Here is our last Valentines Day love story! All of our Foodzie producers have a love for good food. But for some, their love of food goes hand-in-hand with their love for each other. Meet Bill & Rachel, the owners of P.O.P. Candy in Santa Monica, CA.
1. How did you meet?
Cinco De Mayo, 20ish years ago: Billy was on a quest with friends to find the best margarita and tacos in Los Angeles. One of his friends pulled Rachel in for her opinion on the matter, and the group ended up in line at a taco truck in Pasadena. Great tacos, great fun. Let the record show that when Rachel made her entrance, she looked left, locking eyes with another guy of the group, instead of right (where Bill stood). Rachel ended up hooking up with the-guy-on-the-left for the next decade…they opened up a restaurant in San Francisco (Rumpus). Bill and Rachel became really good friends through the years that followed (which was best, since Bill was married at the time). As life goes, 10 years later, they hooked up again — both single and solo this time — one Labor Day weekend over blasting music, great wine, and amazing conversation when Rachel moved back to Los Angeles, and have been together ever since that weekend. And now — cuz of the “I do” thing — will be 4ever…like tattoos.
2. How did you decide to start a food business together?
Rachel had been making a butter crunch candy that she’d give as gifts in ever increasing amounts of family and friends for year. One gift receiver, an a-list Bev Hills hair stylist, told her she should start a business selling the stuff. (She also pointed across the street at the swank Peninsula Hotel and said it was good enough to sell there. Rachel stored the suggestion in her “things to consider” mental file.) Meanwhile, Bill was stacking up his years as a restaurant consultant, but offers were taking him away from Rachel on the road. When Rachel learned that a mutual friend would be selling her handmade cards at a local farmers’ market during Christmas season 2007, she remembered her hair stylist’s suggestion, and asked if she and Bill could test the waters selling her butter crunch at a small table in the booth. The p.o.p. name and look came oh-so-easily and, at the farmers’ market, the product was an instant success. p.o.p. was invited to be a permanent vendor before the day had ended. After some deliberation (and a big decision to kill the business if need be to save the relationship), p.o.p. candy was launched (we’d love to say like a rocket, but alas, more like a cessna)!
3. What is the best thing about working together?
We’ve both always had tendencies of working WAY too many hours at our jobs. Being able to work with each other and spend countless hours together collaborating on building a successful business has been a gas (although, yes, sometimes, the deliberate silence in the room after a heated discussion has been ear piercing). We’ve found we have complimentary strengths…Rachel has been strong in the branding, vision, and direction of pop. Bill has strong business and production skills. Both have suprisingly enjoyed a steep learning curve from each other. We’ve also found that people have enjoyed us as a couple..that was never even a consideration, but’s been very fun to enjoy. We’ve gotten through some really hard stuff, the deal breaker kind. Two year’s into the business, we’re more certain than ever that our life and business partnership is exactly where we both wanna be. Fo sho.
4. Any funny stories or challenges that have resulted from working with your significant other?
Working together on new products with people we’ve met through the business in new venues has been very cool to experience — our lives have been stretched. We’ve discovered lots of new things together about people, about what works and what doesn’t, and about each other. Sometimes it’s yin and yang … Rachel’s attention to every detail…Bill’s tendency to always want to move on quickly. The challenges? Never enough time, not enough money, not enough sleep. The need to very quickly expand our production capacity three-fold within a few days’ time … that was an experience that we can actually laugh about now. A big challenge has been not having enough time for fun despite many hours together. It’s not the we don’t have fun working together, we just that we need more time NOT working … together. Maybe the biggest challenge has been learning how to take care of the relationship while taking care of the business. Finding out that we can do both made our decision to marry easy the the beginning of 2010, so all together the experience has brought us closer together than ever. What’s the saying: “If it don’t kill you, it’ll make you stronger.”
5. Who comes up with better flavors?
Bill has more food knowledge … with recipes and food combinations (i.e., rosemary almond), but Rachel brings out-of-the-box thinking, resulting in interesting flavor combinations (i.e., thyme walnut and cherries inspired by Thanksgiving stuffing), so I’d say the answer is Rachel. Think of Rachel as the kite with Bill holding the strings … together they have something that works quite well. Okay, maybe not the right metaphor … let’s see … how about Bill is the flagpole and Rachel is the flag? … no,no I’ve got it: Bill is the sound recorder and Rachel is the singer! Stop me please! What will be the next flavors? We’ll know as soon as we tasted them! All we can say is that when we hit on one, we know it right away. It’s an OMG moment.
