By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times business editor | Posted: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:00 am
Corvallis restaurateur Reiner Bohlen Jr. has no idea what movie's going to win the Oscar for Best Picture, but he's hoping a little bit of the luster from this Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony will rub off on his line of health-conscious energy bars.
Bohlen, the proprietor of the Solstice Cafe, began marketing the all-vegan, mostly organic treats last fall. They've been a modest success, with about 40 active wholesale accounts as far afield as New York, Florida and Illinois.
Now they're going Hollywood.
Bohlen's Solstice Goji Energy Bars will be included in about 50 of the 200 or so gift bags being prepared for the Night of 100 Stars, one of the more high-profile Oscar night after-parties happening in Tinseltown. The annual black tie bash, thrown by agent Norby Walters at the Beverly Hills Hotel, will include a sit-down dinner for 500 people, including past Oscar winners and nominees, television personalities and other celebrities.
"Each basket will have six energy bars, and we made a special label for them," Bohlen said.
The "79th Annual Academy Awards Edition" of the good-for-you goodies contains organic peanut butter and dark chocolate plus such such ultrawholesome ingredients as agave syrup, flax seed meal and organic kamut puffs. The main attraction, however, may be the goji berries, an antioxidant-rich Tibetan fruit that Bohlen describes as "kind of like a cross between a raisin, a cranberry and a little bit of tomato, but in a good way."
The Solstice Bars were chosen for the Night of 100 Stars at the suggestion of Bohlen's sister, Whitney Dineen, who has attracted a cult following in Hollywood for her deliciously decadent baked goods. She's supplying Dream Girl Sugar Cookies for 25 of the goody bags and recommended Bohlen to the event planner in charge of party favors.
"His goji bars are making a little bit of a splash out here," said Dineen, who helps sell her brother's product. "There are some celebrity trainers who are giving them to their clients, a couple of celebrities who like them."
That splash may get bigger on Sunday, when a new crop of celebs gets a chance to discover Bohlen's Oregon energy boosters. This year's guest list for the Night of 100 Stars includes the casts of the hit TV shows "Lost" and "Shark" as well as former Oscar winners such as Ernest Borgnine.
They'll all get the chance to walk through the "gift lounge," where they can pick up baskets containing everything from spa days to portable DVD players to gift certificates for Lasik eye surgery, according to Nancee Borgnine (Ernest's daughter) of Hollywood Connection, which assembled the fabulous freebies for the event.
"Each bag is a little different," she said.
Being included in a Hollywood gift basket carries a special kind of marketing cachet.
"Evidently they're very hard to get into because everybody wants their product to be seen with the stars," Bohlen said.
That may be truer than ever this year, the first since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences board voted to stop handing out extravagant goody bags to award presenters and nominees.
Oscar swag - including everything from trendy cell phones and spendy hotel stays to such outre indulgences as cashmere pajamas and mink eyelashes - had ballooned in value to a reputed $100,000, and the IRS was beginning to take notice. Rather than giving out pricey gifts that might come with tax bills attached, the movie industry association decided to give nothing this year, said academy publicist Leslie Unger.
Of course, that vote is not binding on after-parties such as Norby Walters' shindig, which has no official connection to the Academy Awards, and gift baskets are still part of the allure for attendees.
Bohlen has no idea whether his brush with fame will result in increased demand for his Solstice Goji Energy Bars, but he's bumping up production at his Corvallis restaurant, just in case he gets hit with a deluge of orders.
"If that were to happen," he said, "I'd put that in the category of good problems to have."
Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.