CPA Changes Direction, Opens Nestle Toll House
By DAVID JONES
Contributing Editor
SHARON CAMERON for GTR Newspapers
Sandy Kinion has started a new career.
The long-term certified public accountant is now hard at work dishing out ice cream, baking cookies and serving up sandwiches at her new place of business, Nestle Toll House Café and Brick House Subs at 9616 E. 71st St. (the southwest corner of 71st Street and Mingo Road).
She is living the dream of many Americans: she owns her own business.
“It’s a bit stressful,” she admits. “Starting up a new business always takes a lot of work.”
Toll House is really two franchises rolled into one. “I went the franchise route because that’s the way I could get any backup help I need,” Kinion says.
She got a franchise from Nestle Café, which provides for the cookies and 16 flavors of ice cream and a host of exotic coffee drinks she offers. For this she went to Dallas for a dozen days of intense training. Then she took on the Brick House franchise for toasted submarine sandwiches. Brick House offered her another week of training using her own equipment in her store. She also has soups (two a day, one of which is almost always a deliciously meaty chili). She has just added five new salads.
It’s a place where people can either come in for a quick meal of hearty, nourishing food, or linger awhile over a fancy coffee or tea.
“We’re looking to get a lot of business from Union High School students,” she says. “The school is just a quarter of a mile away.”
She chose both franchises, she says, because they are not too numerous. “I think Nestle has about 70 or so outlets across the nation and we were the third Brick House unit. I think they’re up to five.
“An umbrella company handles them both so if I need help on either side I have only one number to call.”
The franchise has a colorful history.
Back in 1930, Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield purchased a Cape Cod-style toll house located halfway between Boston and New Bedford, on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts and decided to open a lodge, calling it the Toll House Inn.
In keeping with the tradition of creating delicious homemade meals, Ruth baked for guests who stayed at the inn. As she improved upon traditional Colonial recipes, Ruth’s incredible desserts began attracting people from all over New England.
One day, while preparing a batch of Butter Drop Do cookies, a favorite recipe dating back to Colonial days, Ruth cut a bar of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate into tiny bits and added them to her dough, expecting them to melt.
Instead the chocolate held its shape and softened to a delicately creamy texture. Soon, Ruth’s recipe was published in a Boston newspaper and regional sales of the delicious Nestle chocolate bar skyrocketed.
Ruth eventually approached Nestle and together they reached an agreement that allowed Nestle to print what would become the Toll House cookie recipe on the wrapper of its semi-sweet chocolate bar. Part of this agreement included supplying Ruth with all of the chocolate she could use to make her delicious cookies for the rest of her life.
The cookies served at Kinion’s Toll House café follows the recipe. “Nestle is very proud of their product and they send us the dough pre-mixed so they can ensure strict quality control. We bake them here fresh everyday. That keeps them both delicious and fresh.”
Two of Kinion’s strictest quality control experts are her son and daughter, ages 14 and 16, who love to come into the café and sample the goodies.
They were never able to do this when Mom was a CPA.
Updated 02-26-2007
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