The Granola Twins had been partners only eight months when they hatched the scheme — hokey as it may have been — that would forever change the course of their fledgling business. Twenty-somethings Kelly Flatley and Brendan Synnott were doing OK selling their Bear Naked granola through small retail outlets around the area. But their efforts to reach a broader market were falling flat. Stew Leonard’s in Norwalk seemed ideal for their product, but the store’s grocery buyer wouldn’t even return their telephone calls.
Not long out of college, the longtime friends and Darien High School graduates made up their minds to appear at the man’s office one morning, dressed in Bear Naked T-shirts and jeans, and announce that they had come to serve him granola for breakfast. Anything, they figured, to get a foot in the door.
They arrived — smiling bravely, breakfast tray in hand — but were disappointed to learn that the man was taking his victuals elsewhere, on vacation.
Deflated, the Granola Twins descended the stairs. That’s when they noticed a fellow coming up. Funny, they thought, but didn’t that name tag read “Stew”?
Before Kelly and Brendan knew it, they were pitching their granola to the top man himself — Stew Leonard Jr. To their astonishment, he not only heard them out but invited them to his office. “So we went into this big fancy office,” remembers Kelly, “and he sat down with us, told us some tricks of the trade about the industry and took a genuine interest in our story, who we were and our product.