Lucky Jamieson grew up in Snowflake, Vermont where her parents ran the By the Spoonful Soup Shop on Broadway. Eager to spread her wings and leave small town life behind, Lucky left to study theater arts at the University of Wisconsin. But six years out of college, she found herself working not as a stage manager in the theater, but at a series of dead-end jobs. Her life, she realized, was going nowhere. When her parents are killed in a car crash on an icy road, she returns home to Snowflake to learn she has inherited their business. Devastated by their death and guilty she had stayed away for so many years, Lucky decides to continue running the Spoonful with her grandfather, Jack.
Jack Jamieson, Lucky’s grandfather, is a retired Navy man. He still refers to the floor as the deck, the walls as the bulkhead, tells time by “bells,” and sports a fading tattoo of a hula girl on his bicep. Jack sometimes suffers from disabling flashbacks from his time serving in the Pacific during World War II, but he’s devoted to his granddaughter and does his best to keep the restaurant running on an even keel.
Elizabeth Dove was Lucky’s parents’ closest friend. A retired elementary school teacher who is now the Mayor of Snowflake, Elizabeth thinks of Lucky as the daughter she never had. When Lucky returns home, Elizabeth is waiting to welcome her and does everything she can to ease the transition. She is Lucky’s touchstone now that her mother is gone. Without Elizabeth’s love and support, Lucky wonders how she would ever cope.
Elias Scott is the town’s doctor as well as the local medical examiner. He could have had a specialty practice anywhere, but fell in love with Snowflake and jumped at the chance to practice family medicine at the Snowflake Clinic. Once Lucky’s middle-school-much-older-man-crush, it’s not long before she realizes he still engenders strong feelings in her. More importantly, Lucky soon learns that the affection is returned.
Sophie Colgan, Lucky’s former childhood best friend, now works as a top ski instructor at the Snowflake Resort. Sophie was hurt and resentful when Lucky left Snowflake to attend college and start a new life. Lucky would like to mend the breach … if only Sophie is willing.
Sage DuBois is the Spoonful’s talented chef — and Sophie’s boyfriend. Hired by Lucky’s parents while she was away at school, his laid-back attitude makes it easy for Lucky to play the role of his boss, but she wonders if he secretly resents taking orders from someone his own age.
Regular patrons at the Spoonful: Marjorie and Cecily Winters, two middle-aged sisters who run the Off Broadway Ladies’ Clothing Store, stop at the Spoonful every morning for tea and croissants before opening their shop. They know everything that goes on in town and are an unending source of juicy gossip. Retired friends Hank Northcross and Barry Sanders visit the Spoonful every day to play a game of Connect Four or chess at their favorite table and watch the passing parade outside the Spoonful’s windows.
