Cookie firm is fortunate

Tonight, the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th U.S. president, hundreds of partygoers will gather at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington to celebrate the role of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the historic election.

President-elect Obama may not be there -- the organizers of the Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala are still hoping for a surprise appearance at the unofficial ball -- but 1,500 chocolate-dipped fortune cookies from a Southern California company will be making a star turn.

It’s not the biggest order ever for Chocolate Fortunes of North Hollywood, but it’s easily the most momentous for owners Marty and Pam Levy, who started the company 22 years ago out of sublet restaurant space.

One day last week, the pair sifted through piles of order slips that illustrate their firm’s growth.

“We didn’t think this would happen,” Marty said, eyeing the paperwork.

The Levys, both actors, never guessed they’d be waking up at 6:30 a.m. to sell cookies. That’s when they first check orders from their e-mail and voice mail with requests coming from all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and China.

Marty said the recent layoffs, credit crunch and mortgage crisis have hurt sales, which the private company doesn’t disclose. But orders such as the one from the Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala show how Chocolate Fortunes has managed to increase business over the years with help from the Internet.

In 2004, the company bought the www.chocolate fortunes.com domain name, enabling customers from anywhere in the world to place orders at any time. No longer were local businesses, weddings and events the only places for the Levy’s hand-dipped cookies.

Now they’re shipping to people such as Trisha Neff, a communications coordinator for Viktor Incentives & Meetings, which arranges employee reward programs for corporations in Traverse City, Mich. A recent Google search brought Neff to the website, where she ordered 1,200 cookies for an event celebrating the Chinese New Year on Jan. 26.

“Their website was the best,” Neff said. “When I sent an inquiry, their response was the best.”

That included a willingness to print six different fortunes and split the 1,200 cookies evenly among white chocolate, dark chocolate and butterscotch.

The company also offers milk chocolate, mint chocolate and peanut butter with any-color frosting or sprinkles. Cookie sizes come in traditional, baby giant (4-inch diameter) and giant (7-inch). Prices start at 50 cents for a traditional-sized dipped cookie and can run as high as $26.95 for a giant decorated cookie.

The varied menu and the company’s global outreach changed the Levys’ workday to what Pam described as “24 hours.”

Marty remembers the time they worked in the early hours to dip, package and ship 4,000 cookies to Hong Kong.

After Marty picks up the plain fortune cookies from a local supplier, Pam melts the sauces. He inserts the fortunes, which can be custom-ordered. She dips and decorates the cookies -- they’re proud to say they dunk three-fourths of each cookie rather than just half, as some unnamed competitors do.

With the help of an employee, sometimes supplemented with contractors for big orders, the cookies are packed in heat-sealed bags. Marty prints out labels. The cookies are then shipped through FedEx.

“They were really excited when they launched” the website, said Tara Tchak, who helped design it. “Before, the setup was more limited. But any order through their website goes straight to their kitchen.”

Chocolate Fortunes is a much different company from when it started in 1987.

Pam, who had baking experience making pies for restaurants, was an actress whose jobs included a stint on the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.”

Marty worked at restaurants while also taking acting classes. The two met in one of those classes and decided to start the chocolate fortune cookie business, playing dual roles as business partners and spouses.

“It works out great because we don’t step on each other’s toes,” Pam said. “Once we’re done work during the day, the business is over and we go home. We’re able to switch gears because we were actors.”

Instead of searching for acting gigs, though, the two had to search for places to run their business. They rented out property from other businesses by the hour. They moved into their current location on Lankershim Boulevard in 1999, but it wasn’t until they launched their website that growth really took off.

“Finding this place was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Marty said. “It then led to the Internet and what’s going on now.”

The Levys recalled the day in December when they got the order from planners of the Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala, placed through the Chocolate Fortunes website. The two looked at each other in astonishment and said in unison: “This is incredible.”

Marty said he considered that order “at the very top” of Chocolate Fortunes’ success.

At the gala organizer’s request, Chocolate Fortunes wrote two custom fortune messages split evenly among the milk-chocolate fortune cookies. One of the fortunes said:

“Rosa sat so Martin could walk

so Barack could run

and our children can fly.”

“This is exactly what we wanted,” said Gloria T. Caoile, the gala’s co-chair. “We’re able to have our own message inside.”

It’s been an emotional experience, Pam said.

“I cried over that,” she said. “We’re glad we can be a part of change. And honestly, it’ll help for business.”

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mark.medina@latimes.com