Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 23, 2016 10A
When
she
needed to make
a career change,
Tanya Kerner
decided
to
make a business
out of some-
thing she loved
to do: bake and
cook for other
people. Kerner
started Critelli
Sweets in July
out of her Dallas
home.
JOLENE GUZMAN
/ Itemizer-Observer
Something sweet?
Critelli Sweets in Dallas offers homemade baked goods and candy with the touch of a family tradition
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Tanya Kerner
decided to take her own ad-
vice.
After a lifetime of experi-
ence with her father’s gift for
cooking Italian food that
would bring the neighbors
knocking when they smelled
the garlic in the air, Kerner
asked him, “Why don’t you
open a restaurant?”
Her father didn’t take the
question seriously, but with
the popularity of chain Ital-
ian restaurants now, per-
haps he should have.
When faced with her own
career crossroads last year,
she thought back to that
conversation.
She and her husband,
Mike, adopted her grandson,
Spencer, and he needed her
home more often that her
traveling marketing job al-
lowed. She also faced a tem-
porary health crisis and knew
it was time for a change.
Mike gave her a piece of
advice: “In that process of
healing, my husband said,
‘so what is it that you want
to do? You’ve got to do
something, and it should be
A taste of home
What: Critelli Sweets
home bakery in Dallas.
Contact and menu:
www.critellisweets.com;
503-420-4241; or critel-
lisweets@gmail.com.
Find Critelli Sweets at:
Polk County Bounty Mar-
ket and Independence
Riverview Market.
something you like.”
She contemplated that for
a while.
“What I’d like to do, I
never made money at it. I
just liked it because it was
fun. That’s baking and fixing
food for my family and
friends,” she said. “I said I
don’t know if I can make any
money at it or grow a busi-
ness out of it.”
Kerner decided to take the
chance.
“I should take the advice I
gave my dad and try to do
something,” she recalled
thinking.
Kerner didn’t open a
restaurant, but a home bak-
ery out of the couple’s Dallas
residence. She gave it a
name that would sound fa-
miliar to the fans of her fa-
JOLENE GUZMAN/ Itemizer-Observer
Critelli Sweets makes something for every treat lover, in-
cluding cakes, cupcakes, candy, scones and muffins.
ther’s food: Critelli Sweets.
Critelli is her maiden
name.
She said baking was the
easiest way to start because
she could do it at home and
it saved the investment cost
of opening a store.
Critelli Sweets has some-
thing for every sweet tooth,
including cupcakes, frosting,
cookies, scones, muffins and
fruit breads, bread and candy.
Kerner also makes salads and
side dishes to order.
She launched the business
in July and is taking another
step this spring, setting up a
food cart.
Once the cart is remod-
eled and approved, Critelli
Sweets will be at Polk Coun-
ty Bounty Market in Dallas
on Thursdays and Inde-
pendence Riverview Market
on Saturdays. Kerner may
attend events in the Salem
area.
In addition to her baked
goods, she will be serving
her father’s famous meat-
balls in sub sandwiches.
Kerner worked at perfecting
the recipe until it “tasted like
home.”
Kerner also will serve
lasagna and Chicago-style
Italian hot dogs.
“That will be our baby
step, and we will see how it
turns out — if it is worth
growing into a brick-and-
mortar or if we want to just
make that the business,”
Kerner said.
She’ll have a learning
curve on how much to make
for each event she attends,
but Kerner has testing new
recipes down to a science.
Spencer, 7, is the main
taste-tester. Picky by nature,
if he likes a recipe, chances
are everyone else will, too,
Kerner said.
If that doesn’t provide the
feedback Kerner needs, she’s
learned to read people’s re-
actions when they take a
first bite.
“Our baked goods, when
they take a bite of it, it’s like
their mouth registers and
then their eyes,” she said.
“That’s how I rate if I want to
keep a recipe or not, I really,
truly watch their face. Their
face will tell me more than
their words do.”
Kerner admits to having
done plenty of her own “re-
search” since starting Critelli
Sweets, but she can’t pick a
favorite off the menu.
“Since I started doing it all
the time, you can tell I love it
all — I gained 20 pounds,”
she said, smiling. “I’ve got to
learn how to take smaller
tastes or something.”
New to the area?
Number change?
Call us to
update!
Contact the
Advertising
Department at the
Itemizer-Observer
for more information.
Itemizer-Observer 503-623-2373