Sponsored: Roots and Branches — The Cracker King and Queen
When you’ve operated a successful restaurant in Asbury Park, New Jersey patronized by the famous, including Bruce Springsteen, and then decide to sell it, what’s your next business move?
Once Clark and Ana Mitchell sold the Twisted Root Cafe in New Jersey, their exit strategy was to move to Asheville, North Carolina with the idea of opening a restaurant. After relocating, Clark began tinkering in his kitchen and came up with what seemed to be a foolproof recipe for crackers. The experimentation bore fruit and looking for a way to sell their crackers, they set up in tailgate markets .
Soon the crackers were selling faster than Clark could make them and taking up every available space in their home, “We had them on every flat surface”, he recalls. Clark recognized that they were on to something and the idea of opening a restaurant became less important.
Three years ago the Mitchells moved their cracker making and baking operation to a former post office in the nearly deserted downtown of Swannanoa , North Carolina, about two miles from the corporate offices and distribution center for Ingles Markets. There are currently 7 employees (3 of them part-time) that work to produce the crackers that can be found in grocery stores (like Western NC Ingles Markets), cheese shops and gourmet food shops across the United States.
For the complete blog post go to: http://inglesnutrition.blogspot.com/2015/10/roots-and-branches-on-crackers-and.html
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To hear my interview with Clark: http://www.ingles-markets.com/media/com_podcastmanager/rootsbranches.mp3
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN
Ingles Markets Corporate Dietitian
facebook.com/LeahMcgrathDietitian
800-334-4936
