Who would have thought that someone without the culinary skills to make Jell-O would be the driving force behind Ruby et Violette, a New York City bakery and café that specializes in handmade, small batch, gourmet chocolate chunk cookies, brownies and cookie dough ice creams that are enjoyed all over the country?

Heather Sue Mercer, the youngest of the three sisters who own and operate Ruby et Violette, is a self-confessed sugar-holic. As a young professional living in Manhattan, Heather Sue made frequent trips to a small bake shop in Hell’s Kitchen called Ruby et Violette to indulge in their unique chocolate chunk cookies.  “From the moment my sisters and I discovered Ruby et Violette,” Heather Sue explains, “we were addicted, and quickly found any number of reasons to swing by to pick up a box or two.”

Then, in January of 2006, while out of town navigating the newfound world of professional poker, Heather Sue received a startling piece of news: Ruby et Violette was closing its doors for good ... unless someone knew of a prospective buyer.  “I called the owners immediately and said, ‘Don’t sell the store to anyone! I’ll be back in town tomorrow and my sisters and I are going to buy the shop!” says Heather Sue, adding with a pause and a guilty chuckle, “... then I called my sisters ...”

Her sisters, Jenji and Bekah, were, needless to say, surprised. “That’s an understatement,” Bekah says, adding, “I had always thought it would be a great idea for the three of us to go into business, because we all have very different strengths and talents.  As a lawyer, Jenji was a natural choice to handle the legal and business end of things, and math was my chosen field, so it made sense that I would handle the financial end ... but that left Heather Sue in the kitchen… a scary prospect.”

“A seriously scary prospect,” says Jenji, the eldest, nodding her head in agreement. “But I was not going to spend my day baking cookies – and that’s exactly what I told Heather Sue when she called. Her response? ‘That’s okay – you can handle all the legal stuff and deal with the customers – I’ll bake the cookies.’  That definitely made me laugh,” Jenji recalls, adding that she then tried reason:  “You can’t even boil water!"   To which Heather Sue replied, "Well I don’t have to boil water to make cookies – I’m sure I can figure it out – it’ll be so fun!" “At that point,” Jenji says, “I just knew I was going to end up knee-deep in batter, because it was pretty clear that Heather Sue had suddenly become delusional.”

Upon hearing her sisters account of that fateful day, Heather Sue concedes, “so maybe we didn’t have a clue how to run a business or make cookies, but I’m a firm believer that you really can do anything if you have the drive and determination -- and we had that in spades -- plus I had the trump card of being the bratty baby sister who wasn’t going to take no for an answer!  So we pooled our money, bought the shop, and never looked back.”

Today, Ruby et Violette has devoted fans all over the country and has even been dubbed by O, The Oprah Magazine, as “transcendently luscious.”

“Gourmet doesn’t have to mean hoity-toity. Our cookies are gourmet and deliciously decadent, yet they’re fun,” says Heather Sue. “We’re talking about dessert here, not brain surgery, so it’s important to keep a bit of irreverence about the whole thing!”

“Heather Sue still can’t boil water, but she’s literally a genius where cookies are concerned,” Jenji says with a shake of her head.  “I mean, who would have guessed?”

“And ice creams,” Bekah adds, equally mystified.  “I mean, the ice creams are insane.  Our baby sister – the idiot savant of all things chocolate chunk!  It’s just hilarious.  Fabulously, deliciously, hilarious!”

During her downtime, Heather Sue can be found honing her game on the professional poker circuit. Her next goal ... learning how to make Jell-O.