They’re still extruded sticks. That’s not an exciting product. A stick is not a pretzel.Spencer Stackhouse, head chef & co-owner

Each pretzel bite starts life as a dough, then is proofed, rolled, twisted into a pretzel, dipped, baked, then finally torn by hand, seasoned, and re-baked. It seems like a lot of trouble, but On Tap Kitchen believes it’s worth it, and customers agree. The final shape was based on, “people’s expectation… it should look like a crouton. Part of that is the mechanics of eating it; the crumble, the crunch.” However, just having a product doesn’t make a business, but Spencer knew where to go to find their first customers.

On Tap Kitchen targeted breweries very early on, a place where customers were paying for high quality, local beverages and then eating uninspired big box prepackaged foods. That disconnect made little sense to Spencer. “There is a large overlap between people who care about high quality food and people who go to microbreweries,” said Spencer. This decision provided benefits and limitations for the young company.

Breweries are limited by their licenses, since most don’t maintain a retail food license due to the costs of additional requirements. That means food must be shelf stable, require no refrigeration, and come fully prepacked and sealed. Expanding On Tap Kitchen’s product line early on was a learning lesson in these limitations, as mustards and peanut butter dips became more expensive to develop and maintain than sales supported. “What can we do to diversify? Oh, we can have different flavors and maybe down the road team up with someone who makes mustard.” Fast forward to today and On Tap Kitchen offers 5 additional flavored pretzel bites beyond their original seasoning.

It was really easy to start working with some of these [breweries]. They are really excited to support other local businesses.Spencer Stackhouse

Without regular deliveries from distributors, the burden would be on Spencer to setup a delivery schedule and handle distribution directly. The process, while time consuming, lead to some revelations about the types of businesses and business owners he was now supplying. “Chefs are competitive and mean to each other. Within the brewing community they are very friendly to everyone,” said Spencer with a broad smile across his face. However, it still took some coaxing to encourage breweries to order more product less often, reducing delivery costs. To incentivize customers, On Tap Kitchen offers discounts on case purchases rather than delivery fees.

As the summer season is getting into gear, Spencer is focused on the Boulder farmer’s markets to generate benefits for the company. When asked about the primary benefits of farmer’s market sales, revenue didn’t make the top 3. “The money is great, I’m not going to lie about that, but better than that is getting feedback and marketing; being able to sample to thousands of people.” It’s common for consumers to try the product at the farmer’s market and then pick up a bag when they see it again at the store or at a local brewery, because they’ve already had a first exposure to the product. They come back to share their story with Spencer at the farmer’s market the next week.

That’s the the focus of most food businesses and definitely On Tap Kitchen: create fans of your product by introducing them to a delicious, well-crafted snack so they can make an informed purchase decision later, becoming repeat customers and helping to spread the word about the product. Building the company on that foundation is what inspired Spencer. “I want a better snack. I can make that, so I’m going to make it.”

Bonus Pretzel Tearing Animation

Click to view animation

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…that baklava is so good, you should start a business.friends of Janet Heath

Janet Heath’s road to making baklava started with a beloved recipe shared with her and her husband from the Greek ladies they met during the annual food festival in Arkansas. When they left Arkansas for beautiful Colorado, they collected many of the recipes used in the festival so they could remember their time there through the food they enjoyed. Janet was making the baklava for friends once they arrived and kept hearing the same response, “…that baklava is so good, you should start a business.” They loved it so much, friends even helped Janet find facilities to produce the product.

So Janet, a professional programmer and substitute teacher, decided it’d be a better idea to start a business with one exceptionally made product; thus Baklava Unlimited was born. “I’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by other knowledgeable people. For example, Full Spectrum, a local distributor, helped us find organic phyllo dough.”

Retailer feedback was also an important step in improving an existing recipe, as the original recipe called for corn syrup and non-organic phyllo. With corn syrup removed and a new locally sourced honey formulation put in its place, the organic phyllo was the final step to the product now found in stores.

