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Largo Bakery's Dough Is On Obama

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON

spthompson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 21, 2009

LARGO - For the five years she has run Frida's Cafe and Bakery on busy Ulmerton Road, Frida Alipour has sold cookies featuring the faces of the presidential candidates.

As part of an unofficial poll, her staff keeps track of how many of a particular candidate's cookies sell before the election.

This year, however, Alipour and her staff took the extra step of honoring the winner by baking inauguration cookies. Several trays featuring Barack Obama were on display Tuesday afternoon, right below the cherry strudel and sticky buns.

The cookies were selling like hot cakes. "He's very popular," Alipour said of the new president.

Four years ago, she sold cookies featuring the visages of George W. Bush and John Kerry, she said. Sales figures were not available.

Last year, she sold cookies featuring John McCain and Obama. The number of McCain cookies sold was 1,923, compared with 2,989 for Obama. Alipour said those figures reflect the outcome of the election, and she has come to compare her cookie poll to the importance of the Interstate 4 corridor as a bakery-based sample of where the country stands.

When Bush won, Alipour and her staff didn't bother making cookies observing Bush's re-election.

"Nobody called me for Bush cookies," she said. "This election, people are calling me for Obama cookies."

Alipour takes pains not to take sides in presidential campaigns. She likes to appear impartial. "But I like him," she said of Obama.

And Bush?

No.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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