Jean-Yves Charon and Paul Levitan founded Galaxy Desserts in 1998.
Photo by Joel Williams
Published: July, 2006
Galaxy Desserts
Jean-Yves Charon and Paul Levitan founded Galaxy Desserts in 1998. Each owned small bakeries at the time, and so they merged to form a single company specializing in producing individual gourmet desserts, which are sold through catalogues and direct mail sites, in high-end food stores and upscale restaurants and hotels all over the country.
Galaxy Desserts has won numerous national awards and now has a well-known reputation, due in part to Jean-Yves’ four appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
By the summer of 2004, Galaxy was busting at the seams in the original San Rafael location, and a search began for a new location in the Bay Area.
Charon and Levitan decided on Richmond’s Marina Bay for many reasons, including its central location and convenience for their employees. Plus, the price was right and the space was previously used for food production.
According to Levitan, We found a space that was set up for food and we could see what we could do here so we were thrilled. Everything else has been great! And, as it turns out, Richmond’s temperate climate has proven to be an added bonus as it greatly reduces energy costs required for air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it is. says Levitan, For food manufacturing, this nice cool weather is wonderful.
Salute E Vita Ristorante
Just a few blocks away, in a building modeled after the picturesque Cape Cod Victorian style on the waterfront overlooking Richmond’s Marina Bay, is Salute E Vita Ristorante.
Salute serves authentic Italian cuisine with updated creative dishes and traditional pastas and entrees. They serve their own handmade desserts and also some of Galaxy Desserts’ tarts and mousse cakes.
The owner, Menbere Aklilu, grew up in Italy. She speaks four languages and worked with family restaurateurs in Rome before moving to the United States in 1995.
Aklilu says, When people think of Richmond, they have the wrong mentality. Then they come here and are surprised because they see this beautiful atmosphere, gorgeous views and nice location.
She started by working at Salute as a hostess for $7 an hour and was promoted to a managerial position within the first six months. Four years ago, when the previous owners wanted to sell the restaurant, they thought Aklilu would be the best person to take ownership. She jumped at the opportunity. Her first proprietary decision was to make changes to the recipes to more authentically represent the food from her native Italy, replacing dishes she terms Italian food, Americanized.
Aklilu insists on fresh authentic Italian ingredients and sauces. Everything is made from scratch, including the pastas. The tomato sauce is always made with fresh tomatoes, never canned ingredients. The result is a true representation of what you would find in Italy in a restaurant operated by knowledgeable staff, native to that region.
Zoe’s Cookies
Zoe Smith started selling her home-baked cookies and brownies in 1981 at the Ashby BART Station Flea Market in Berkeley, to supplement her income after giving birth to her daughter. She added a few cafés in Richmond, but didn’t have a proper business license and was told that she could not continue selling the products she made at home commercially. Since she knew she had something special to offer, she obtained the proper licensing and rented space at local bakeries during their off hours to produce her gourmet cookies. Over the next three years she sold her cookies to local stores and restaurants.
She now has 24 employees at her own bakery, also located near the Marina Bay and directly across from the entrance to Galaxy Desserts. Smith and staff from Galaxy occasionally collaborate and combine orders from suppliers for products they both use.
Smith, a Richmond resident, is happy to have found her current business location in the same city. She and her employees often walk down the block to the waterfront to enjoy the spectacular view during their lunch breaks.
Since 1993, her business has grown steadily. Zoe’s Cookies is now producing almost 70,000 units a week for the close to 500 locations she serves. Smith is also her own sales force, personally opening new accounts. That’s no small feat for someone with an art background and no formal business training.
Smith has six vans making deliveries in the Bay Area and as far away as Sacramento. All deliveries are made the day after baking to ensure the freshest products are on the shelves. Everything is still made from scratch despite the constant efforts of her suppliers to sell her premixed products.
I’m a perfectionist, I like things to be done as perfect as possible, Smith says. As an example, she started offering a line of vegan cookies a couple of years ago. I worked on those recipes for over six months before I started selling them. They’re so good that if I didn’t tell you they were vegan you wouldn’t know. They’re that good!
Wine.com
One of the newest waterfront businesses relocating to Richmond’s Marina Bay is the nation’s largest online wine retailer, Wine.com.
When our lease was up, we learned about the Ford Building and saw a great opportunity to be part of a historical building in an up-and-coming area, says Rich Bergsund, Wine.com’s chief executive officer, The city of Richmond has welcomed us enthusiastically, and we look forward to being a good partner with the city in the years ahead.
Wine.com was founded in 1998. It offers a huge selection of premium and super-premium wine and wine-related gifts at competitive prices and ships them to businesses and homes. Bergsund says, Our California distribution center is our largest and this new Richmond facility will set us up for shipping millions of orders to our customers
Wine.com’s mission is to be the ultimate resource for aspiring wine enthusiasts. Not just a huge assortment of products, but relevant information, recommendations and an online community to help people find the right wines for themselves. In fact, hundreds of thousands of wine enthusiasts give the company regular feedback about what they like and don’t like, then Wine.com provides that information to its customers to help them find wines they’ll enjoy.
Wine.com is scheduled to move from its current location on the Oakland Army base to the historic Ford Point Building in Richmond in early July, with approximately 50 employees, and they plan to hire additional staff for the holiday season.
Photo courtesy of Wine.com
Photo courtesy of Galaxy Desserts (left) / Photo by Joel Williams (right)
