Shelley Muzzy and her husband like to travel. They have been going to Southeast Asia for many years where Shelley engages in her other passion – shopping. She collects textiles and is fascinated by fabrics of all kinds.
“Some friends have passed away recently and that made me take a long look at my life,” Muzzy said. “I knew I couldn’t have a meaningful retirement where I worked. Buying and selling has been a constant in my life. If I have to work, I might as well do what I like. Everything just fell into place. I was amazed at how family and friends pitched in with ideas and physical support.”
She’s starting with the gift shop, called Bijoux, and plans to add an espresso bar later.
“I want this to be a place where you can come in, sit down, have coffee and learn about independent travel,” Muzzy said.
The Muzzys will make one or two trips per year to buy for the store.
“There’s so much more out there than you see in most import stores,” she said. “We will have those unique items. It’s an odd niche and I expect the store will evolve.”
The owner of the Cornwall Avenue store was born in Bellingham.
“I am totally committed to downtown,” Muzzy said. “It has so much potential and it’s exciting to be down here. I want to participate in the revival.”
Another of Muzzy’s passions is greeting cards and she’s collected some you won’t find anywhere else.
“I also like incense, but not the kind that most stores carry,” she said. “We’ll have some body and bath products from the same source as our incense.”
Muzzy is an enthusiastic member of the National Fair Trade Association.
“This store is the culmination of all my values and passions,” she said. “We’ll have some antique and collectible textiles, pillows and curtains. I’m buying some things from an African women’s coop. Some of the greeting cards and jewelry will be from local artists.”
Bijoux will carry a line of proprietary essential oils.
“I’ve worked in retail most of my life,” Muzzy said. “I had a vintage clothing store and ran a Middle Eastern dance troupe, so I have some idea what I’m getting into. I have no unrealistic expectations about income. The whole thing came together so fast I didn’t have time to ask for advice, but I may do that in the future.”
Her motto is “everything has a story.”
“People work hard for their money and gift items are a luxury,” Muzzy said. “I want to give them something more than just an object. Fair trade doesn’t mean that items are more expensive, it just means that there’s a win win situation for both the producer and consumer. Good business can include an element of compassion.”

First we reported on a music store with an espresso bar. Now it’s a salon and spa with an espresso bar. Amy Beaty and Alicia Davis recently introduced Le Roux, a Fairhaven salon and day spa with a coffee shop upstairs.
“The two of us met in beauty school and worked at other salons after graduation,” Beaty said. “Our goal was always to open our own business. We found this building and decided to go for it.”
With help from their husbands, they thoroughly renovated a building set just back from Harris Avenue. Dark, polished wood and rich tapestries give the business an opulent ambiance.
“We did our business plan and got help from the SBA and Whidbey Island Bank,” Beaty said. “Alicia has a finance degree from Western, so we’ve got some business expertise. We knew we wanted to combine a salon and coffee shop.”
They looked at other places but the Fairhaven location won hands down.
“We’re both stylists,” Beaty said. “We’ve hired two baristas, two receptionists, two massage therapists and an aesthetician. It was easy to get receptionists and baristas, but much tougher to get a nail tech. We interviewed a lot of people. We want to be competitive, so we’re pretty picky. There are lots of salons out there and we wanted to be different.”
Le Roux serves coffee from Batdorf and Bronson, an Olympia roaster.
“Fairhaven really responded to our grand opening,” Beaty said. “There were lots of flowers and we felt totally welcomed.”
Marketing is one of the toughest challenges.
“We have two target groups – moms aged 25-50 with kids who need some occasional pampering and college students who will find this a great place to hang out and study,” Beaty said. “This is a great work environment. We want to be a high end salon with a great reputation.”
Another unique offering is a double room where couples can get massages together. Le Roux means red in French. It probably won’t be long before Le Roux is in le noir.

It was time for Scott Harksell to go out on his own. He’s lived in Whatcom County all his life and his father owned a service station in Ferndale. Things were tough in the early 1980s, so Harksell went to Bellingham Technical College and studied surveying. He worked for 15 years at Northwest Surveying. That company was growing steadily and plenty of work was still available, so Harksell opened Compass Point Surveying Group.
“I’ve been working in Lynden for years and have a lot of clients in this area,” he said. “The market is strong enough to support two offices in the North County.”
That’s not to say he doesn’t also get a lot of work in Bellingham.
“Surveying tends to follow the construction boom, which means we’re laying out a lot of subdivisions,” Harksell said. “There are many people coming in and buying lots that haven’t been surveyed. Getting a survey first can alert a buyer to potential problems. That has become more of an issue as people build bigger houses on smaller lots – densification.”
Harksell got his professional land surveyor’s license from the state in 1995 and now has three survey technicians working for him with a combined 21 years experience.
“It requires a pretty hefty capital investment to outfit an office and field crew, including vehicles,” Harksell said. “It’ll probably run 25 to 30 percent of the first year’s receipts.”
He did a business plan and secured an SBA loan through Peoples Bank.
“I’ve picked up most of my business knowledge along the way,” Harksell said. “State regulations say we can’t claim to be better than anyone else in our ads, so we depend a lot on referrals and word of mouth.”
Finding good surveyors can be difficult, something that’s true throughout the industry.
“I was able to hire people who were working for me at the other business,” Harksell said. “I want to keep the job interesting by giving them different types of work, paying them well and giving them input on business decisions.”
Over the years, Harksell has developed great familiarity and expertise in dealing with the Whatcom County municipalities.
“Due to our knowledge of requirements and staff preferences in each city, we can keep projects from encountering unanticipated delays,” he said.

