Smiley Face Cookie Co. in Kirkwood employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to produce the “perfectly imperfect” smiley face line of cookies. | photo by Ursula Ruhl
Company operating out of Pioneer Bakery target of continued legal threats from East Coast restaurant chain
A Kirkwood bakery is asking for help to defend its flagship smiley face cookies against a legal challenge from an East Coast restaurant chain.
Smiley Face Cookie Co., which operates out of Kirkwood’s Pioneer Bakery Café, provides employment to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition to the café, the “perfectly imperfect” smiley face cookies are sold locally at Schnuck’s grocery stores and online at McArthurs.com.
Eat’n Park, based out of Homestead, Pennsylvania, has for years sent cease and desist letters to Pioneer Bakery, claiming the Kirkwood company is infringing upon its intellectual property. Eat’n Park has owned the trademark for the term “smiley cookie” since 1985, and sells the sweets at its restaurants and online.
Pioneer Bakery owner Scott Rinaberger said the Pennsylvania chain recently upped its aggression, threatening legal action if Smiley Face Cookie Co. does not rebrand. But Rinaberger believes the ubiquitous cookies predate Eat’n Park’s trademark.
“We don’t know how long the smiley face cookie has been part of the Kirkwood community, but our understanding is Kirkwood Bakery started making them at some point in the late ‘70s,” said Rinaberger.
Kirkwood Bakery, 113 N. Kirkwood Road, was beloved for its smiley face cookies, which earned the “Best Cookie” title in the Riverfront Times’ Best of 2001 awards. The bakery was owned by Anthony “Tony” Balota from 1970 to 2003, at which point it was sold to Randy McArthur and renamed McArthur’s Bakery. The business was sold to the Rinaberger family in 2014 and moved to 210 N. Kirkwood Road in 2015. Both McArthur and the Rinabergers continued the tradition of selling smiley face cookies.
While McArthur’s was shuttered in 2019, the site was reincarnated in 2020 as the Pioneer Bakery Café. Partnered with Lafayette Industries — a Manchester, Missouri, company employing hundreds of adults with disabilities — Pioneer Bakery became a training site for StepUp, a competitive employment training program. Adult students with intellectual and developmental disabilities attend classes at Lafayette Industries, then apply the skills learned during internship shifts at Pioneer Bakery. Smiley face cookies became the signature product of this alliance.
Rinaberger said the cease and desist letters started under the bakery’s previous owners. Rinaberger himself last received a letter three years ago.
“Historically, we ignored the letters because we were making the cookies before the trademark and have common law on our side. But in October, Eat’n Park sent an email to our attorneys getting more aggressive,” said Rinaberger. “Why now? Why not 15 years ago? Is it because we’re becoming more successful? We’re not overlapping. There’s no customer confusion. We’re still at a loss as to why they’re coming after us.”
Noah Wangler puts the smiles on smiley face cookies at Smiley Face Cookie Co. in Kirkwood. | photo by Ursula Ruhl
