Mr Williamsburg, Revolutionary ideas on real estate!Hampton Roads Virginia

This annual poll in the VA Gazette is eagerly anticipated by all in the area. Do realize there are others that should appear. It is based on votes submitted by readers.

By Cortney Langley VA Gazette Dec 2008 “If you drive through Toano and smell fried chicken, it’s peanuts cooking,” explained Terri Morgan. She’s director of Retail Sales for Smithfield Specialty Foods Group, owner of The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg.

The kitchen in Hankins Industrial Park cooks about 2 million pounds of nuts annually for mail orders and the shop on Prince George Street. Gazette readers recognized The Peanut Shop as carrying the best nuts in town.

“It’s nice,” she said. “In a tough economic environment, it’s rewarding to get the vote from the readers and the sales during Christmas,” she said.
To earn the best, the shop begins with the best. The kitchen cooks only the meaty Virginia Peanut, grown in North and South Carolina. No puny “runner” peanuts here. The crop is then hand-sorted for the “supers,” the largest 5% of the year’s yield, Morgan said.
Small batches of these are cooked according to a traditional recipe in pure boiling peanut oil under the supervision of the plant’s roastmaster.
That’s the key, Morgan said. Other plants dilute peanut oil with other types, she said. “We think our have a stronger, more distinct peanut flavor.” They also maintain the trademark blisters that mark the Southern favorite.
As a result, where other retailers are struggling, The Peanut Shop has held steady this holiday season. Usually, The Peanut Shop brand makes up about 65% of holiday sales in the store, but it’s up this year to 75%.
“That tells us how strong the brand is,” Morgan said. Even with shipping, they also make affordable gifts.
“For less than $20, it’s a great item that you know Dad’s going to love,” she said. And in case Dad diverts from the usual “lightly salted” variety, The Peanut Shop offers a bevy of flavors, including wasabi, hot Southern, crab and spicy New Orleans cajun.
For those with a sweet tooth, the shop sells chocolate-covered, butter toffee, honey roasted and new this year, praline-glazed peanuts. And of course, peanut brittle, chocolate-covered brittle, clusters and white chocolate cashew toffee.

With a menu like that, the shop has endeared itself to generations of loyal locals as well as tourists.
Long-time residents remember when Louise Anderson, then in her 50s, opened the small shop in 1973, cooking half-sized tins of peanuts on site and selling them out of the back door of Ayers Garage. Within a year, she had to hire her first employee.
In 1986 she retired, selling the shop to Peter Pruden and Dick Fuller, who also owned Smithfield Ham & Products and Williamsburg Foods. At the time, Smithfield Foods was trying to buy up anything with the Smithfield name. Fuller and Pruden sold to the pork giant in 2001. “Most people don’t know that,” Morgan said.
In December 2006, a fire next door in Baskin-Robbins severely damaged the original store. After an extensive remodel, the shop re-opened in February 2007.
Meanwhile, the store had diversified. For more than five years, the shop had witnessed double-digit growth. That fueled the opening of the Genuine Smithfield Ham Shoppe of Williamsburg across the street.
Second to loyalty among long-time customers, Morgan credits the proximity to Colonial Williamsburg and the energy on Prince George Street for the store’s success.
“I’m so glad we’re on Prince George Street,” she said. “It’s a really healthy business environment. We have great neighbors. They are really kind and aggressive business people.” Whitley’s Peanuts placed second and Virginia Peanuts third in reader results.

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