2020 was definitely a year that will never be forgotten, it was a year that made hope seem impossible. Many lives were changed forever and the impact it had on the world will forever last in our minds.
With all the negativity 2020 brought it also brought a year of rebirth, a year for us to cleanse our souls and realign ourselves with what really matters in this world. Quarantine for many was a chance to reconnect with families, friends and themselves.
As change quickly became the center of attention so did the future for TheCradlenyc. The beginning for TheCradlenyc was a convenient healthy food stand on the boardwalks of beach 74st, there to provide happy beach goers with access to healthy food without the inconvenience of traveling to beach 88th or 97th (long walk on a hot summer day).
From our summer boardwalk days to winters at Mad Tropical we were ready to embrace this new year with open arms, but we instead found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic and everything shut down.
As all hope was lost faith kept us going, and just like that “Anything God has planned for you will be for you” became our living testimony. We found ourselves with an opportunity to open a restaurant. IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC!! Where do we even start? Everything was shut down, application to get certified for documents we needed seemed impossible and to top it off the restaurant had to completely be remodeled. With faith, hope was not lost.
Photo by @daniel.emuna
As we venture into this new chapter in our establishment close friends and family gather to offer any help they can (you only need people who will help build you up in your life). They offered assistance in anyways they can from their time, services, connection and counseling.
Things were looking pretty well but opening on our due date was out of question especially since we had NO lights, literally the restaurant had electricity but no lights and the company that is responsible for turning our lights on were nowhere to be seen.
So we decided to take a chance and open on our opening day with no lights. We bought indoor decorating string lights to hang all around the restaurant as our source of light, but God had other plans. On the day of our opening we came to the restaurant embracing the fact that we have no light but our string lights.
The chef goes to flip a switch and see what will happen while knowing the light won’t turn on and …BOOM. There’s always light in the darkness.
The lights are on, literally all the lights are on. It was such a moment of reassurance that when you leave things to God, he never fails you. We went on to having the best opening and a great last 2 months of summer.
“Where there is faith, there is God”
-TheCradlenyc
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