David's Brownie Blog

Hi,
My name is David Kravetz and I am the co-founder of Fairytale Brownies.  Eileen Spitalny and I began Fairytale Brownies in 1992 with little more than a family recipe and a wonderful partnership.  From my earliest childhood I can remember the smell of fresh-baked brownies in our kitchen, and the shear joy I experienced sneaking that first bite when they came out of the oven. 
     Eileen and I met in kindergarten and have been friends ever since.  We've shared more brownie snacks than I can possibly remember.  In the beginning we sold our gourmet brownies at street fairs and farmers' markets.  All the winter visitors in Phoenix kept asking us to ship the brownie gifts back home to friends and family.  And before we knew it, a mail-order business was born. 
     At Fairytale Brownies we have the most incredible team of talented, energetic, and dedicated people.  It has been a true joy watching them grow personally and professionally over these many years.  In this blog I plan to share some of the stories and experiences that make this such an exciting and wonderful place to work.  Thanks for reading!

Here at Fairytale Brownies we're always thinking about new products to share with our customers.  We've built our business and our reputation on the best gourmet brownie gifts available anywhere.  But over the years we've become pretty skilled bakers and decided to put those skills to the test developing some other decadent treats.  Last fall we introduced a line of new gourmet mail order cookies, and the response has been extremely posititive.  

We plan our product line well in advance.  Even...Read More » »

We are all thrilled to announce that Fairytale Brownies has been awarded the 2011 Bizrate Circle of Excellence Award for the 9th straight year!  This annual award recognizes those online retailers that have provided excellent online customer experiences, as rated by their own customers.  This year, only 84 online retailers received this award, representing 1.7% of all online retailers within the Bizrate Insights North American Retailer Network.  This award confirms our dedication to providing...Read More » »

Last month we completed the photo shoot for our upcoming fall catalogs.  Twice a year we take new photography for our website and catalogs - once in April or May for the fall catalogs, and once in October for the spring/summer catalogs.  Each photo shoot takes months of preparation.  It all starts with deciding on our new products for the next year.  We are always trying to create new brownie giftsfor our customers.  And with the introduction of Fairytale Cookies last year, we are also creating...Read More » »

On March 5th the whole team at Fairytale Brownies had our annual "Holiday" party.  During December we're all so busy shipping our gourmet brownie gifts that we barely have time to catch our breath, let alone have a company holiday party.  So every year we have our annual party in February or March.

This year our social committee planned a great theme for the event - a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.  The folks at Murder Ink Productions did a great job entertaining all of us and also getting us...Read More » »

Well, our 15 year-old cargo van just got a makeover!  This van was one of the first things we purchased when we went into business.  Over the years we've used it do bring our gourmet Belgian chocolate brownies to different street fairs, farmers markets, and community events.  We've also used it to deliver brownie giftsto homes and business in the local Phoenix area.  But after many years of faithful service, it began to show its age.  The vinyl lettering had completely faded and the graphics...Read More » »

A couple of weeks ago we had a photo shoot for our Spring/Summer 2011 Fairytale Brownies catalogs.  We print our catalogs twice a year - once in August for the fall catalogs, and once in December for the Spring/Summer catalogs.  A few months before the catalogs are printed we shoot the photography for all the new products, and also the catalog covers.  This year our graphic designer Erin Kress had the idea of taking a photo of a woman serving a plate of fudgy chocolate brownies.  And she thought...Read More » »

On Saturday, October 9th The New Belgium Brewing Company's "Tour de Fat" came to Tempe, AZ.  This day long celebration of bicycling was a fun and crazy event.  It's stated goal is to "spread the good word about the positive societal offerings of the bicycle."  I brought my daughter to the festival and we met up with Michelle Kerpan from our Accounting Team.   Michelle also brought along her good friend Mel.  Thousands of participants in crazy costumes rode their bikes along a two-mile course...Read More » »

Fairytale Brownies recently earned the BizRate® Circle of Excellence award for the eighth consecutive year.

The Bizrate® Circle of Excellence is a distinction earned by retailers who go above and beyond the norm to provide exceptional service to their online customers. Fairytale Brownies strives to bake the best-tasting gourmet brownies and provide incomparable customer service.  We use the feedback from Bizrate comments to create a better online experience for our customers.  We also identify...

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The other day I was looking through some files and I stumbled across a bunch of great old photos from our early days in business.  Eileen and I started Fairytale Brownies in the fall of 1992 with the desire to create the best gourmet brownie gifts available anywhere.  We opened our first 1,000 square foot bakery in 1993 tucked in the back corner of a deserted shopping center (see photo below).  Our initial concept was to sell our fudgy chocolate brownies wholesale to the burgeoning coffeehouse...Read More » »