The Women-Owned Gift Box includes Bunches and Bunches cookies, a Deux Cranes Matcha Chocolate Bar, Golden Fig Dip, Katherine Anne Vanilla Bean Marshmallows, Maeve Chocolates, Maine Crisps crackers, Memas caramels, Stellar Pretzel Braids and Thomasina’s Cashew Brittle. Photos: Chris Emeott
Golden Fig Fine Foods brings a taste of the Hamptons to Minnesota.
Laurie Crowell’s story starts in the Hamptons, circa 1990, when she was visiting a friend who worked as a nanny. It was happenstance that Crowell would walk by Barefoot Contessa, a specialty food store where she proceeded to work for a few years. “I loved how the food was so beautiful and delicious,” Crowell recalls.
Crowell, originally from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, worked in a local grocery store as a teenager and has always loved the environment. She moved back to the Midwest in 1994 (She has lived in Woodbury for the past 15 years.) and continued her passion in the food industry by creating her own spice blends, vinegars and more—specialty items that she would gift to friends and family during the holidays.
Laurie Crowell
When she decided to start her own business, she was instantly brought back to the Hamptons. “There was The Golden Pear … It was right across the alley from Barefoot Contessa,” Crowell says. “I would go there on my day off.” When thinking about a perfect business name, she kept recalling her favorite little café in the Hamptons. “What did I like that was golden? Well, figs,” she says. “I had been introduced to figs when I worked at Barefoot Contessa because [Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis] had ordered six flats of fresh figs for a table display for one of her parties. I happened to be there that day when they came in, and I was like, ‘What are these?’ I had never seen figs before.”
So, she wrapped her products in tags that said “Golden Fig” and brought the products to Ampersand and Turtle Bread Company, both of which began carrying her products. Then, in 2006, she opened Golden Fig Fine Foods, a 3,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar store on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue, which offers a handpicked selection of artisan food, cookbooks, candles and more. Everything in the store has been tasted and tested by Crowell and her staff. Speaking on the selection, Crowell says, “It’s a ton of effort that goes into it. It’s really thoughtfully curated and 100 percent of what is at the store is American-made products.”
Customers will rarely see plastic, high fructose corn syrup or artificially colored items in the store—except for the Hammond’s Candies ribbon candy that’s brought in for the holiday season. “It’s bright and vibrant, and we sell hundreds of pounds of it in December,” Crowell says. November and December are notably the busiest months at Golden Fig, and the store is transformed into a winter wonderland the night prior to Thanksgiving. “We call it Thanksgiving Eve. The entire staff is there, we lock the door and we change the entire store over to Christmas,” she says. “…. When you come in on Friday, it’s Christmas and it’s the craziest fun, packed with beautiful decorations.”
Family is at the heart of Golden Fig—and that includes Crowell’s staff and customers. “In the day and age that we’re in, there’s so little connection anymore,” she says. During COVID-19, Crowell says she truly connected with customers, and they also connected with one another. “We know the shoppers at our store. Just the other day, we forgot to put Laurel’s bread in her order when she came in on Saturday, so when Sandy left, on her way home, she stopped and dropped it off at her house … We have connections with people like it used to be,” Crowell says. “It’s like a family, and I love that.”
During Thanksgiving, Crowell has her own family traditions at home in Woodbury. Chocolate turkeys and notecards are placed at each seat, and everyone must write one thing they’re thankful for. “They write it, throw it in the middle and then, throughout dinner, someone reads [it],” she says.
“One thing my dad always said is ‘The happiest and generally most successful person is a person that can roll with it,’ and I’ve taken that really to heart,” Crowell says. “Things happen; they don’t go the way you want … If you can roll with it and not get stuck on the other stuff and be happy … That’s a better outlook on life.”
Gifts With Heart
The Chocolate Lovers Gift Box includes BT Bites, chocolate espresso beans, a Dick Taylor Chocolate Bar, Golden Fig Cocoa, maple toffee, Memas Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels, Rustic Bakery cookies, Sted Mini Bars, Thomasina’s Cashew Brittle and Yukon Cocoa.
No matter who you’re gifting, Laurie Crowell says there’s something for everyone at Golden Fig Fine Foods. During the holiday season, Crowell and her staff make gift baskets with hand-selected items. “There aren’t a lot of places that will specially craft a gift basket for you,” she says.
The curated boxes are popular, but there are precrafted gift boxes that vary in both product and value. Popular boxes include the Hot Cocoa Sampler Box, which Crowell says includes a delicious Bombay hot chocolate, and the Minnesota Gift Box, which has items from Minnesota makers.
One of the most special boxes is the Presidential Gift Box, donned with red, white and blue ribbon, and the story of President Barack Obama visiting the store. “We walked around and shopped that day, and we didn’t mean to, but all of the things he selected that I was putting in his basket ended up being all Minnesota-made,” Crowell says. “He had local honey bonbons and cookies, cashew brittle and lots of great treats.”
Gift boxes are available all year, and can be purchased in-store and online.
Golden Fig Fine Foods
Instagram: @goldenfig
