January 5, 2000

Scentual Garden appeals to the senses

Acme resident fulfills life-time dream by opening marketplace and deli

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       The link between bath salts and burritos may be obscure to most people, but it is an obvious one for Kelli Johnson.
      The owner of the Scentual Garden Marketplace and Deli in Acme, Johnson is fulfilling a long-time dream Monday by opening a restaurant of her own, joining it with her aromatherapy and bathing luxuries business. Moving her storefront just up the street, Johnson is changing her focus to a marketplace and a deli, giving customers two explanations for a great-smelling visit.
      Johnson sees this combination as a perfectly natural one. After all, mixing up a batch of her bath fizzles or custom scents and some mouth-watering salsa is just a difference in degree. About 150 degrees Fahrenheit, actually.
      "How you put together a fragrance or some bath salts is intuitive, like making a sauce and throwing in just a little more basil to round it off," Johnson said. "You are cooking with heat for the food and mixing chemicals together for the other."
      An Acme Township native, all of Johnson's business ventures are rooted in modern technology. In her deli and marketplace, she combines the best of old and new businesses: high-touch food for locals and high-tech marketing for the world.
      It all started last winter during an uncharacteristic slow period in her life. Normally a very active person, Johnson was home for months recovering from the birth of her daughter Brianna, now 1, which gave her time to pursue her interest in essential oils.
      She ordered some oils via the Internet and began mixing up her own concoctions, eventually making some bath care items she thought had potential. Last April, Johnson decided to market her items using an online store and created the Scentual Garden website. Her site's success started her thinking about the next step.
      She met with members of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE, at the Chamber of Commerce to get some advice. They said her best move would be to open a retail store locally, so she rented space in the Acme Plaza and launched a Scentual Garden in June. She now had a virtual version and a real version of her store, though the 'live' store caused her to quickly expand her thinking and add more products.
      "I realized that just bath salts was not going to support the store," said Johnson, who also has two older sons. "The Internet was extremely helpful in sourcing more products for my store. I think e-commerce is going to be the next QVC, it's exploding."
      With the opening of her store, Johnson's enterprising brain was just getting into gear. As the months went by, she felt her store was not getting enough exposure, despite spending a lot of money in advertising. She began to look around for another location that would be more accessible to drive-by traffic.
      She met with the owner of the former Exquisite Edibles site in Acme and another idea was born: opening a restaurant of her very own. Accomplishing this has been a long-time dream of hers, it just took an unexpected route through the Internet and personal care products to get her there.
      No stranger to foodservice, Johnson has worked in the restaurant business since she was a teenager, starting at 14 at Bonjiorno's (now Mountain Jacks). She met her husband, Kelley, while a waitress at the West Wharf, now the Apache Trout Grill, and has worked and cooked all over town, including the Park Place Hotel and the Top of the Park.
      In just one month, she has pulled together all the pieces and launched her deli. Typically, Johnson turned to computers to give her a high-tech assist in the process, making her own flyers, menus, designing a logo and printing silk-screen transfers for employee shirts.
      As the dust settled Sunday afternoon (was swept up, actually), Johnson welcomed family and friends in for a dry run before her opening day. As she wrapped burritos and garnished plates, Johnson was primed, ready to welcome the first customers the next morning.
      "I look at this place and I can hardly believe I've gotten to this point, this is something I've always wanted to do," Johnson said. "I've flirted with it but it just all came together so easily now. My basic job is to come in and cook and have fun and the manager's job is to run the restaurant."