Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/623506
8012 Hankins Industrial Park Toano, VA 23168 800-831-1828 • wholesale@ThePeanutShop.com Ask about our NEW free-standing foor display. Attractive custom retail d isplay unit designed to complement Te Peanut Shop of Williamsburg® line of products, enhance t he customer in-store experience, and increase overall sales. Unit blends easily with most retail d écor, maximizes f oor space with the use of vert i cal d isplay, and i n creases visibility of product closer to eye- l evel . Encl osed bottom storage cabinet has room for ad d ition al stock below and top surface for open-can sampling. Tree purchase options available. Call 800-831-1828 for more information. Or visit us at the Winter Fancy Food Show, Booth 988. Nova Scotia-born mother, Effie, keeping them in the cabinet, but they were synony- mous with her childhood. "I can envision my father sitting in a recliner watching Lawrence Welk and eating oatcakes with stinky, stinky cheese on top of it and rai- sins," she recalls. "To me it was always in the house and was something I loved." MacIsaac had proof that others loved them as well. While working as a chef in Seattle, she made the oatcakes for friends in the restaurant scene. They went wild for them, and a baker friend began to stock them in her shop. When she moved back to the Boston area, she sold the oatcakes in the small retail store that complemented her catering business. They were a consistent best seller. Besides being delicious, oatcakes benefit from built-in versatility: They are tasty when served plain or when paired with cheeses, jams, and other spreadables. Costello and MacIsaac knew it was the ideal foundational product for their new business. Learning to Love Scale To get Effie's started, MacIsaac and Costello made the oatcakes by hand in rented indus- trial kitchens and, less officially, in a friend's pie kitchen. Before long, they realized they didn't have the resources to make enough oatcakes to be profitable. Irene found a piece of industrial machinery that could be the solution, but MacIsaac was skeptical. Coming from the restaurant business, she was accustomed to having her hands on every detail. "I used to be the caterer that would make every single cracker that went on the cheese and cracker plate," she remembers. Though she conceded the need to introduce machinery, she was adamant that they not sacrifice product quality. "I didn't think it was going to work," she recalls. "I was like, this is my dough, this is my baby—it's going to overwork it, it's going to be tough." Yet when the first batch came off the line, MacIsaac declared it a success. "That was the biggest eureka moment," she explains. Not only would they be able to produce enough oatcakes to build a viable business, they would be able to produce oatcakes that would make her father proud. It was time to enter into another part- nership—with a co-packer. They needed to find someone who had the right equip- ment and who shared their business values, plus it was the first time in their profes- sional lives that they would surrender their recipe. MacIsaac and Costello cite trust as Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 988 producer profile 62 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com