Susan Feller has a cookie fetish.
"My favorite thing is to eat a chocolate chip cookie," Feller said.
But she also has celiac disease, a disorder triggered by eating gluten found in wheat, barley, rye and in most oats. "If I ingest a crumb, I get very sick."
That meant no more chocolate chip cookies for her, let alone other desserts. Most are made with ingredients that contain gluten.
Since being diagnosed three years ago with the disease, Feller searched for gluten-free baked goods that tasted as good as the food she used to enjoy.
She was not satisfied with what she found, so she began experimenting with her own recipes. After numerous tests - her sons were her tasters - she found what she believes is the right formula.
Feller now makes and sells containers of her frozen dough for chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar and chocolate chip with pecan cookies. She also makes two-layer iced chocolate, carrot and coconut cakes that are sold frozen.
She's applying for a patent for her flour mixture. "I was able to produce gluten-free baked goods that have the same taste, texture and appearance as the highest quality non-gluten-free desserts," said Feller, who retired as a guidance counselor at Mills Godwin High School in Henrico County about four years ago.
Her 3 Fellers Bakery cookie dough is sold at the area's two Good Foods Grocery natural-food stores, at Rebecca's in Charlottesville and at six Ukrop's stores (Short Pump Crossing, the Shoppes at CrossRidge, John Rolfe Commons, Gayton Crossing Shopping Center, Carytown and Harbour Pointe).
She also sells items from her Web site (www.3fellersbakery.com).
A 1-pound container of cookie dough sells for between $5.99 and $7.49.
The 3 Fellers Bakery business has grown since she began selling the containers to natural-foods stores in spring 2007. Ukrop's began selling the items in December.
She started by selling about 10 pounds of cookie dough weekly with an occasional order for a cake. Now she sells between 50 and 80 pounds a week of cookie dough along with dozens of mini cakes, cupcakes and specialty cakes.
She makes the items in her kitchen. She said she is fully certified by the Health Department.
Feller has outgrown the location and is negotiating a contract to buy a building in Goochland County for the 3 Fellers Bakery operations.
Bottoms Up
The Bottoms Up Pizza in western Henrico County is under new ownership.
"We're hoping to restore the food to what people would get in Shockoe Bottom," said Dirk Graham, co-owner of the original Bottoms Up at 17th and Dock streets.
The restaurant, which opened on Nuckols Road in September 2004, was sold to James Jones.
Graham and business partner Steve Lewis also took back the franchising development right that Bottoms Up Development LLC had to operate additional locations and to franchise the gourmet-pizza restaurant.
The development company, whose president was Chris DeCapri, owner of the local Capri Jewelers chain, had hoped to franchise dozens of Bottoms Up locations along the East Coast.
"Capri Jewelers has grown tremendously and demands more and more of my time," DeCapri said in an e-mail. "The restaurant is also a hands-on business, and I was approached by a very capable operator with a nice offer."
As far as future franchising, Lewis said he and Graham have no intention to do so at this point.
"Franchising is a very intense process," Lewis said. "If we were to expand Bottoms Up, we would do it on a partnership basis with someone or do it ourselves."
Contact Gregory J. Gilligan at (804) 649-6379 or ggilligan@timesdispatch.com.
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