Bloom & Plume, the floral shop and cafe on Temple Street in Historic Filipinotown, was struggling last year amid the pandemic, and its owner Maurice Harris was anxious about the future.
Now he says life has completely turned around: “Our government, with the CARES Act and some of the other LA grants and different things, my brother [and business partner] is so on top of it that we actually have been able to save our business to the point where we are no longer in debt.”
Harris partly attributes the success to their customers’ support, even amid obstacles. For example, when COVID forced the cafe to shut down, they opened an online store for customers to buy merchandise.
“I’m a hustler,” Harris says. “And so I’m always trying to find a new creative solution to keep our business alive — because not existing isn’t an option for me.”