Todd Peltz claims he’s part of a dying breed. It’s hard to argue that very few people anymore take the time to make pizza completely from scratch using only the finest ingredients. Peltz also makes East Coast style pizza and if you don’t think there’s a difference, you need to check out The Original New York Pizza Place on Bender Road in Lynden.
“I came to Seattle from Brooklyn in 1979 and couldn’t find decent pizza anywhere,” Peltz said. “So I collected $40,000 from about 500 people and went to watch a buddy of mine make pizza back in New York. I kept mixing dough until I got it right, then I opened my first pizza place in Seattle.”
Eventually, Peltz had locations in Pioneer Square, the Columbia Tower, Northgate and Green Lake. A readers’ poll named his pizza the best in Seattle five years in a row.
“It’s a secret recipe using brick ovens, handmade dough and Wisconsin mozzarella cheese,” Peltz said.
He lived in Seattle for 26 years and met his wife in a softball league. She happened to be from Lynden.
“I always wanted to be able to ride my bike to work,” Peltz said.
He sold his last restaurant in Seattle and moved north. In partnership with a well-known local restaurateur, Peltz opened his Lynden restaurant in April.
“We’re going to get this one right, then maybe open more,” he said.
The Original New York Pizza Place employs 25 people.
“It’s tough to get good kitchen help and that’s where it’s most important,” Peltz said. “This place is actually doing better than other restaurants I’ve had, especially the bar. It’s a long drive for people from Bellingham and that makes it a hard sell. Once they’ve tried the pizza, though, they’ll be back.”
Peltz describes his restaurant as a family oriented place and says he’s committed to the community.
“I work 17 hours a day,” he said. “This is a tough business.”
Having grown up on the East Coast, I can vouch for the fact that the pizza was better there. Now it’s here and a lot of us are sighing with relief.

Chocoholics Unanimous, Lynden Chapter, now has a new gathering place. Laura and John Scola have just opened Scola Confections in a newly renovated building on Third Street. Laura is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, California, where she specialized in pastries and baking.
“I decided I wanted to stay with chocolate, so I worked at two different companies in California and Washington,” she said. “I was also making chocolate out of my home when some friends urged me to pursue it full time.”
The Scolas financed their new business by selling their home in the Bay Area.
“We had heard about Bellingham, so we came to take a look,” Laura said. “A real estate agent showed us around and we didn’t find the perfect apartment until we got to Lynden. We decided to just do it.”
They got advice from the local chapter of SCORE, but still found the capital investment to be more than expected.
“The owners did a great job with this building,” Laura said. “It used to be Charlie’s Auto Body before they moved.”
They’re not without business skills, since John has an MBA.
Laura enjoys the reaction she gets from people when she refers to the Culinary Institute of America as the CIA.
“I only use Belgian chocolate here because it has such a great flavor and smoothness,” she said. “It melts on your tongue like butter. It has a clean but satisfying finish with no aftertaste. A little bit of good chocolate should go a long way.”
Scola Confections offers more than 16 varieties of truffles, including peppermint, Earl Grey tea, cinnamon cappuccino, caramel pecan and anise. In honor of her adopted hometown, Laura offers chocolate windmills, cows, tractors and wooden shoes.
There are pretzels dipped in caramel and chocolate and candy bars filled with coconut, espresso or peanut butter; hazelnut, almond and pistachio praline sticks; chocolate cow pies filled with puffed rice or raisins; and chocolate lollipops.
One unique product is the miniature chocolate picture frame that features local scenic attractions. If you order at least eight of them, you can use your own picture.
“We have white, dark, milk, bittersweet and some sugar free chocolate,” Laura said. “A couple of other stores carry our products, but we haven’t had time to really market them elsewhere.”
Just don’t get between me and Scola Confections and no one will get hurt.

