Toronto man launches phallic charcuterie board business
A Toronto man started an x-rated charcuterie board business and people love the phallic-shaped slabs of wood.
Roee Dunkelman, 25, tells blogTO he studied advertising and has worked in sales but may have found his true calling as the owner of Cockuterie Boards.
The idea to create a dick out of wood came while he was in a grocery store one day in November 2020. He saw a display of charcuterie boards and an idea popped into his head.
"As I held, touched, and yes, gently stroked these bad boys," Dunkelman says, describing the moment on his website. "I found myself immersed in their wooden wonder."
He did a search and found that there are other people, surprisingly, making penis shaped charcuterie boards. But Dunkelman thought he could make something better, even though he had never started a business before.
"So I just went into it with no prior business experience," he says.
Cockuterie was born a few months later, after searching for, and finally finding a supplier in Kingston to cut the boards.
"Throughout from November till about June, I was trying to source out manufacturers, while I'm prototyping along the way," he says.
Dunkelman had 50 cockuterie boards made at first and then sanded and oiled them at home. He bought a laser engraver to etch his logo and to personalize boards for custom orders.
Those 50 sold quickly after he launched this September, so he had another 100 made. Those have nearly sold out too.
There are two main sizes of board (yes, size does matter) — the Sheriff is massive at two feet, and the Deputy at about 14 inches long. There are also some eight-inch long 'Stocking Stuffers' which could be used as trivets or coasters.
The cocks are "made from rock hard Canadian Maple" and "hand rubbed, oiled, and finished because really, there is just no other way."
Toronto might have an unhealthy obsession with the phallic (think: CN Tower).
Penis-shaped waffles blew up this summer, and the boards are popular on social media — particularly TikTok where Cockuterie has a growing fanbase of over 10,000 followers. One of Dunkelman's videos got more than 2.4 million views.
"It blew me away," he said.
As a big TikTok fan, Dunkelman finds culinary creators do really well on the social media platform so he thought his boards would be a good fit.
"TikTok was more than the ideal platform to help me grow and really promote this thing," he says.
The promotion seems to be working; Dunkelman has already sold 132 boards, shipping them to countries including Ireland, the U.S. and Australia.
But it's not all business. Cockuterie also has a partnership with Testicular Cancer Canada, in which 10 per cent of all profits go to the organization.
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