Happy New Year Everyone. Last year was quite an amazing year for us here at Lone Cone Toffee. We found our permanent home at last by establishing Dolce Paradiso Bakery in Indian Trail, NC. When we aren’t cooking toffee, we are baking fabulous pastries.

Sales of Lone Cone Toffee this past holiday season were down a bit from last year but profits were up. It’s remarkable what a difference having an efficient operation will have on your bottom line. My marketing efforts this season were greatly curtailed due to the time required to get Dolce Paradiso Bakery up and running. This year I plan to devote the resources required to remedy that. My current goal is to get Lone Cone Toffee into the mouths of as many of the visitors coming to Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention in September as is possible. If you have any connections to anyone who could help to make this happen, I would very much like your help in getting connected with them.

Sometimes I am asked why I continue to make Lone Cone Toffee year after year when it has yet to be as profitable as I know it has the potential to be and far beyond when most rational people would have thrown in the towel. Besides the fact that I am a Capricorn and really can’t help it, there is this; I was recently forwarded an email sent to one of my regular customers from someone to whom he sent Lone Cone Toffee this year.

“If no one has ever told you, your horns are growing out of you head, and you are the Satan of giving. That TOFFEE you sent us is about the best tasting dang thing I have EVER put in my mouth. The more you eat, the more you want. I will be driving down the road and all I think about is getting back to the house to have some of that darn toffee. If the Good Lord wants the wicked to march off a mile high cliff, all it would take is a pole, a string and a piece of this toffee hanging about 10 feet out.There is no doubt, this is the best tasting candy I can remember ever eating.”

That’s the reason. I also had a woman drive two hours each way solely for the purpose of making sure she had Lone Cone Toffee in hand for an immediate gift she needed. How do you stop something that provokes that reaction from people? I still have faith that Lone Cone Toffee will one day be a household name. I admit that it is taking a lot longer than I anticipated but we’re getting there.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

The next great reason to buy Lone Cone Toffee is right around the corner. As you can see, we are packaging the toffee for Valentine’s Day. So give something different this year. There just isn’t anyone who wouldn’t love to receive a gift of Lone Cone Toffee. Remember, it’s not just for Christmas.

There is still time to send Lone Cone Toffee for the holidays. Why not make it easy on yourself and send the best toffee they will ever taste to those you would like to appreciate and/or impress? You can mail your order form to the address listed on it or fax it to 888-235-9863 or shop online at  www.loneconetoffee.com. Order by December 20th, use coupon code XMAS11 and save 10% on your order. I get calls all the time from people who have received a gift from Lone Cone Toffee and love it. It is often times the only gift they remember. Make someone’s holiday a little sweeter, give Lone Cone Toffee.

Today is the anniversary of the day I got locked in a walk in freezer for an hour and half of very interesting reflection. If you’d like to learn about that exciting adventure you can click here.

I wish you a happy and sweet holiday season. Please let me know if I can help you with that.

This year, we’re offering Black Friday savings all this week on your purchases of Lone Cone Toffee for the holidays. Order your toffee before midnight on Friday, November 25th and save 10% on your purchase. Just go to www.loneconetoffee.com , and use Coupon Code BF2011. Or you can fax your gift list to 888 235-9863; tell us what to put on your gift card and the date you want your Lone Cone Toffee to be sent. Then relax knowing that everyone on your list is going to be very happy with their gift from you this year; the best Lone Cone Toffee ever produced.

In addition to offering our four flavors of toffee: Original Butter Almond, Coffee, Peanut and Peppermint, Lone Cone Toffee and Dolce Paradiso Bakery have joined forces to create gift baskets that contain both toffee and pastries made using toffee tailings. Toffee Oatmeal Craisin Cookies and Lone Cone Toffee Brownies make our gift baskets even more special and welcome than before. You can check out all of our products by visiting www.loneconetoffee.com.

I would really appreciate it if you would do both me and your friends a favor and email this newsletter to them with a recommendation. I bet they’d appreciate the opportunity to send their friends and clients Lone Cone Toffee too.

On the bakery front, Dolce Paradiso Bakery will have been open for five months already on the 23rd of November. We’re not yet where we need to be but we’re getting there. We have lots of regular customers now and we get people in here all the time that were told about us by their friends in very glowing terms. It’s very gratifying. We do a lot of special orders of decorated cakes and our menu is constantly evolving. It’s fun and I’m having a great time.

I want to thank you all for your continued support of Lone Cone Toffee and Dolce Paradiso Bakery and to wish you all a blessed, safe and most of all, sweet holiday season.

The bakery is getting many return customers and great word of mouth. We get the most lovely compliments about our pastries and people are so happy that we are here. There are very few bakeries in Charlotte and people are finding Dolce Paradiso Bakery to be the best of the lot. And very encouraging to me, customers are coming in specifically for Lone Cone Toffee. They are very happy to be able to get it anytime they want and not just for Christmas. I always knew that Lone Cone Toffee was not just a Christmas time treat. Now everyone else is learning that too.

On that note, it is time to get your holiday order for Lone Cone Toffee in to me ASAP. You can download an order form and all orders received and paid for before October 31st will receive a 15% discount. You can either fax me your order form to 888-235-9863 or order online by going to www.loneconetoffee.com. Let us take the pressure off this year. You can be sure that everyone on your gift list will be thrilled to receive a box of Lone Cone Toffee. Or send them a gift basket, which contains not only Lone Cone Toffee but also Toffee Oatmeal Craisin Cookies and Lone Cone Toffee Brownies. It will be a gift that will delight everyone who receives it and will be sure to be remembered to years to come. That may seem like a presumptuous boast but it’s actually true. I’ve been told many times that Lone Cone Toffee is the best gift that people receive each year. It’s an honor to be able to provide that. Share that feeling with me. Give Lone Cone Toffee this year.

