DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9709300120

SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS         PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ON THE TOWN 

SOURCE: Sam Martinette 

                                            LENGTH:   85 lines

ROWENA'S GOURMET GOODIES A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE NATIONWIDE

When Rowena Fullinwider gets in a jam these days, it's more likely her fictional alter ego - the ageless tomboy pictured in her children's story cookbooks, ``The Adventures of Rowena & The Wonderful Jam & Jelly Factory'' and ``The Adventures of Rowena & Carrot Jam The Rabbit.''

The books, illustrated by local artist Deborah G. Rogers, serve as a metaphor for the life of the mother-turned-baker who became a small-business owner and successfully created her own line of gourmet food items. The foods are stocked in more than 2,500 stores nationwide, with catalog sales in all 50 states.

The woman who started baking cakes to raise money for local charities has testified before legislators on issues impacting small business, traveled the nation promoting her products, and built the business started 14 years ago into an enterprise employing 14 to 16 full-time employees and another 100 during the busy fall season.

So successful has Rowena's the business become, Rowena the person was selected as a ``1997 Virginia Women in Business Advocate'' honoree by the Small Business Administration. Virginia's Gov. George Allen recently declared her birthday, Feb. 20, as ``Rowena Fullinwider Day in Virginia.''

Fullinwider, who was born into a Navy family, lived in Norfolk during World War II, before her family moved to Washington, D.C., where she went to high school and college.

``I came back to Norfolk to stay, 20 years back,'' she explained. Her shop on West 22nd Street and the bakery in back is full of goodies such as Rowena's Wonderful Almond Pound Cake, Chocolate Williecake (a rich, dense, truffle-like confection, sold by catalog only), Praline Sauce, Raspberry Curd, Lemon Curry Sauce, and her number one-selling jam, Carrot Jam, described by some as ``carrot cake in a jar.''

Ghent is the perfect place for her business, she said. ``What I like about Ghent is that you can get your shoes repaired here, bank here, go to the Naro to see a movie. You don't have to leave the area. And it's not just a group of shops catering to tourists. You can get anything you need in Ghent.

``Where we live in West Ghent, you can walk to the Chrysler Museum and to the Virginia Opera,'' she added. ``It's a wonderful city with something to do for everybody.''

You can easily spot Rowena's by the 6-foot rabbit out front. The door to the shop is featured in the children's book series, and once inside you're surrounded by jars of jams and jellies with slices of Rowena's cakes for sampling, tins of imported teas, canned local crabmeat and clams, biscuit and cookie mixes from Colonial Williamsburg, and more. You'll probably run into Cameron Foster, Rowena's original employee, who started as a cook and is now creative director.

``It all started as fund raising,'' Fullinwider recalled, ``like you do for your school or the opera. You bake goods, and you sell them.''

Those early efforts soon became a retail venture through Kaye Taylor's ``Butler's Pantry'' in Small's Department Store on Hampton Boulevard, where Fullinwider's baked goods sold alongside cooking tools.

``We incorporated in 1983, rented the old P.H. Rose Warehouse on 22nd Street - Cameron was the cook - and we started with our almond pound cake, some jams and the lemon curd,'' Rowena said.

``We didn't have a store until the winter of 1986-87. We had a catalog from Day One, but no one store sold all of our products, and we couldn't send people to one place to find what they wanted. So Kaye Taylor helped me get a store set up. For a while, we had a little tea room, but we decided it was something we shouldn't be doing. We would rather sell our product to a restaurant.''

Many gourmet food products you'll find at Rowena's are her own, and most others are Virginia-produced, such as Hubs Peanuts.

``I don't even know how many items we make now,'' Fullinwider admitted recently, ``because certain cakes are also made as loaves, but our jar items and cakes are all made from scratch.''

Last month, during a belated birthday bash, Virginia's secretary of commerce and trade, Robert T. Skunda, presented a Certificate of Recognition to Rowena Fullinwider for her efforts. I suspect it's just another installment of the wonderful adventures of Rowena's life. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by SAM MARTINETTE

Rowena Fullinwider receives a Certificate of Achievement from Robert

T. Skunda, Virginia's secretary of commerce and trade.

Graphic

AT A GLANCE

WHAT: Rowena's, Creators and Producers of Gourmet Foods

WHERE: 758 W. 22nd St. (627-8699)

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 10 to 3 on Saturday.

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