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http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=eplifestylef&mode=2&Page=55
May 08, 2007
TIMEOUT Dining Guide
Review Date: January 20, 2006
 |
| Restaurant Details |
| Address: 200 Orchid Springs Drive (Overlook Drive) Winter Haven |
| Phone: 863-318-8777 |
Stars:  |
| Hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday |
| Price: $3.99 to $8.99 |
| Reservations: Yes |
| Children's Menu: No |
| Recommended: Spanish bean soup, Zorba the Pizza, cookies, cinnamon bun, coffees. |
Winter Haven Resident Takes a Local Delicacy To a National Market -- Donna Kelley
photo: Scott Wheeler/The Ledger
WINTER HAVEN
Miriam Vigoa didn't plan on making a splash in the health food industry when she added spices to her great-grandmother's herbed olive oil recipe and began serving it on menu items at Cafe Latte.
She was already busy running Cypress Lighting -- a business she purchased in 1983 -- investing in and maintaining real estate and helping run Cafe Latte, the coffee shop she opened with partner Kristi Linebaugh in 1995.
Vigoa, 53, was happy sharing a bit of her heritage with cafe patrons who were requesting the oil -- now known as Canary Island Garlic and Herb Splash -- on everything from Cuban cheese toast to spinach salads.
"It was the basis of what we did," Linebaugh said of the splash. "People started coming in here with empty bottles for us to fill."
They also started asking Vigoa and Linebaugh to bottle the splash and sell it to customers. One even threatened to bottle it himself.
"The pressure was on," said the Cuban-born Vigoa. "I had no idea what to do or where to turn."
After doing some research, she began hand-blending herbs and olive oil into splash and bottling it in her kitchen -- just in time for Christmas 2002.
The Splash is still hand-blended but is now bottled in a small cannery in Winter Springs.
Patti Bostick buys the Splash by the case -- for her own use and as gifts.
"The Splash can be used for everything," she said. "Everyone I've ever given it to falls in love with it and asks for more.
"It is unique and fresh and made with love," Bostick added.
Vigoa's hectic life became busier with the addition of Vigoa Cuisine to her list of business ventures.
"I have no doubt that this was God's grace and God's will," she said. "Doors just started opening. I couldn't stop it."
Vigoa and Linebaugh decided to close the cafe Saturday through Monday and hire extra employees to run it on Fridays.
Weekends are now spent hauling a trailer full of splash throughout Florida -- and often out of state -- attending trade shows and marketing the product.
Two national chains -- Whole Foods Market and Chamberlin's -- now carry it. Locally, Canary Island Herb and Garlic Splash can be purchased at Nature's Delight, Pine Crest Farms, Cafe Latte and Cypress Lighting, Winter Haven; Chamberlin's, Lakeland; and Food for Thought, Sebring.
It is also sold at Olive This, Relish That in Winter Park and the Sarasota Olive Oil Company in Sarasota.
Kelly Kary, owner of the Sarasota Olive Oil Company, began selling the Splash in her store after her husband heard local radio announcers gushing about it during a live broadcast from a business expo last October.
Each day Kary displays a sample of the Splash with bread so customers can taste it.
"The important thing with this is the taste," she said.
With more than 60 brands of olive oil in her store, she understands the taste factor.
"I sell six cases of Splash every two and half weeks," Kary said. "It sells itself. I have a lot of repeat customers."
She also ships the splash to customers in Europe.
This is amazing to Vigoa, who says she is living the American Dream.
Vigoa was 11 years old when she and her parents caught the last flight out of Cuba on Oct. 19, 1962, during the height of the Cuban missile crisis, with one suitcase between them.
"We were on a flight from Havana as Russian missiles were in Cuba pointed at Miami," Vigoa said. "Everything was fear-driven."
Her brother had left Cuba six months before and met them in Miami.
"We were refugees," she said. "We had to start over."
But they were refugees with marketable skills. Her mother, who was a seamstress in the garment industry, found work almost immediately after arriving in the United States. It took a bit longer for her father, who had been a lumberjack in Cuba.
Life in Miami was different -- fallout shelters, radiation drills, a different language and a new way of life. Vigoa was one of only five children in her school who spoke Spanish.
These experiences helped shape Vigoa into the person she is today.
"She's very passionate and wants to see that right is done in the world," said Linebaugh, who calls Vigoa charitable, caring and compassionate.
With a background in social work, small business management was new to Linebaugh. But she had a positive role model in Vigoa.
"Miriam has taught me the ethics of business -- having high standards, customer service, valuing your customers," she said.
These business ethics impressed Kary, who said Vigoa offered to provide free shipping for the first order of the Splash -- and pay for return shipping if she didn't like the product.
Vigoa is the only supplier to make this offer to Kary.
For Vigoa, this is just part of life.
"Life is simple," she said, her soft voice laced with a Cuban accent.
Honesty and love are what brought Vigoa to this point in her life and the business world.
"Be honest with your customers," she said, when asked of her basic business philosophies. "I wouldn't want to do anything for my customers that I wouldn't do for myself."
Her customers tend to become friends who really mean it when they ask, "How are you?"
"Miriam has a great reputation," Bostick said. "It's very difficult to find someone who walks the talk -- and both Miriam and Kristi do that."
Friends and customers say Vigoa has a gentle strength that shows in her eyes and in her compassion for others.
"I love my customers and my customers love me. After all, people trust me with their heirlooms," she said, referring to the antique lamps and fixtures she refurbishes at Cypress Lighting.
Her eyes mist when she thinks of the trust placed in her.
"That is beautiful. That is awesome," she said.
Lakeland Ledger - Published Tuesday, June 21, 2005
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