Arlington Heights native follows her candy dream
When Chris Kadow-Dougherty was 3 years old, she packed a bag and announced she was running away and moving into a candy store down the street.
That's how much she loved candy then. And she still loves it that much today.
Kadow-Dougherty, an Arlington Heights native, spent 15 years working in the nonprofit sector before deciding to switch careers a few years ago. She enrolled in the Chicago French Pastry School and today makes her own candy and owns her own business. The business, called Whimsical Candy, has a signature product called La-Dee-Dahs - candy basically described as swirls of caramel, nougat and chocolate.
"One day I woke up with the idea for La-Dee-Dahs in my head," she said. "When I was in school I would experiment with nougat and the perfect balance of salty and sweet and this just came to me."
Kadow-Dougherty makes about 900 boxes of candy a month. Each box sells for $6 for a pack of three.
Kadow-Dougherty was one of the final Arlington High School students. The school closed before she graduated and she went on to graduate from Rolling Meadows High School. These days Kadow-Dougherty works out of a shared kitchen and lives in Chicago.
La-Dee-Dahs are sold at several places in the city. Urban Harvest in downtown Arlington Heights is one of the few suburban locations. Others include Camp Willow in Park Ridge, Cabernet & Co. in Glen Ellyn and Naperville, and Moveable Feast in Geneva.
For more information go to www.whimsicalcandy.com.