What the heck is a GrendelSweet ?

Before I go onto more business side discussions, the most often asked question is about the name GrendelSweets. There is a discussion on the website FAQ but here's the short version:

Once upon a time my wife read a short story (unfortunately we haven't been able to find it again) that told a version of the Beowulf/Grendel saga from Grendel's point of view. Basically Grendel couldn't understand why everyone was mad at him since all he wanted to do was to continue eating those wonderful, brightly colored, sweets that were both soft and crunchy at the same time. Think carefully about this, you'll either go *ewww* or laugh, and maybe both.

You have to realize that my wife has a very good palate, but she is really much more texturally oriented than many other folks, and she couldn't continue to eat regular truffles for a long period of time since they're always so smooth and creamy, they needed more of a crunch. She then went on to develope her signature Truffle Cookie, a full truffle on a shortbread cookie base, hand decorated and in many flavor combinations. Of course, when she needed a company name it had to involve Grendel, and so GrendelSweets was born.

I guess it would've been more correct to name it Grendel's Sweets but apostrophes don't work well with most logo/web attempts (nor the dual 's'). Why not name it after herself as so many other Chocolatiers do ? Basically she's kinda shy, and she appreciates quality quirky-ness so the name was very apropos for the style in which she wants to work. The customers we're aiming for will appreciate the flavors, and will think the Grendel story is funny, if you don't get it, well GrendelSweets probably isn't for you.

Shhh !!! Its a Secret ..

My wife runs GrendelSweets as well as its retail outlet Caffe Lento but she doesn't quite have the time to blog about what its like to run a small independent business so I'm going to try and do that for her. We'll have to wait and see how long it takes before she notices this blog.