Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2009 - (Page 25) Laurel and Emily Miller (top left) run The Firefly Gallery, a magical boutique on Park Street. A couple blocks away at Vivant Fine Cheese, Danika Reed and her mom, Judie Jensen, deal in epicurean delights, perfect for a wine country picnic. along with her daughter Emily since October of 2006. “We have little kids come in and they just go, ‘Wow!’” Venturing inside The Firefly Gallery is like going to a surprise party. Many of the charming items are locally made, such as furniture crafted by the Brigham family. The wood and metal they use is all recycled materials, Miller points out. Upstairs, Emily, a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, stocks and manages the art gallery full of watercolors, oil paintings, and collages. Laurel says she and her daughter work well as a team and enjoy putting together artful window displays that rotate with the seasons and holidays. There are no regular employees, just the two of them running the shop daily.“We have the same vision, and we connect,” she says,“The days we have off, we still talk on the phone.” The Firefly Gallery, 1301 Park St., 805.237.9265, TheFireFlyGallery.com VIVANT FINE CHEESE Danika Reed is the ultimate cheese sommelier. She can taste the subtle difference between cheese made from buffalo, goat, and cow’s milk, and she finds great delight in offering products from tiny artisans from around the world. So opening up Vivant Fine Cheese nearly two years ago was a no-brainer. Wielding a dairy science degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Danika worked for 12 years in the commodity cheese business near Wisconsin. But she wanted a job closer to home, as well as something new and different. Now she has just that: a wholesale and retail biz with mom, Judie Jensen, as her “employee.” While Danika uses her expertise to purchase the 150-200 varieties of cheese, Judie makes pastries from scratch in the morning and brews coffees for the breakfast crowd.“Mom used to run a coffee house, and I have no experience in that,” says Danika.“She makes the best croissants in the world from scratch.” The tiny shop offers unique, hard-to-find cheeses, including one of Reed’s favorites: a Wisconsin cheddar from Hooks Cheese Company. “It’s been aged out for 10 years, and it is so nice and sharp,” she says with pride. The store even carries cheeses made by the local students at Cal Poly, particularly smoked gouda and woodchip smoked cheddars. Vivant carries an assortment of local wines, olive oils, crackers, and homemade jams. Many customers will come in to select their own cheeses and have the store create a platter to go, bringing their treasures along as they visit nearby wineries, picnicking along the way. Tempted yet? Vivant Fine Cheese, 840 11th St., 805.226.5530, VivantFineCheese.com broughtonQuarterly.com 25 http://www.TheFireFlyGallery.com http://www.VivantFineCheese.com http://www.BroughtonQuarterly.com
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