Local entrepreneurs are spicing up their lives by featuring their stores, the Savory Spice Shops, on a new miniseries debuting April 24 at 7:30 a.m. on the Food Network.
Janet Johnston, wife of business partner Mike Johnston, will host “Spice & Easy,” a six-week show that’s already been shot in their home and their shop at 1537 Platte St.
The Johnstons were “discovered” in 2008 by Food Network stars Pat and Gina Neely during their travels for “Road Tasted with the Neelys.”
“They met Mike and Janet, and the production company really loved them,” said Food Network spokeswoman Michelle Betrock, who added that the Johnstons were not doing press interviews until next week.
The couple made guest appearances on “Paula’s Best Dishes” and “Down Home with the Neelys” before launching their path to fame with their own show.
The Johnstons came to Denver in 2004 and own four Savory Spice stores, with one franchise in Colorado Springs.
Little Lady Gagas.
You would have thought they were handing out free money by the looks of the line that started at 9 p.m. Friday — the night before the official grand opening of American Girl, the doll store that has tweens atwitter.
Bobby Fitzgerald, who owns White Chocolate Grill, a neighbor to American Girl in the Park Meadows mall, seized the opportunity to turn young girls and their parents into his customers.
“We purchased 200 AG hair brushes, and attached a free dessert card,” Fitzgerald wrote in an e-mail. “We handed them all out in 14 minutes. We brought in one dozen doll high chairs, which attached to the table, and created a special dessert for the dolls.”
Fitzgerald also put a “doll friendly” sign on the front door.
Royal treatment.
Think the American Girl buzz died down with the store opening? Not so. Two metro-area hotels have put together pampering packages — including overnight accommodations — for the doll owner and her doll.
At the Inverness Hotel, 200 Inverness Drive West in Englewood, the $499 American Girl Royal Experience package includes overnight in the presidential suite, an American Girl fold-out doll bed (to take home), an American Girl robe for the owner and her doll (also to keep), a limo ride to and from the AG store and hair care at the American Girl Doll Hair Salon.
The Hotel Monaco in downtown Denver has an American Girl getaway package that starts at $199 per night and includes overnight accommodations, valet parking for one car, hair styling for the doll owner at the Renaissance Aveda Spa, a copy of the latest issue of AG Magazine and a Kimpton kid’s robe to take home.
Sizzling chef.
Not only is his restaurant, Frasca Food & Wine in Boulder, hot, but Cosmopolitan magazine thinks he’s hotter than a jalapeño too.
Frasca chef/owner Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson likely caught Cosmo’s eye as a competitor on “Top Chef Masters,” a Food Network series that debuted last year.
The magazine put him in its hit list of 14 sizzling-hot chefs, which included such famous faces as Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone and Tyler Florence. Full list at .
Eavesdropping
on a woman at Rack & Rye restaurant: “Jumping to conclusions is the only exercise some people get.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
