Dessert Maker May Be Coming To Our Rescue

At a lecture I recently attended, a tablemate who shops only in downtown Spokane, urged me to “use your column sometime to agitate for a Hallmark Shop.”

Agitate.

How well that word describes what I sometimes do.

Two weeks ago today, this column agitated for an entrepreneur to specialize in low-fat and non-fat foods in Spokane.

Low and behold - next day I got a call from Seattle-based Brown’s Sugarless Bakery, creator of “Exquisite Desserts.”

The baker of sugarless, low-fat and non-fat products has its sights set on Spokane.

Debbie Egger, herself a product of Spokane, said a friend faxed the column “because she, too, has wanted to have our type of production in the Spokane area, and can’t find anything like it.”

The bakery dates back to 1979, when it began developing a line of all-natural sugar-free products.

“About four years ago, we decided we would develop a no/low fat sugar-free line,” says Egger. Today, the company produces a line of 250 different no/low fat sugar-free bakery and dessert products.

“We are not a gimmick,” declares Egger, “and we do not like the taste of cardboard.

“We do not fill our products with fat to hide the sugar loss, and we are not adding sugar or chemicals to hide the fat loss. Everything is baked from scratch. We do not allow any mixes in our bakery.”

But acceptance hasn’t come easy.

“We think,” said Egger, “that finally there is a large portion of the population that feels the same as you stated in your column (of Nov. 27).

“The Spokane Chapter of the American Diabetes Society estimates that there are over 45,000 diabetics in the greater Spokane area. That’s 15 percent of the Spokane population!”

Besides diabetics, dieters, and others into health food and natural foods, Egger says, many of the bakery’s customers are cutting back on sugar intake on the advice of their doctors in order to avoid major mood swings.

I know a number of people right in this office who would do well to consider becoming regular customers.

And they should soon have that opportunity.

The bakery recently sponsored the American Diabetes Walkathon in Spokane, said Egger, and “since then we have been in contact with Tidymans and Rosauers. They were receptive.

“We are now in the process,” Egger reports, “of working out the logistics of shipping our products over in their frozen dough forms, so that their in-store bakeries can bake them off fresh daily.”

How delectible are these goodies?

Well, Egger boasts, recently Brown’s sugar-free pies won a Seattlewide bake-off in competition with sugar pies.

Can you beat that?

Now, about Hallmark. I don’t know how to say this without injuring feelings - but a number of downtown shops already stock cards, more or less.

But it seems a lot of shoppers have this thing for Hallmark. At any rate, that’s the name I hear repeatedly from readers who perceive a lack of this particular commodity downtown.

In the skywalk level of Crescent Court alone, at least two shops sell cards. One, the Card Farm, specializes in cards.

But, according to a flier, it also offers gift wrap, T-shirts, balloons, stuffed animals, gifts, calendars, books, invitations, stationary, and much, much more. Too much? Beats me.

Another store, just down the hall - I don’t recall the name - specializes more in gifts and accessories for the home. I would bet there are still others downtown with card racks, too.

But no Hallmark.

Customers of Sears in Spokane can take advantage of a new wrinkle on Christmas shopping this year - guilt-free gift returns. At least it’s new to me.

Recently, I loaded up on power tools for everyone in the family.

The clerk took one look at the mountain of stuff I had piled up in a corner by the cash register, and asked if I would like a separate printout for each purchase, listing the item number and price in code.

That way, you can tuck the receipt into the box with the gift, without the recipient knowing the price. Then, if worse comes to worst, he or she can return the gift, no-questions asked, without your even knowing it, and get what they really wanted.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review