It’s getting to be a pretty familiar story. Somebody visits Bellingham and likes it. They start vacationing here and become totally besotted. They go back to Minnesota and try to figure out how to move here. Then something happens to precipitate the move. Now, if they can just find a job.
There are sixty thousand stories in the Subdued City. This one is Kevin Christenson’s.
“I was in marketing back in Minnesota and was trying to crack the Costco chain with my products,” he said. “It didn’t happen, so I figured out it was time to make a move. I liquidated the business and here we are.”
He didn’t find a job to his liking, so he created Interior Doors & More.
“I saw this concept as a franchise down in California,” Christenson said. “There were two problems with the franchise. One, it cost too much money to buy in. Two, we have different door issues here than they do in California. I figured the key to being successful was lining up a good carpenter.”
He found one with 25 years experience.
“We’re not a retailer,” Christenson said. “We’re here so that someone who needs to replace interior doors can deal with one company. Nobody else offers the full service that we do. We can take down your old doors, cut new ones to size and paint them all in one place.”
Part of the opportunity that Christenson heard knocking was the number of houses in this area built when interior doors were simply flat panels.
“A simple upgrade to raised panel doors can make a big difference,” he said. “We can completely replace the interior doors in some houses for under $2,000.”
One of Christenson’s goals was to become part of the community.
“This is a good fit,” he said. “Home improvement is big here and everybody has interior doors. Sooner or later, they’ll need replacing. Eventually, I’d like to be running two crews of three people. I hope to offer benefits, but I have to get the business going first. Workers comp rates are tough here.”
He scouted several locations before settling on the Haskell Business Park.
“As it grows, I want to get into the Burlington and Anacortes markets,” Christenson said. “This is a good central location to work from. The Haskell people were great to deal with.”
Right now, his advertising is mostly print oriented and he plans on being at the next home show. He’s also talking to Bellis Fair Mall about putting in a display.
“I’m not looking for bigger responsibilities,” Christenson said. “But if I can support two or three locations, I can provide a future for my employees. My idea is not to take business away from others, but to offer something different. I’ve sent customers to Windsor Plywood and the Buyer’s Market and hope they’ll return the favor.”
In the meantime, he and his family are going to thoroughly enjoy their first winter away from Minnesota.

Something’s cooking in your neighborhood. Well, actually, something’s cooking in every Bellingham neighborhood.
Personal chef Rob Albrecht recently began Cloud Catcher Bay Gourmet, a one-man home-meal service that puts Albrecht in your kitchen answering the question, “What’s for dinner tonight?” He travels around the county cooking meals for busy families, romantic dates and dinner parties.
“It’s a nurturing service,” Albrecht said. “It works out perfect for me because I love taking care of my family, and Cloud Catcher is an extension of that. I cook mainly for busy couples with kids, but I also make meals for anniversaries and people just home from the hospital.”
Albrecht, who spent time in Minnesota as a dairy farm consultant, moved to Bellingham hoping to get into the restaurant business. After first a failed attempt at co-ownership of a downtown restaurant, then some research into the restaurant business, however, he decided to take a different tack.
“I’ve always wanted a restaurant,” Albrecht said. “But after studying the stats of how many restaurants fail, I rethought that plan. Cloud Catcher was a lot less investment to get started, and I don’t have to be open all day dealing with the chaos and long hours.”
Cloud Catcher Bay Gourmet, named after an inlet near Albrecht’s Lake Whatcom home, was the perfect way to put him in charge of his own kitchen without the stress of keeping a restaurant running.
He also found that working as a personal chef gives him more time with his family.
“Because I have kids I don’t want to be working long hours,” Albrecht said. “I want to spend time with my kids, and I can do that when I’m only working nine to five as a personal chef.”
The company is set up to be both as convenient and non-invasive as possible.
For a typical client, Albrecht will conduct an early assessment to discover specific tastes, average weekly meals, allergies, dietary restrictions, etc. He will then set a date to visit the client’s kitchen and spend approximately three to six hours – depending on the meal plan – cooking meals for an entire week, leaving one meal warming in the oven and the others prepared to heat in the fridge.
“After the assessment I’ll let the client pick from a list of about 30 entrees,” Albrecht said. “Say they buy 10. When they get home that day there will be nine meals in the fridge with cooking instructions and one in the oven – usually a seafood entrée that would otherwise spoil quickly.”
On the cook date he does all the shopping and uses his own equipment to makes such dishes as ahi with green onion wasabi sauce or, his specialty, one cedar planked salmon with crab mashed potatoes and a red wine reduction sauce. He gets all his organic ingredients from the Whatcom Community Food Co-op, Red Apple or the garden in his back yard.
Rarely does he let any of those leftover ingredients go to waste.
“It’s embarrassing when I cook all day and get takeout to take home,” Albrecht said with a grin. “That’s not what I want and I’m sure it’s not what my family wants, so I’ll sometimes make an extra meal to take home.”