Chris and Nick Stoikos were visiting Hermosa Beach from Toronto last year, and after a night of partying they found themselves hungry while hanging out at the pier. They craved fried dough, but there wasn’t a fried dough store in the city, or anywhere.
The Canadians understood that health-conscious Southern Californians might not be the ideal crowd to support something as fatty and unhealthy as fried dough.
So they came up with a business idea: organic and whole wheat fried dough.
“It’s the healthiest way to enjoy an unhealthy treat,” said Chris Stoikos, 24. “If you are going to indulge, why not do it in a way that makes you feel the least guilty as possible.”
The early returns at the small storefront on Pier Plaza suggest the brothers might be on to something. After opening on Memorial Day weekend, they have already fielded multiple offers from investors who want in on the franchising of Stoik’s Bear Paws, they said.
Though the brothers are still in the red after an initial $200,000 investment, they now have five employees and a bright business outlook— and even a chance to have their own reality TV show based on their lives running their new and growing business.
Nick Stoikos, 22, had just graduated from the fire academy in Toronto before moving to Hermosa Beach. Chris Stoikos had his own electronic business, buying and repairing video game consoles, TVs, computers and cell phones. He also “flipped” a house.
But neither brother had any culinary experience.
After they hammered out an agreement to take over the 200-square-foot former Sunglass Hut storefront on the plaza in May, they had a lot to learn about making their product.
They discovered that the fryer they purchased didn’t work properly. The temperature of the oil fluctuated wildly. They couldn’t get the dough roller to work right either.
Panic set in.
“Full on panic attack,” said Nick Stoikos.
“We didn’t have anyone to show us anything,” Chris Stoikos said. “We had all this brand new expensive equipment and ingredients, and we had to turn it into a sellable product.”
“The only thing we had done prior to this was make a single bear paw in our kitchen in a single countertop fryer, but nothing like mass production,” Nick Stoikos said. “So we’re in here and we have never used a dough roller before, and the doors are open on Memorial Day weekend, the busiest weekend here. And we’re looking outside, and it’s a zoo of people.
“We’re like, ‘We’re screwed right now.’ We really didn’t know what to do,” Nick Stoikos said.
“We just sunk all this money in here, and we don’t know what the hell is going on,” Chris Stoikos said. “We have no experience. There’s no one to call. We just went to bed one night staring at the stars thinking, ‘Oh my God.’”
But they didn’t give up.
They fiddled with the fryer, and they manipulated the roller so that it produced a long sheet of dough that was perfect for the paw cutter. The adjustments didn’t happen overnight. They happened over many weeks and months.
“You have to go through the tough part and struggle in order to get where a lot of people never get,” Chris Stoikos said.
The brothers had high expectations of how their eight flavors of organic, whole wheat bear paws made in less than a minute ought to taste. Although customers enjoy the bear paws enough to return again and again, the Stoikos maintain that their product is still not perfected, which they will have to be in order to franchise.
And franchising might be the drama of their own reality TV show. The brothers were carrying their belongings from a moving truck into their new home on Manhattan Avenue earlier this year when they met David Keane, the founder of Wild Eyes Productions in Hermosa Beach. Keane was out walking his dog from his nearby office.
“I looked at these guys and they didn’t look like they were from around here,” Keane said. “So I thought I’d say hi and welcome them to Hermosa Beach, the greatest city on Earth.”
Within five minutes, Chris Stoikos had informed Keane he and his brother were going to be a big success.
“I thought they were great characters,” Keane said. “I had thought it was more of a food story, but it’s really more about them watching their business and the big plans they have and their big picture.”
Keane and his film crew documented the opening of the Stoik’s Bear Paws on the plaza and developed a five-minute pitch presentation he is sending to MTV and other media outlets for consideration to become a series. It’s called “Dough Bros.”
“These guys are seriously funny,” Keane said. “They surround themselves with really funny, interesting people. I want to see the show take off mainly because I hope I can just hang out with them.”
Keane founded Wild Eyes Productions 13 years ago. His first production was “The True Story of Black Hawk Down,” a documentary based on Mark Bowden’s book detailing the death of 18 American servicemen who died in Somalia in 1993. More recently, Wild Eyes has produced a series on the A&E Network called “The Squad,” and currently has a show airing on the Audience Network on DirecTV called “Bullproof,” which is about bull-fighters who use their bodies as bait to protect fallen bull-riders.
Keane said his production company has specialized in hard-hitting geo-political issues and has filmed in more than 80 countries.
“So it’s refreshing to potentially do something with my neighbors next door rather than going to Pakistan or Afghanistan,” Keane said.
Back home in Toronto, friends and family are very excited for Chris and Nick’s success.
“They think we are living the dream out here,” Chris Stoikos said. “We’re on Hermosa Pier, we have a sick house, [we] party. [They think] it’s a perfect California life. But it seems better looking from the outside ‘cause obviously things can get tough. You don’t have a good day at the store. There’s problem after problem. It can be non-stop. You don’t see those details from the outside.”
While Chris Stoikos spoke at a table outside his and his brother’s business, there were three people in line for bear paws. An employee was easily handling the sales and the frying of the organic dough.
“But obviously,” Chris Stoikos added, “for the most part we are pretty happy.”
