Popular SLO County cookie shop bought by family who pledges to preserve its traditions
Serendipity and a shared love of Cambria and cookies brought the entire Nichol family to town in September, but it was the determination of then 25-year-old daughter Tyler Nichol in 2020 that sealed the deal for them to buy the Red Moose Cookie Company.
According to mom Monica Nichol, almost exactly a year ago, she, her husband George Nichol and their daughter were on their way back to Riverside from a business trip to Vancouver when they decided to take a side trip down the coast back home to Southern California.
With their then four Corgi dogs in tow (they now have seven!), they took a timeout in Cambria, where they’d frequently vacationed during the past decade or so. On Dec. 26, they stopped at their favorite cookie purveyor — Red Moose — to stock up on delectables for family members, friends, neighbors … and themselves.
A small sign on the desk advertised that the business was for sale.
Loaded down with boxes and bags of cookies, an excited Tyler headed out to the car and declared to her parents, “I’m going to buy the Red Moose Cookie Company!”
Within less than a year, Monica said, Tyler made it happen, getting financial advice and finally finding a rare lender willing to provide financing for an inexperienced entrepreneur buying a food business during the pandemic.
“I had to see what I could do. If you don’t try, you’ll never know,” Tyler said.
By September, she and her equally upbeat mom had moved to Cambria’s Lodge Hill (for now, George commutes from Gardena).
They began training with Red Moose owner Roger Wall in October. Escrow closed Nov. 13. Wall’s last “formal” training day with them was Dec. 18, although Monica said “he checks in on us at night to make sure we’re doing all right.”
Red Moose products and history
The small cookie company is based at 2531 Village Lane suites C & D in what many Cambrians call “Tin Village” or “Tin City,” off the Burton Drive hill. For details or to place an order, call (805) 900-5140.
The industrial park is a mixed-bag area of commercial and private-use storage units in which various industries are conjoined by common walls: An auto paint shop, veterinary clinic, kitchen and office facilities for Linn’s enterprises, auto repair/tire company, taco-takeout kitchen, auto parts store, frame shop, auto detailer, art studios and storage for the Cambria Scarecrow Festival and many individuals, to name a few.
The out-of-the-way locale didn’t deter dedicated customers drawn to the Red Moose products that Wall and his late partner, Caren Fallows, made daily from original recipes using real butter, pure vanilla, creativity and lots of love.
The aroma of baking cookies can be intoxicating.
Consider Monica’s favorite Cinnful treats, Fallows’ original twist on the classical oatmeal cookie with walnuts, plus cinnamon and toffee chips. Or the thick, fudgy Red Moose brownies (caramel walnut or peppermint pattie) or the unusual root-beer floats.
The 10 cookie offerings at Red Moose also include Snickerdoodlicious, Lemon Moose and Oh Joy, the shop’s baked version of an Almond Joy candy bar.
And then there’s the notorious, whimsical (and addictive) “Naughty Rod,” a large, thick pretzel rod dipped in caramel, rolled in roasted, salted nuts and then drizzled with amaretto chocolate and white chocolate.
The “Rod” was so popular, “I had to hide them for four-and-a-half years,” Wall reminisced by phone Dec. 22. “Customers had to ask for them,” which they did with great regularity. He remembered that “in three hours and 15 minutes one Saturday, I sold 105 Naughty Rods.”
It’s so hard to decide which products to buy in the tiny, informal sales area that many customers stagger out the door under a load of multiple packages of goodies from the small bakery.
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The history of Red Moose Cookies
Fallows, a Coast Union High School graduate, founded the business in 2003 in Washington state. After a back injury made the successful solo enterprise difficult, she closed down for a while, but reconnected via email with Wall, a former school chum, in 2009.
He said he convinced her to “come back home” and move the business to Cambria, where he’d join her as a partner. “We reopened in August 2009 … in the worst location in town.” Wall said that by December, the business was on a roll, despite the economic recession/depression gripping the country.
Fallows, whose self-assigned nickname was “Jane Dough,” was an ebullient woman with a head full of catch-phrases like “we bake people happy” and “our secret is love and butter.”
Wall grew up in Cambria, arriving in 1968, also graduating from Coast Union High School and spending nearly a quarter century working in top-drawer local restaurants. Many longtime restaurant enthusiasts still wax poetic about the executive chef’s chicken-fried steaks at the Sow’s Ear and the Ragged Point eateries.
Together, Wall and Fallow built up a cookie-loving clientele and a franchising plan. But when she died suddenly in 2015, Wall was left to deal with the growing demand on his own.
As Fallows had discovered in Washington, a successful cookie business is not a one-man show. After a few years of making it work, but approaching burnout, Wall decided to sell. “Caren was the master. I miss her every day.”
He had several offers from people wanting to buy Red Moose, Wall said, a couple of which were higher than the Nichols’ offer was.
In the end, he accepted theirs, because “I think Caren would have wanted me to choose this family. They love the place … and it’s not all about the money. It was about finding the right people to carry on the Red Moose legacy.”
What’s next for the bakery?
What are Wall’s plans now? He will only say, “I’m working on what I’m going to do next.” Reverting to chef mode, he added, “I want to do a restaurant, but I’m trying to figure it out. Nothing’s set for sure yet.”
As for the Nichol family, Monica says husband George hopes to move up to Cambria next year after 31 years in the industrial painting trade. He’s currently the vice president of Arena Painting Contractors in Gardena.
She worked for 17 years in the front office of a private school that, due to the pandemic, had to close in June 2020. Tyler was also working at the school while attending Cal Poly Pomona, studying animal science and working at a vet clinic long enough to realize that, with her love for and empathy with animals, that was not a good career track for her.
“It would have broken her heart,” her mom said.
Then came Red Moose and a total life change for all of them.
Tyler is continuing her studies, on her way to a bachelor’s degree from CSU Monterey Bay next semester in her new twin majors, molecular and cellular biology, aiming for a master’s degree after that.
But she loves to bake. As to what her future plans are? “I think I’ll enjoy being a very smart baker,” Tyler said with a laugh.
She wants the loyal Red Moose customers to know the family is adhering to “the same great recipes. Nothing’s changed” except the ownership. “I want to make Roger proud and happy. I’m going to love his bakery as much as he did, and I want him to be happy with his decision. Because I am.”
