Telluride Truffle News

I don't often talk about the biz per see in these quips on the life of a girl in Telluride. But if you look at the date of the last entry, you will notice there is a gap of 7 months!! Where have I been ... what have I been doing? You might think I had some horrible ski accident or was kidnapped by bears - we have been broken into twice by bears - it's only natural they would want to take me with them next time - they evidently like the chocolate. "To heck with honey and berries - these truffles are GREAT. Lets just take the leader and we can have them whenever we want!"

However, no it wasn't anything so dramatic but it was the hardest thing I've done in 9 years of doing business.

For the past 4 years I have been working out of two commercial spaces 4 miles apart. One place is where we make the truffles and the other is where they are packaged and shipped. This really got insane in December when we made and shipped 38,000 truffles! All of those truffles were wrapped up in cellophane and transported in my trusty van, driven 3 miles, walked up a flight of stairs, unwrapped and put into their proper packaging and shipped out. This is what one must do when you do business in an area where commercial rent is $23 a square foot! Gotta keep the overhead DOWN. But one must also balance that with one's mental health and by January of this year, I was exhausted.

One day I called into our trusty local radio station, KOTO to Trash and Treasure, a weekly show where people put things up for sale. I called in to give something away and the DJ recognized my voice and said she heard I was looking for a commercial space. To which I answered on the air - "YES - and if anyone knows of 1000 sq feet let me know. I've been looking for 2 years!" It was my lucky day and within the hour I got a phone call, and by the end of the week we were in lease negotiations. I signed on the dotted line April 15.

The new home was a 1200 sq foot place with walls where they couldn't be, carpet that had to go and absolutely no knowledge of how to go about it. And ... not to mention I had to turn a carpeted room into a commercial kitchen with ovens, stoves, sinks etc.

I called a contractor friend, Nick, for advice to which he offered "It is going to take longer than you could imagine and cost more than you could dream. Get ready – it’s going to be a bitch.” Thinking, surely he was exaggerating, I asked “OK, now tell me, is this something I can do myself, calling electricians, plumbers etc, lining them up to work - just tell me the truth - you won’t hurt my feelings, can I do it?"

To which Nick answered, "Hell NO - you gotta get a guy. Someone who knows how to talk to these guys. Someone who knows how to deal with them." Did I take his advice? Stay tuned to hear about what is entailed when a girl with little knowledge builds something on her own in a mountain town. And I thought Bears were scary....


Part II
Keeping Nick’s advice in mind I sought a contractor. A few estimates later I found myself becoming more and more optimistic of my own abilities. Funny how much money can be a motivator! And after all, none of these contractors had actually DONE a commercial kitchen.

So I decided to become a contractor AND run a chocolate business. Now maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea in a regular city where tradesmen sign … contracts. But here in Telluride, those contract things are reserved for building BIG houses with A LOT of money. For my little job, asking for a contract would have been insulting. I’m lucky they even showed up to give me an estimate. For that matter I’m lucky they GAVE me an estimate. Not that they really held to those either.

After three long sleepless and sometimes tear filled months, the commercial kitchen was done and everything pretty much worked. But Nick was right – it was a bit of a nightmare that seemed to never end. Glad I’m awake and back in the business of being a chocolatier. Where life is rosy and everyone shows up.