Our Origin Story | 🍑 🍒 🥑 🫒 🥥 🥭

Drop those dope drupes.

Stoned Fruit is my baby and it represents my most seasoned creative endeavor to date. 

Picture it. 1983. Suburban Pennsylvania. 13-year old me pouring over issues of Communication Arts while eating her Life Cereal. Mamma is a commercial artist and painter. Pappa is an English teacher. All she needed was 4 more decades of experience, a degree in Anthropology, and 20-years grinding the ax of entrepreneurship…. and here we are. 

Stoned Fruit itself is also the bravest thing I have ever done professionally…and that’s saying something. I have skinned my business knees many, many times—and there’s no sign of that stopping anytime soon. 

But, there’s no time like the present, so thanks for coming along for the ride. I’m so glad you’re here.

I am dedicated to developing Stoned Fruit to be a magic carpet ride of a brand. The idea is to put a retail skin on creative services and how they are delivered. 

We have had so much fun bringing it all together and it shows. And that is good for business.

I learned that lesson by osmosis from a wonderful restaurateur. (Well, the Washington Post once called him an Impresario, and they are not wrong tho.) 

I’ve never stopped thinking about the way that James Alefantis could develop a brand that had so much stickiness that the name itself became an adjective. “That’s so Buck’s,” is common parlance for those of us lucky enough to have worked at or patronized Buck’s Fishing & Camping, a quirky casual fine dining destination neighborhood joint in NW DC.

Right before service would kick-off, James would power-walk through the dining room, adjusting lighting and repositioning plants and candles, “Have fun, everybody.”

He meant it.

James was always amping up the staff to have fun. And do you know what happened? They did. And do you know what else happened? The customers loved-loved-loved to be around that energy. Buck’s has defied every expectation for the shelf-life of a restaurant in DC and been a beloved neighborhood AND destination for anyone seeking great food in a vibe steeped in hospitality.

I’ve learned so much about business from working in restaurants in the early days of my career. (Salad days? More like saltine days, amiright, restaurant people?)

Now I’m bringing this mindset and everything else I have fallen completely in love with in life—food, hospitality, farm-to-table, customer-centric service, chef’s specials & seasonal menus; limited edition, members only, FUBU; independently-owned business, big entrepreneurial energy, self-directed education, mentorship; marketing, branding; original thought, creative writing, design, graphics, and photography—and poured it all into the power of positioning/messaging for infinite creation and intensely awesome creativity. 

…and here we are. 

I know that when it comes to the content we consume, less is more. So, rest assured that I am not at a fever-pitch to captivate your eyeballs 24/7. I am here to nurture connections and reinforce shared values for deep relationship-building. 

If you are, too, then welcome to the 🍑🍒🥑🥥🥭Opportunity Orchard, y’all. It’s so nice you’re here. 

Yours in authentic engagement and telling it like it is, 
Rebecca Gunter