Suni Chabrow’s family and friends would wait for months to indulge in her signature toffee, an intoxicating blend of sugar, cocoa butter and milk that signaled the start of the holidays.
She’d make an exception, though, for her son, Douglas Green.
Dougie, as she called him, was in the Army serving in Afghanistan, and with every care package of pretzels and Sour Patch Kids, she’d add a pound of her toffee.
Dougie, 23, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while on patrol in August 2011. In her grief, Chabrow found solace and meaning in her toffee, which her son always had said was good enough to sell.
Now it would become his legacy — a gourmet toffee that would launch a thriving home-grown company. Each label includes a photo of Dougie in his dress uniform and an explanation of why this is a special toffee, his toffee.
The journey also reflects a leap of faith and a stroke of luck: meeting Julie Littmann who, because of her business experience as an events planner, would prove to be just the person Chabrow needed to execute her vision. Littmann would handle the business side of the fledgling company, while Chabrow would focus on the food side of it.
Chabrow, a single mom, said she got the confidence to quit her day job as a Southwest Airlines ticket agent to become an entrepreneur by feeling Dougie’s presence in guiding her in a new direction.
“I felt him saying to me, ‘Now is the time to do it. This is the time to do it, and I’ll watch over you,’ ” Chabrow said.
Both women took money out of their savings accounts to fund the business, and the risk made Chabrow nervous.
“It’s scary taking that leap of faith, wondering if people will actually want to buy my toffee,” she said.
While Littmann filed for the business license and copyrighted the company name, Whoa! Foods, Chabrow concocted flavors, frequently leading to 3 a.m. phone calls to Littmann announcing such efforts as cookies and cream, butterscotch and coffee toffee.
“My kitchen was like ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,’ ” she said.
Chabrow and Littmann started selling their product at the farmer’s market in Tivoli Village.
Limited to her kitchen and refrigerator space, Chabrow couldn’t keep up with the demand, so she soon started making 1 a.m. drives to Littmann’s house, whose refrigerator also filled with toffee. Within a year and a half, they moved the toffee production to a commercial kitchen in Summerlin, where today they employ five cooks and four packaging workers and sales representatives pitching 13 toffee flavors.
After landing their first retail outlet — the Mirage gift shop — Whoa! Foods spread to more than 25 outlets, including gift shops at other big resorts along the Strip. The snack also is sold at the Red Rock National Conservation Area visitors center and Lee’s Discount Liquors. Orders are taken online, as well. A pound costs $25.
Last year, the business won the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce’s Business Excellence Award for its “inspired account of entrepreneurship and a moving story of giving back.”
Much of the credit for the company’s success is the chemistry between the women, Chabrow said. They understand each other and value the talents each brings to the table.
“You can’t be exactly like one another or else it wont be successful,” she said.
Chabrow pinches herself when reflecting on the business’s success.
“Walking into our commercial kitchen, it’s an emotional experience seeing how far we’ve come,” she said. “It’s all about perseverance.”
And some toffee still is finding its way overseas.
In her son’s name, Chabrow created a foundation, the Douglas J. Green Memorial Foundation, to send care packages to soldiers. About 5,000 have been dispatched so far. Whoa! Foods donates a percentage of its sales to the foundation.
And each package comes with Dougie’s favorite toffee.