Three weeks before Lisa Lathrop and her husband were supposed to move their Madison, Wis., bakery to a new location, the deal suddenly fell through, and they couldn't find another place. With only two days left on the old lease, they were desperate. "I was scared to death," says Lathrop. Closing down for a few weeks would have killed the fledgling business, so Lathrop sent out a plea for help--to her competitors.
Her message went to the e-mail list of the local chapter of Dine Originals, a trade organization that bands together independent restaurants, and caught the eye of Robert von...
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