a table. Both inside and outside the shop, we gave away free coffee to everyone who came and visit us. We served almost 800 cups of coffee in one day and my team of baristas never failed to give the best shots of espresso and the perfectly steamed milk approved by RAW coffee company. I would like to thank our wonderful supplier, RAW Coffee Company who makes freshly roasted organic coffee beans here in UAE. It was an awesome 1 year working with these passionate coffee lovers and I would not drink any other coffee if it isn’t RAW. If you like coffee or wanting to try drinking coffee, RAW would definitely give you the best coffee experience and it made me fall in love with coffee even more. I wasn’t really a coffee person years ago but upon knowing RAW, they changed my perspective with coffee and I can’t start my day without a cup of Magic.

Say Cheese =D

For the photo lovers, we gave them a memory for them to keep -- a Photobooth outside allowing everyone to strike their best pose and enjoy unlimited shots. It was a wonderful sight to see when I saw everyone with their giddiest smile as their photos were taken. My PF family also took a time in between their breaks to get that sweet shot.  

The PF Gift box filled with sweets were given away to our guests as a thank you for coming in to celebrate our special day. We prepared a lot of them and hopefully everyone who came had a chance to enjoy the box filled sweets. I would like to thank my very hardworking pastry team who took time to fill their already busy schedule in making something sweet for our lovely guests.

The birthday cake. We had a birthday cake plan but what we didn’t expect is we’re having 2 cakes to celebrate our birthday. The couple Mohamed Alhashimi and Fatima Alnajre who keeps on coming back to our shop for their coffee time gave us a delicious red velvet cake shaped into a coffee cup complete with the spoon and profiterole on the side. I am so touched with the gesture they did and it makes my heart filled with joy that they loved our coffee and they even made a birthday cake for us to celebrate the awesome 1 year. So yes, we had two birthday cakes and we sang twice and my little boys Khalifa and Abdulla cut the first slice and then followed by my staff who held the knife all at once. I am very happy to see my staff happy when they were slicing the cakes because without them, I would have never made this Sweet Retreat a sweet one and lasting for a year and hopefully more years to come.

Balloons and Messages. We did have a birthday vibes on the shop and it was filled with balloons floating all over the place and everyone had the chance to write us a message for our birthday. It was so nice to read the messages and congratulatory notes you have given us and to read that you are also looking forward in seeing us getting bigger is very heartwarming.

PF Gift Vouchers

We know a lot of you want to share your PF experience to your family and friends so we might have the PF Vouchers available for gift giving very soon but for now, let the winners enjoy the first release of the gift vouchers.

All gift vouchers are for one time use except for the coffee vouchers where I will talk more about later on. The vouchers we gave away are in denomination of 500 AED, 100 AED and 50 AED plus the 1 free dessert on display and 10 coffees. 

To all the winners, I have called each and every winner and it was my pleasure to acknowledge your winning. You can claim your vouchers in the café, just ask your server how. You are also allowed to give the vouchers to the person you want to give it to, just let us know who you want to give it to.

Blackboard

if you didn’t notice we have changed our blackboard too. We wanted to keep it with the event we’re having but I couldn’t take off the first art we had which has the different desserts we used to make in the beginning. That was the only part I wanted to keep for a long time because it means a lot to me and did you know that all we had in the beginning was desserts? This wall is something that we will keep on changing depending on the season or event but for now, it shows different colors, social media and just all about our birthday vibes. Thanks Maria (UAE Murals)

Thank You

It was a very fun filled day and it feels like it was my own birthday. We have received gifts from a lot of people and as much as I want to thank them all in a public platform, most of them wants to keep a private profile and you know who you are. I am so happy to receive so many flowers, a book, even a wallet and so many more. All of you made it a very meaningful day and it’s a celebration that will forever make a mark in my heart and mind. I am more inspired to do more and be more as this passion of mine just keeps on growing and I would not even think about stopping.

Looking forward to more years of inspiring and living this passion of creating unique, fresh and creative flavours.

Love,

Nawal