TV anchor launches Latin-themed show on cooking, culture


Mike Gonzalez, an on-air personality at KXLY-TV, has launched a multimedia company here called the Hispanic Food Network (HFN).

The company, which is owned by Gonzalez, Dwight and Becky Finney, and Louie Flores III, produces a Hispanic-themed cooking show titled "En La Cocina," which means "in the kitchen," and a related Web site, says Michelle Klein, company spokeswoman.

The company has no employees aside from the owners, who work mainly out of their homes.

The new company's Web site, located at www.hispanicfoodnetwork.com, offers Hispanic recipes grouped by country of origin, profiles of chefs and restaurants, and reviews of recipes and dining establishments. Past profiles have featured Agave Latin Bistro, Chocolate Apothecary, and DeLeon Foods.

"The hope is to highlight Spokane's Hispanic-owned businesses and eateries," Klein says, adding that Gonzalez's mother is Puerto Rican. "Growing up immersed in the Latin culture in Miami and around his mom's family, food and culture were inextricably mixed. The important thing is the story behind the food."

When filming TV segments, HFN uses as a backdrop a test kitchen owned by Greenstone Homes, of Liberty Lake, as well as Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area businesses and restaurants. The company also plans to film a segment in the Seattle area and will pursue stories in the Tri-Cities area, Klein says.

While the half-hour "En La Cocina" program, which broadcasts on KXLY, has no permanent time slot, a schedule of when it will air is posted on the Web site.

New eatery slated for Pizza Hut spot in Spokane Valley
Charlie P's LLC, a new Spokane Valley company, has leased and plans to open a full-service restaurant in an 1,800-square-foot building at 8125 E. Sprague that once had housed a Pizza Hut.

The restaurant, which is slated to open by Jan. 1, will operate under the Charlie P's name and serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, says owner Charlie Price.

The menu will include pizza, steak, hamburgers, seafood, pasta, and barbeque fare, says Price, who has worked in the food service industry for 24 years and previously owned Jimmie's Tavern here.

Charlie P's will employ about 10 people, including Price.

The company currently is remodeling the building's interior in a project that includes adding a bar area and booths. An outdoor dining patio also has been added. Gap Webb Construction LLC, of Spangle, Wash., is the contractor for the project, says Price, who also is doing some of the work.

The dining room will accommodate 60 people, he says.

Mike King, of Spokane's Polar Enterprises Inc., and Sabrina Jones-Schroeder, of Spokane's Exit Real Estate Jones & Associates, handled the lease of the space.

Video production company starts marketing service
Masterpiece Memories Inc., a Spokane-based video production company, has launched a commercial service to market businesses and goods on the Internet, says Asa Manchan, the company's president.

Masterpiece Memories produces slide shows, and transfers videotape, film, and photos to a digital format.

For the new service, Masterpiece Memories will shoot video of a business, edit it, add voiceovers, music, and other elements, then post it on its Web site at http://spokane.clavideo.com. In addition, it will distribute the video to various video-sharing Web sites, including YouTube, Google, and Metacafe, and post links on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and elsewhere.

"We're giving these businesses several opportunities to be seen with the same video," Manchan says.

The company assigns "metatags," or key words, to the videos so they show up high on a results list when a user performs a search on a search engine.

The cost of the service ranges from $899 to $1,300 a year.

In addition to creating presentations for businesses, the service also will make videos of goods that individuals want to sell, such as vehicles and properties. The cost is $129 for a video of a vehicle or $299 for one of a property, and the service will market the items on the Web until they sell, Manchan says.

Five-year-old Masterpiece Memories leases about 1,400 square feet of floor space at 719 W. Garland. It employs six people, including Manchan.

Friends here begin home-based event planning business
Long time friends Jamie Tapia and Sasha Tibbetts have started a home-based event planning business here called Girls With Glue Guns. It offers event planning, creative services, decorations, invitations, centerpieces, and scrapbooking for any event, they say.

Tapia, who recently graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in marketing and business, says she and Tibbetts, an employee of Sterling Savings Bank here, have assisted friends and family with about seven weddings.

"You can only hear people say so many times that you should do this for a business" before you decide to do it, she says.

Girls With Glue Guns will plan and host dinner parties, theme parties, and corporate events, as well as weddings, they say. The business has just launched a Web site, and also does marketing through social networking sites.

Resellers must pay tax to wholesalers beginning Jan. 1
Beginning Jan. 1, businesses without a permit from the Washington state Department of Revenue will have to pay retail sales tax when buying goods and services for resale.

While the Department of Revenue estimates it has issued nearly 180,000 permits to businesses since September, it says about 20,000 businesses, mostly contractors, haven't applied for one yet.

Normally, resellers don't pay sales tax because they charge it when they sell a product to customers. That will no longer be the case under the new regulations. The 2009 Legislature replaced self-issued resale certificates with Department of Revenue-issued reseller permits to reduce misuse of the resale system.

Businesses that must pay sales tax because they don't have a permit will be able to deduct those payments on their combined excise tax returns after the sale of a given product, but some wholesalers might not sell items at wholesale prices to retailers that don't have a permit.

"We're concerned that come Jan. 1, some businesses will be in for a big surprise the next time they try to purchase products or materials at wholesale and find out that they have to pay sales tax," says agency director Cindi Holmstrom.

Businesses can apply for a reseller permit at dor.wa.gov/resellerpermit or by calling 1-800-647-7706.