I. Hell’s Kitchen Small Business Video Series: Amy’s Bread 🥐

II. How Do We Cross a Broken Road? ↔

Below is the latest feature in the Hell’s Kitchen small businesses video series. Check out my Youtube Channel for more HK content!

Amy’s Bread: The Most Slept On Bakery in NYC 🥐

Flaky pistachio twists, award winning roasted coffee, mouth-watering blueberry danishes, sweet-but-not-too-sweet frosted cupcakes … you still with me?

Amy’s Bread, home to handmade breads, pastries and sandwiches is a Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan original since 1992.

There’s care and intention placed in every bite.

Amy’s menu is chock full of fresh sweet treats and savory goods made with only natural and locally-sourced ingredients: organic whole grains and seeds, Greek olives, premium California walnuts and Texas pecans, fresh local herbs, unbleached and unbromated flours with no additives or preservatives.

Make no mistake – Amy’s Bread is known by those who crave quality breads and sweets, but with mainstream cafés and coffee shops hoarding the spotlight, it stands as an underrated gem in NYC.

This woman-owned business is just the spot for those who nurse a sweet tooth, but are also health-conscious.

Not all sweets are created equal – when a pastry is made with refined flours, cheap ingredients and lousy oils, the final product can negatively impact your gut health, blood sugar, hormones and even your mood.

In an era where bread and flour is demonized more than cigarettes, it feels great to indulge in a slice of cake made with the best stuff available.

Further than the absurdly delicious cookies and quiches, Amy’s is all about fostering community and wellness in NYC.

Now with multiple locations across the city, Amy’s has humble beginnings in Hell’s Kitchen, where it regularly donates extra food to the neighborhood’s food pantry.

Amy’s is the embodiment of a healthy, tasty, community-based small business.

From the ingredients, to the employees, to the community, the whole process is treated with care – now it’s up to you to experience what that all tastes like.

Where Do We Go From Here? ⚠️

I don’t know about your algorithm, but I’ve been noticing a growing obsession with self lately.

There’s a manic pursuit for optimization, a scramble for superiority, and an insatiable hunger for dominance.

Rather than communal love and immersion, detached individual success is the King of kings.

Have you noticed this? Maybe you feel the same way.

I see these self-obsessions in several sectors on the internet: in health, wellness, art, fashion, music, activism, dating, romance – even in educational realms.

There’s a suffocating concern with self-promotion and superiority that we’ve lost the point.

Consumerism has replaced contribution, and collaboration has made way for competition.

This is not a sustainable model. 

Humans have succeeded strictly because of our abilities to cooperate and coexist.

But those notions have been abandoned on every level, from the federal government’s “f- you, pay me,” strategies to the bitter attitudes you might encounter at the grocery store.

The parts are broken, and this machine cannot run.

How do we change this?

What reversals can be made if the minds of modern man are co-opted, blinded by euphoric delusions that only stretch as far as a list of skin-deep interests?

Prompted with similar questions in the past, civilizations have resorted to tyranny or religious reform to restore a sense of humane order.

In this current age of isolation and disenchantment, how can we get back?

What do we look towards when what lay ahead is obscurity?

There are answers.

The natural order of divine human life goes something like this:

1. Wretchedness: An initial struggle to connect with others.
   

2. Actualization: Finding identity through that connection and decoding meaning from the struggle.
   

3. Obedience: Submitting to an urge for anonymity and loss of self through the experience of this journey.
   

4. Acceptance: Expressing gratitude and praise for the grace which allowed the cycle to complete.

In 2025, this natural process appears to be gravely corrupted.

I don’t have to illustrate the extent of the dereliction we see at present.

In the Western world, people don’t have to struggle with anything anymore — they never come to grips with their inherent flaws, they don’t get to connect with others – and so they never grow.

Hopeless as redemption may seem, this species-wide naughtiness has been witnessed before.

There is room for resurrection, should we prophesy to the breath of life: freedom, togetherness, love, and respect for all things in the name of the greater good.

This power to revive is that of a sun which never sets – a song that never ends. 

Can we yet sing it?

I interpret the species-wide obsession with self as a cry for help.

It’s a desperate call for communion into a void where hope feels lost.

It’s a worldwide identity crisis, where everyone speaks the same, acts the same, dresses the same, eats the same, and consumes and believes the same exact things.

Just as an infant wails with fear of the unknown, its pain prescribed by something unseen and misunderstood, we cry out now for a guide to retrace our steps toward a familiar light.

We cry for another chance — a rekindling of the purity of heart we’ve long lost.

We cry for foundations of good health and everlasting vitality, not a life of vanity.

We long for steadfastness in pursuit of community, a light of kindness and sacrifice, illuminating the bricks we lay down for those behind us.

This is the blueprint of our new Kingdom.

Look not for the path toward redemption – we are on it.

The road ahead is broken only because we are called to pave it ourselves.

We are called to provide for others. To build communities and immerse in them. We are called to explore, take risks, and find ourselves – not being afraid to take a leap of faith.

This is how we pave.

We pave with kindness, grace, sacrifice and purity, in search of truth and understanding. It’s a road that is certain to be built –

It is our destiny!

The rebuild, for you and I, begins with this moment, and each one after it.

Brick by brick.

Will you build with me?