Chocolate entrepreneur
blends tasty concoctions
for Eugene ‘chocoholics’
By Julie Shippen
Of the Kmerala
One could say that Janele Smith is in
the business of making people fat.
It may not have been her original in
tention when she opened shop a year
and a half ago, but the obvious delight
Smith takes in seeing the sweet-toothed
individual contentedly indulged is
enough to invoke speculation.
As sole proprietor of Fenton & Lee fine
chocolates — the latest chocoholic craze
to hit the area since the Monster Cookie
— this spry woman takes great pride in
making some of the Northwest’s most
delectable confections.
Smith’s preface to the chocolate
making business began as a leisurely in
terest. “It was a hobby when I was a
preschool teacher,” she admits.
But hobbies sometimes have the
tendency to blossom into full-time oc
cupations and with a little encourage
ment from her family, friends and others
in the business, Smith entered into the
chocolate-making profession.
“It’s very time consuming. I think that
was the biggest shock of leaving
teaching and realizing how much time it
really takes,” she says of business
management. ‘‘I do have Sundays off
right now,” Smith adds with a note of
firm resolution.
She estimates spending anywhere
from 50 to 60 hours a week at the new
Fenton & Lee shop on 13th Avenue,
beginning early every morning melting
chocolate and preparing fruit-and-nut
centers and finishing the day in her of
fice with the bookwork, she says.
And in between those hours. Smith
plays'the roles of dishwasher, sweeper,
sales representative and retailer. She has
some assistance, however, in the form of
four part-time people who help her dip,
pour and pack the chocolates.
Hired help includes her two teen-age
sons, whose middle names were the in
spiration for the business’s name. Ap
parently they have no objections to
working every day after school at their
mother’s shop.
For a business only halfway into its se
cond year, the staff size makes its own
statement of success. “We have doubled
(profits) in the first year,” she says
Caucus explores ‘gender gap’
The so-called gender gap can be a
powerful tool to gain political
leverage for women in both parties
this year, say organizers of the Oregon
Women’s Caucus state convention to
be held at the Eugene Hilton
Saturday.
The gender gap refers to the dif
ferences in voting patterns between
men and women, says caucus
member Deborah Romerein. For ex
ample, she says, a recent poll by CBS
and the New York Times showed
there was a 24 percent difference in
responses when Republican men and
women were asked if they thought
Pres. Ronald Reagan should be
elected for a second term.
Alice Travis, the National Women’s
Political Caucus’s representative to
the Democratic national convention,
will give the keynote address.
Other speakers will include state Sen.
Margie Hendriksen, D-Eugene, and
state Rep. Mary Burrows, R-Eugene.
The caucus is bipartisan, and the
convention will cover strategies for
gaining political influence for woman
in both parties.
The convention begins at 9:30 a.m.
and will run until 6:30 p.m. A fee of
$35, $30 for caucus members, covers
lunch, a reception and entertainment
by local feminist comedians.
For more information, contact
Cheryl Hunter at 747-9935 or Margo
Schaefer at 342-2240.
Photo by Michael Clapp
Janele Smith mixes up another tasty batch of Fenton & Lee chocolates for sugar
junkies throughout the Northwest.
matter-of-factly.
Fenton & Lee now has around 25
outlets in Oregon and Washington, and
Smith says the number grows with every
passing week. Local retail outlets in
clude Reed & Cross, Valentine’s and the
recent addition of the EMU Main Desk,
where the chocolates have caught on
well despite the per-chocolate price of 35
cents to $1.
“I think students think they’re expen
sive, but they buy them anyway,” says
one of the Main-Desk employees who
prefers to remain anonymous. Apparent
ly the end outweighs the means, but not
without reason, she says. ‘‘You’re get
ting a good quality chocolate, plus it’s
made in Oregon.”
One of Smith’s secrets is that she uses
locally-grown ingredients in her
chocolates, which include strawberries,
apples, apricots, pears and an equal
variety of nuts that she roasts herself.
Specialties include the Strawberry
Frost, made of quick-dried berries dip
ped in milk chocolate and again in white
chocolate; Hazelnut Crowns, of crisp
nuts set in molds of dark and light
chocolate; Orange and Apricot Glaces,
made of fruit slices dipped in chocolate
that look as good as they taste.
Smith also works with special mold
shapes, such as two sizes of hearts wrap
ped in gold foil, seashells made of
minted chocolate, and ducks cast from
an antique mold her sons talked her into
buying.
All together, Fenton & Lee produces
about a dozen different types of fixes for
the chocoholic, and Smith plans to add a
caramel to the list, she says.
Chocolates are also sold in boxed
amounts that run $4.98 for a 6-ounce
selection and $13.50 for the 1-pound
size. It was these seasonally offered gift
packages that kicked off Smith’s career,
as her chocolates were sold mostly by
wholesale from the company’s original
location behind Pasta Plus on 11th
Avenue.
Though she spends entire days
melting, dipping and pouring chocolate,
Smith says she is quite able to keep her
fingers out of the pots, and her self
indulgence is only occasional.
“I go on binges,” she says. One of
Smith’s part-timers, however, pipes up
with a different story on the matter.
‘‘I’ve never seen you eat a chocolate
since I’ve known you,” says Jane
Wagner, who is busy rolling fruit-and
nut balls. “When you see 50 pounds at a
time, it’s hard to think of eating it,” she
explains.
Smith’s family, on the other hand, can
always find room for sampling. ‘‘They
have daily doses. They have to stop by
and get their fixes.”
Her son, Nathaniel, is already on his
way over for one.
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