Women-run shops to cure that sweet tooth
March 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under A & E, Featured, Hot hot hot
Indulge Bakery, 1377 Forest Park Circle, suite 102, Lafayette.
Linda Willetto journeyed from her Easy Bake Oven in elementary school to starting Indulge Bakery with her husband Thomas Willetto in November 2006.
Linda, now 46, knew she wanted to be in the restaurant business after taking a cake decorating class in seventh grade.
“I’ve always liked cooking,” Linda says. “I’d make cakes for my friends (in junior high). I didn’t make a wedding cake until I was in college.”
In their 20 years of marriage, the couple shared the idea of opening a bakery. Having three children of their own, they created a family-friendly environment and a European-style shop where children can peer into cases of specially decorated cakes, cookies and other pastries. These goodies have no preservatives and most are made from scratch.
“We are accommodating to what our customers want,” Linda says.
Recently, the Willettos started making gluten-free goodies, and now the couple is attempting to make delicious dairy-free baked goods. “Our No. 1 rule: If it doesn’t taste good, we won’t sell it,” Thomas says.
Concertos in Chocolate, 6395 Gunpark Drive, suite R, Boulder.
Stepping inside Concertos in Chocolate makes your nose tingle with excitement from the rich, fresh smell of chocolate.
Having a lifelong love for chocolate, Chris Widlar, 50, of Boulder County, searched for better tasting chocolate that did not contain artificial flavor and ingredients and opened Concertos in Chocolate in 1999.
“I started out in my garage and had really just planned some seasonal chocolate and chocolate for corporate gifts, and it kept growing and growing,” Widlar says.
Widlar’s secret weapon is her own all-natural, handmade caramel. It is richer than traditional American-made caramel because of the heavy cream and butter, she says.
Alongside her specialty caramel, she makes 25 different flavored truffles, fruit gigs, toffee, marzipan and other mouth-watering confections. Of her products, 95 percent are all natural.
Shamane’s Bake Shoppe, 2825 Wilderness Place, suite 800, Boulder
Every day is Valentine’s for Shamane Simons and her husband Matt Dessi, Simons says.
“Our relationship is 99 percent laughter,” she says.
She laughs remembering one Valentine’s Day when the couple wanted to go to a new restaurant to celebrate. They made reservations, but when they arrived they discovered they were not on the list. Instead, they made the best of it sitting at the bar laughing about how it felt like prom night.
The two Boulder residents have been married almost seven years. Simons, now 38, met Dessi, 37, nine years ago through her roommate. Dessi’s Italian heritage caught her attention.
“I was intrigued by him because he grew up in an Italian family in New York and his family owned a bakery in Little Italy,” Simons says.
Along with pastries and local coffees, black and white photos of his family business, Pradella’s Italian Bakery, decorate Shamane’s Bake Shoppe. On one wall, Dessi’s great aunt smiles and stares out the front glass window of the old bakery. On the neighboring wall, two of Dessi’s uncles hold a basket of fresh bread. Below the photo, Dessi’s great uncle shyly smiles from under a fedora hat.
“The photos have sentimental value,” Simons says. “They make great decorations but have a story behind them.”
The couple tries to spend time together, despite Simons’ busy schedule and late nights at the bakery. The couple has date nights at the shop, where Dessi brings dinner and puts on music while Simons finishes up her work.
“What brought us together were my passion for food and his family’s traditions with food, and his passion and talent for music and my love for music,” Simons says.
— By Emily Burrows-Poretsky
New kid on the block
Vanessa Metalli Dionne grew up near Rome working in her parents’ restaurant, baking and making pastry. But it wasn’t until she moved the United States in 2003 that she became interested in chocolate.
“The more I studied, the more I discovered about chocolate,” she says. “I got a little bit addicted. Dark chocolate … the flavor and the way I can manipulate it to make chocolate. I can use my artistry and my passion for baking and pastry and combine it. It’s my perfect medium,” she says.
Dionne started her company, Desiderio Chocolates, in 2008.
“I make molded chocolates. I like to paintbrush them,” she says. “I use ganache filling with fresh cream, local and organic as much as possible, butter, organic nuts and organic fruit purees.”
In a couple of her chocolates, she uses brews from Left Hand Brewing Co. Dionne works out of the Glacier Ice Cream store in Longmont, and her chocolates are available there and at Cheese Importers in Longmont.
— By Cindy Sutter
