Three Trays of Baklava Became a 70,000 Dollar Month

It all started with a concert, a bet, and three trays

In September 2021, Jacob Komarow was on his way to a Phish concert in California when he stopped at a Middle Eastern grocery store and spotted baklava, the layered pastry packed with nuts and soaked in sweet syrup. He bought three trays. His friend did not think he could sell them at the concert.

Jacob sold every piece and, by his account, walked away with three times what he had spent. Most people would take the win and move on. Instead, for nearly three years he sold baklava at concerts, parks, and festivals, anywhere he could find people looking for a good time and a good snack. No storefront, no venture capital, no new technology. Just a product people already loved, brought to a place where nobody else was selling it.

Plot twist: the Baklava Guy does not make baklava

You would expect a man nicknamed the Baklava Guy to spend his mornings covered in flour. He does not. In 2022, Jacob connected with a supplier through a Turkish food vendor in Paterson, New Jersey. Today, Good Baklava sources its pastries from a bakery in Gaziantep, Turkey, a city famous for its baklava, and a commercial baker in New Jersey handles the baking.

Jacob focuses on the other side of the equation: getting people to buy it. He did not invent the product, open a bakery, or become a pastry chef. He built a business around finding a quality product, sourcing it well, and making the buying experience memorable. Imported food still brings logistics, storage, safety requirements, and inventory costs, so this is no effortless fantasy. It is a distribution and attention business with a dessert at the center.

His next marketing strategy was giving it away

In 2026, Jacob started handing out free baklava outside Madison Square Garden, including to basketball fans celebrating in the streets. It was random, it was funny, and it was exactly the kind of moment people pull out their phones to film.

Videos circulated online, media attention followed, brands started exploring partnerships, and a major newspaper profiled him. The Hustle Blower makes the distinction clearly: Jacob was not just giving away dessert, he was giving people a story to tell. Free samples can destroy margins when they generate nothing, but Jacob had spent years learning how to work a crowd, and the internet gave that experience a much bigger audience.

The 70,000 dollar month and the January hangover

According to CNBC Make It reporting based on reviewed business records, Good Baklava averaged a little over 20,000 dollars in monthly sales during a recent nine month period. Then December 2025 arrived, with holiday gift buying and a temporary booth at the Union Square Holiday Market:

• December 2025 reached nearly 70,000 dollars in sales, the best month in the story
• January 2026 fell to less than 10,000 dollars, a drop of more than 85 percent
• At reporting time, three pieces sold for around 10 dollars in person and an online 12 pack listed for about 30 dollars
• Despite the growth, Jacob said he still was not paying himself a regular salary, with a goal of about 4,000 dollars a month by the end of 2026

Revenue is not profit, and seasons are real

December is gift season and holiday markets bring enormous foot traffic. A random Tuesday in January brings neither. Rent, insurance, and inventory do not disappear when sales collapse, which is why a best month can make a founder feel rich while the worst month shows what the business actually needs to survive.

For Florida food and event sellers, the playbook is useful. Take a proven product to crowds already gathered, from concerts to holiday markets. Let free samples buy attention when the moment is filmable. Then build the boring parts, sourcing, permits, and a salary for yourself, before January arrives.