$$Our biggest cost is the cost of being sold out.$$ Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar, the two co$-$founders of Burlap & Barrel $($B&B$),$ were discussing the main concern of their business. Based in the Queens borough of New York City, B&B was a public benefit corporation that had built its business on imported spices with unique flavour profiles, purchased directly from smallholder farmers around the world. The company$$s initial customer base was primarily restaurant chefs in and around New York, although a small segment was devoted to individual home cooks.

In early $2020,$ when the outbreak of the COVID$-19$ pandemic forced most restaurants to temporarily close down, B&B lost $50$ per cent of its customer base overnight. At first, the pandemic seemed to be a major threat to B&B$$s survival. However, a quick and forceful shift to direct$-$to$-$consumer online commerce, bolstered by national press and savvy social media marketing, enabled B&B to reach a hungry new audience. Nonetheless, the exponential growth in demand from home cooks surfaced many supply chain inefficiencies related to sourcing, storing, packaging, and transportation, which threatened to bring B&B$$s fragile business model to its knees. By March $2021,$ the two co$-$founders were struggling to meet demand from both growing direct$-$to$-$consumer and wholesale clients, while upholding their core ethical, environmental, and business values.

BURLAP & BARREL: FROM $$RADICAL$$ ICE CREAM CART TO GLOBAL IMPORTER

Frisch was a native New York entrepreneur and activist who wanted to combine his passions for food and social justice. He had worked in some of the finest restaurant kitchens in New York and London as a cook and pastry chef. Zohar was an entrepreneur born in Israel and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, with a background in business operations and marketing. He had worked in New York as a digital marketer and communications strategist for major global brands including Mastercard, Unilever, ExxonMobil, BMW$,$ Chrysler, Burberry, and Coca$-$Cola.

The two entrepreneurs met through mutual friends in the Manhattan borough of New York when Frisch was running a small supper club out of his Chinatown apartment. The two men shared a love for food and quickly became good friends. In $2010,$ learning how to make ice cream in restaurant kitchens, Frisch and Zohar launched a company originally intended as a summer project that featured hand$-$crafted small$-$batch ice cream flavours such as chocolate, port wine, and chai masala. The company, which was named