Wisteria Candy Cottage Reopens
By Anne Krueger, Union-Tribune Staff Writer

There's good news for San Diego County chocoholics. The Wisteria Candy Cottage, the Boulevard confectionary that closed last July, has reopened.

Owner Dana Eacobellis said she has worked out the financial issues with her family that forced her to close the store, and she now plans to take the business in a new direction.
Instead of just selling to passers-by who stop at the store on Old Highway 80, she's planning to market her candies at high-end grocery stores and restaurants and sell more on the Web.

"I think once people taste it, they're going to fall in love with it," Eacobellis said. The store, which once served as Boulevard's one-room schoolhouse, has been a landmark in the East County community for 87 years. Eacobellis' grandmother, Luz Brown, began working at the store in the 1940s and then bought the business.

Eacobellis' parents ran the store until Eacobellis' father turned it over to her in 2002. She said that after her mother died in June 2006, she was unable to buy out her two sisters' share of the store property, part of a family trust.

Eacobellis said she reached an agreement with her sisters that allowed her to reopen the business in late December. Most of the 180 candies she sells are handmade. She said she'll focus more on the most popular candies, including pecan rolls and turtles made with pecans, macadamia nuts, almonds or cashews.

The store at 39961 Old Highway 80 is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, giving Eacobellis the rest of the week to focus on her new marketing efforts. She has hired a sales representative who will try to set up accounts with businesses to sell the candy wholesale. A new Web site is also under construction, she said.

Eacobellis said that after she closed the store in July, her answering machine was filled with messages from callers who wanted to be notified if she ever reopened.

"There's going to be a lot of happy people," she said.


Readers Response to the HH80 E-newsletter
By Bonnie Goodbody

Hi, your newsletter was forwarded to me from Laura Lou Sherman Jorgenson, a sorority sister of mine. It was a nice surprise for me to see the picture of and article about Goodbody's Mortuary. My husband was Bernard Goodbody (died August, 1997) and several of our sons and daughters worked there. My best memory of the place, however, was standing on the roof watching the old Blessed Sacrament Church move down El Cajon Blvd. and saying to Bernie, "We have to go to the hospital (Mercy) now, which we did and our 3rd son John was born (Feb. 19, 1961).

Note - We hear many favorite Old Highway 80 memories from people as we're out in the community creating awareness of the route so we'd like to invite all of you to share your favorite stories with our readers. Please send us your favorite story for inclusion in a future e-Newsletter issue. Stories should be no longer than three to five paragraphs and please include a picture if you can.


Did you know?
Coca Cola was first bottled in 1894 by Joseph Biedenharn in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Biedenharn Candy Company, a building on Washington Street, is one block north of US 80's turn at Washington and Clay Streets. Before this time, Coca Cola was only sold as a patent medicine syrup out of Atlanta.


HH80 Membership
We invite you to join our organization. Your financial assistance will help to preserve, enhance and resurrect an irreplaceable community resource that almost literally lies under our feet - Historic Highway 80 ~ The first dedicated intercontinental highway in the year 1926. Please call 619.445.0180 for membership information. Ask for Bob or Jeanette.


Art Along HH80
Have look at the Historic Highway 80 Corporation's new storefront display located in the heart of downtown El Cajon at 131 E. Main Street. The display includes wonderful pictures of the old route and tons of Historic Highway 80 memorabilia.