I have, at long last, wonderful news to share.  Our new space is complete and gorgeous.  And open for business. I have a new partner in my bakery enterprise, Azeb Kidane, from Tigray, Ethiopia and she specializes in Italian pastry which she learned in Milan, Italy.  To honor her special skills, we have renamed the bakery, Dolce Paradiso Bakery.  She makes the best Tiramisu and Cannolis I have ever had.  She actually just popped into the office and fed me a special treat that we are calling Chocolate Surprise.  It is a chocolate cup filled with rum soaked cake and topped with her wonderful pastry cream and a fresh blueberry.  Just what I needed for a late afternoon pick me up.  Who needs dinner?  I’ve always been a dessert first kind of gal and that was just perfection.

Of course, Lone Cone Toffee, will be made here.  This is my first permanent location since leaving Colorado 8 ½ years ago and I could not be more thrilled.  I have everything I need here, lots of space and no need to get my product out of the building within hours of its preparation.  I hardly know how to act with this richness of space and location.

You can find us at 4409 Old Monroe Rd. in the Indian Trail shopping center.  If you are in or near the Charlotte area, please drop by and see what we have to offer.  I promise you will be glad you made the trip.  We are giving a free Ooh Ooh Cookie, a Broderick family favorite for 4 generations, with all purchases over $5 through July 4^th.  We look forward to meeting you and sharing with you some of the finest pastries you will ever taste.

Click here to view. ]]> http://loneconetoffee.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=60 0 http://loneconetoffee.com/blog/?p=57 http://loneconetoffee.com/blog/?p=57#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:11:46 +0000 admin http://loneconetoffee.com/blog/?p=57 I was in my car yesterday listening to the radio and they were bemoaning the fact that there are so few bakeries in Charlotte. All I could think was, “Boy do I have a great surprise for you!”

Our Store

Lone Cone Toffee & Grancy’s Bakery is at 1st and 10 on the 5 yard line. The shop is almost complete and we are hoping to be in there soon providing Charlotte with delicious pastries and four flavors of Lone Cone Toffee. What we need is for all our friends, which includes you, to give Lone Cone Toffee this Valentine’s Day to all those who are on you gift list. Show us some love while you are showing love to those who are close to you. This will aid immeasurably in getting us over the goal line and into our nearly completed shop. Not only will you be helping me but you will be doing a great service to the poor folks of Charlotte who are obviously in need of wonderful pastries.

The shop is not yet open.  But it’s very close.  The hood is installed.  The floors in the shop and office are tiled and grouted.  The place is painted.  Only a few things to go and I’ll be in there doing my thing.  Is it wrong of me to contemplate locking my aforementioned son, who possesses excellent carpentry skills, into that shop and not letting him leave till it’s finished?  I figure the kid owes me big time and it would be a good time to collect a little.

It has been disappointing to be unable to cook even a single batch of toffee in the new shop this year.  But with my excellent team helping and under very trying circumstances, we were able to get every order filled.  I know some mistakes were made.  I’m frankly surprised there weren’t more.  I can’t ever remember working under such chaotic conditions and I am very proud of the work my team has done and the fine quality of the product we have produced.  We’ve had thousands of new people have the opportunity to taste Lone Cone Toffee at the kiosk in Northlake Mall and are getting wonderful feedback.  A strong foundation has been laid and we expect to grow and thrive in 2011 at Lone Cone Toffee & Grancy’s Bakery.  Opening Soon.  I really mean it this time.

Please have a wonderful and safe holiday season.  Enjoy your loved ones.  And please keep us in mind when you want to impress someone with a delicious and memorable gift anytime of the year.  Lone Cone Toffee….Where do you hide yours?”

Things are moving a little slower than I had hoped for in my new shop (I admit, I had totally unrealistic expectations. That’s one of my most troublesome characteristics.) but they are moving and it is almost done.  The walls are up.  The painter has primed them.  The ceiling track has been repaired.  The electricity and plumbing are almost complete, all equipment has been purchased.  I should be cooking in there before Thanksgiving.  Holy Moly, that’s next week.  My contractor, Trace Dodson, from Paradigm Design who is also my son-in law, is doing a remarkable job for me and saving me all kinds of money.  You should all be so lucky in your choice of sons in law.

Huge progress is being made on other fronts and although there is at least one daily setback, we continue to get things accomplished.  The packaging I have been designing in my head for 15 years is now an actuality and it is gorgeous.

We opened a kiosk at Northlake Mall on November 1^st.  I have an amazing young man, John McDonnell, running it for me and I feel truly blessed to have him on my team.  He hired and trained the sales force for it and is a no nonsense task master.  My kind of employee. Our location in the mall, which is the premier upscale shopping experience to be found near Charlotte, is ideal.  We are right past the food court which is at the main 2^nd floor entrance.  The elevator doors open right in front of Lone Cone Toffee’s kiosk and right behind us is a railing that looks down on Santa Clause.

First of all:  the name of the store is going to be Lone Cone Toffee & Grancy’s Bakery. The Sweet Spot was taken. Multiple times. Do I love the name? Let’s just say I love each of the names and they rather succinctly say what’s happening in the store.

The space is coming along nicely.  It’s been slow to this point what with getting architectural plans and permits and such but now everything is ready to move quickly. My contractor tells me that we should be ready to open by November 1st.