No egg on this cookie’s face

Ryan Carter

Uncle Eddie and the kids are doing pretty well these days, without

dairy and honey but with “pure love.”

Otherwise known as the Jacobs family, Glendale resident Edward

Jacobs, his wife Rhoda and their grown children work from their

modest baking factory on the western fringe of Glendale to create

what they hope will be a vegetarian delight that appeals to vegans

and carnivores alike.

In 20 years, a failed cookie store in Westwood and his son

Robbie’s commitment to eating no animal products evolved into “Uncle

Eddies Vegan Cookies.” The family now seems to have found a niche.

Among their customers are such health food stores as Wild Oats and

Whole Foods, which, according to store representatives, have a hard

time keeping the Jacobs family’s chocolate chip, peanut butter

chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and trail mix cookies on the shelves.

“We’re always low on them,” said Jerry Garrett, assistant manager

at the Glendale Whole Foods. “Part of it is the vegan aspect to them,

but they are really good.”

For the Jacobs, it has been a gradual process to find a successful

recipe and business.

In the early 1980s, Robbie Jacobs opened Cookie Lovers Only after

he was told by business school admissions officials that he needed

more real-world business experience, said brother Jeffrey, who helps

run the business.

With no baking experience, the family was priced out of the market

within two years by Diddy Riese Cookies and other competitors,

Jeffrey Jacobs said. The store closed, but the family survived in the

cookie business.

Then, in 1997, Robbie Jacobs thought up the idea of going vegan.

Seven years later, 95% of the company’s products are the cookies,

which they sell in modest, sack-lunch-sized paper bags with a

transparent paper window on them. On the back is written “A labour of

pure love ... Baked by Uncle Eddie & the kids in loving admiration of

mothers everywhere.”

“Uncle Eddie” is actually their father, but the nickname just had

a nice ring to it, Jeffrey Jacobs said.

Jacobs was as surprised as anyone that the idea took off.

“He made these cookies for himself,” Jeffrey Jacobs said of his

brother. “I said there is no market for them, but we tried selling

them and much to my surprise, that’s about all we sell now.”