Winner of national Christmas cookie contest among new vendors at this year’s Juneau Public Market
- Mark Sabbatini
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 12 hours ago
Jossie Lukacik says she is also moving her Sweet Spot bakery from North Carolina to Juneau in time for next year’s cruise ship season
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Jossie Lukacik, deemed the best Christmas cookie baker in the U.S. by the Food Network, is bringing her business to this year’s Juneau Public Market as something of an early Christmas gift to herself — as a prelude to a permanent move here from North Carolina next March.
Lukacik, owner of Sweet Spot Studio in Charlotte, said she made the decision while visiting Juneau on a cruise this summer, amidst ongoing difficult times back home. She said there’s been widespread layoffs that cut into her customer base, and the recent mass immigrant-detention efforts of "Operation Charlotte's Web" decimated activity and morale in the area where she works.
"It took us a day to figure out what felt different and what felt very good," she said in an interview Thursday, describing the cruise to Alaska. "And we just kind of noticed that people were happy in general. And everyone we talked to was happy and by the time we got to Juneau we were kind of like — I know it sounds crazy — but like ‘maybe we should move to Alaska.’ And so we made a point of just talking to small business owners. And it's clear that you guys value small business in a way that where we're from just doesn't."
Sweet Spot is scheduled to be among more than 175 vendors at the 43rd annual public market that runs Friday through Sunday at Centennial Hall and the adjacent Juneau Arts and Culture Center. Taking place on the same days a short distance away at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall is the annual Indigenous Artists & Vendors Holiday Market.
Lukacik said she moved to Charlotte about 12 years ago and launched Sweet Spot about three years later, building it up into a business offering a variety of edible and decorative baked products, plus classes for aspiring bakers and pastry chefs. She was named Charlottean of the Year in 2021 for helping tenant kitchens stay in business during the COVID-19 pandemic and won Best Vocational School from the Charlotte Observer in 2024.
But while Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., that growth is also "pricing out its local businesses," according to an Axios report.
"We're the financial center of the South, and that's where so many layoffs are happening right now and that's our customer base," Lukacik said.
She said she’s turning over the bakery and another business to a new owner on Jan. 1, 2026, and after that will take a bit of time off before relocating to Juneau. She said the new Sweet Spot will occupy the space in the Foodland shopping center where Nano’s Grill used to be, and she and her husband will initally live in their RV while figuring out more permanent housing.
"We can't do as much as we do in North Carolina, but we can do education, high-quality baking and pastry classes, cookies, cakes, pretty much everything under the sun," she said. "And then during the (tourism) season we hope to offer a sourdough cruise excursion."
In the meantime, Lukacik said she’s planning to offer longer-lasting creations from her baking during her short stay in Juneau at the public market.
"The main thing we're selling is going to be ornaments — and they're actually preserved cookies," she said. "So they're hand-decorated cookies and then we cover them in epoxy, so that way they last indefinitely. We're going to be doing a cookie photo booth so you can get your picture taken and printed on a cookie. And honestly, my biggest thing is just meeting people and finding out from the community what are they looking for so we know how to best tailor what we do to the market — and then just kind of seeing what the winter weather is so we're not completely blindsided next year."
Lukacik will arrive with serious acclaim since she is the reigning champion of the Food Network’s "Christmas Cookie Challenge" that aired last Dec. 19.
"I started applying in 2020 to get on the show and I just applied every year," she said. "And last year was my lucky year and I'm super glad because they ended up canceling the show. So I get to be the last winner, and in the last episode of the last season."
If that was a high point during the past year, then the immigration raids occurring earlier this month is among the low points, Lukacik said.
"It's been a horrific week. I don't even know how to describe the feeling," she said.
"Everything has been directly around us. So like the chef store where we got all our ingredients, there was some horrible stuff on Monday or Tuesday, where people are being chased around the parking lot and people are crying and screaming."
But such experiences reaffirmed her decision to move to Juneau — and it won’t mean saying goodbye to all of the five employees currently working for her in Charlotte.
"Two of them are actually moving with us to Juneau, which is amazing," Lukacik said.
There will be nearly 50 new vendors at this year’s public market, said Peter Metcalfe, the event’s longtime organizer. The list of participants includes the usual variety of art, crafts, clothing, calendar, food, household, jewelry and other items, along with nonprofit participants such as Perseverance Theatre and Friends of Jensen-Olson Arboretum.
Among the non-commercial newcomers is Capital City Fire/Rescue which, according to an official announcement, "will collect contact information from those trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and promote training opportunities to create a resource for a soon-to-be-installed 911 app that will instantly alert CPR providers to nearby emergency events."
The Juneau Public Market is scheduled from noon–7 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission to Centennial Hall is $10 for a three-day pass and admission to the JACC is free.
The Indigenous Artists & Vendors Holiday Market is scheduled from noon-5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Admission is free.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