That’s not to say there haven’t been struggles. Like most wholesalers, ingredients are sourced from many places because they are unable to order large enough quantities directly from the manufacturer. That results in a constant struggle to get the best price while maintaining the same standard of quality. “We ordered our almonds from Dawn Foods for a while, then sometimes Colorado Nut Company was cheaper. I called [Colorado Nut Company] once and they quoted me a price that was just going up up and up; we had a fiery conversation.”

Every batch is all-natural and hand-made.Janet Heath, owner

Since switching to organic phyllo, costs have increased but production speed has also increased, because the sheets are less fragile while having a little thicker texture. Janet gets some help in the kitchen from her husband, a retired electrical engineer, who shares the same level of enthusiasm for the product as Janet. For fun, they sometimes time how long it takes each of them to make a full sheet of baklava, always trying to improve.

The future for Baklava Unlimited is looking bright. A recent update to the packaging has provided a better seal to eliminate leakage while also ensuring freshness over the longer shelf life of 45 days. They are also in talks with more distributors so they can expand beyond the Rocky Mountain region as well as upgrading production for the addition of big box stores. It’s an optimistic outlook for a business that began out of frustration with the job market combined with the love and admiration of friends for a delicious dessert.

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Head pastry chef and co-owner Ashley Coates has faced many challenges in her previous 10 years inventing and executing as a pastry chef in fine dining restaurants around the Houston, Texas area. Joining forces with her mother and sister in 2012, Lovin’ Oven began as a set of basic recipes purchased from another company. While the recipes provided a starting point, Ashley insists that the quality and taste in the product today has only shadows of those original recipes.

At first, the products were sold to coffee shops loose, for placement into their displays. This trend continued with their first grocery store buyer, Alfalfa’s Market in Boulder. It wasn’t until 2013 with their introduction into Lucky’s Market in Boulder that packaging was introduced. “We had been talking about packaging before that, but Lucky’s propelled us into the packaging world,” said Ashley. This type of measured growth has been a cornerstone of Lovin’ Oven. Through 2015 and 2016, they expanded a seasonal flavor idea into a core strategy, changing to a new flavor every month of the year.

Working in fine dining restaurants, I would come up with new desserts on a regular basis. I had a love for creating new flavors.Ashley Coates, pastry chef & co-owner

One example of the challenges Lovin’ Oven faces while developing new flavors is the December seasonal cupcake: red velvet. “[It took] at least a year,” said Ashley. “As a pastry chef, red velvet is the simplest cupcake, because it’s just red food coloring added to chocolate cake and then cream cheese frosting. Without dairy, cream cheese was a challenge, and also we can’t use food coloring… it took a lot of experimenting.” The process is a labor of love, elevating the quality of gluten-free products in the marketplace.

According to Ashley, retail was never an option. “We always wanted to do wholesale, because we wanted to make a really good, gluten-free product that was available to anyone… so they can go to a store and buy cupcakes that were gluten-free, but didn’t taste like gluten-free cupcakes.”

What’s great about our products is people who can eat gluten, dairy, and soy try them. We’ve had people say that they are the best cupcake they have ever had!

The early years of gluten-free products set the idea in customer’s minds that gluten-free didn’t equal high quality in terms of taste. It’s been a hard challenge to overcome, but each new customer for Lovin’ Oven has become an evangelist for the product to others in their community. While the current marketplace has matured in regards to the taste of gluten-free products, no other cupcake brands are offering the variety Lovin Oven has created.

What’s Next for Lovin’ Oven in 2017?

Lovin’ Oven is expanding into more grocery stores in the Boulder/Denver area, while internal efficiency is the name of the game. They are focused on producing the same quality product while reducing time consuming elements (e.g. labeling). The future looks bright and the taste continues to be delicious.

Sara labels and bags cookies for future sale.

To see a list of locations carrying Lovin’ Oven products, head over to Lovin’ Oven Boulder.

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I hope you’ll join us on this journey through the Colorado Rocky Mountain region: Boulder, Denver, and everything in-between.

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