TORONTO – In the edifice at the corner of Carlton and Church streets that has seen it all – from the Maple Leafs hoisting 11 Stanley Cups from 1932-67, to the first game in the history of the Basketball Association of America (forerunner to the NBA), to performances by Elvis, Frank and "The Boss" – between 1931 and '99, now resides a supermarket that promotes memorable experiences in food purveyance.

A cross between Whole Foods, Costco and a splash of Chuck E Cheese's, where Torontonians can locate franks and nachos to replicate a Maple Leaf Gardens treat in addition to an 18-foot-tall wall of cheese, the designer Loblaws store this day is playing host to an event featuring Alex Tagliani.

The IZOD IndyCar Series driver fronts a display of "Tag on the Go" packaged cookies – a new line produced by the La Petite Bretonne bakery in Quebec, which specializes in Viennese pastry products.

Tag CookiesTagliani's image and name are on the wrapping of the oatmeal and oatmeal/chocolate snacks, but there's more to this story than a marketing association.

"I approached them to be a sponsor, that's how it started," said Tagliani, 39, who will compete in the Honda Indy Toronto this weekend. "They said they wanted to do a brand of oatmeal cookie using a recipe they had been working on for a year, and wanted to use my name and brand."

Sweet deal, but then Tagliani informed officials of the family-owned company that's been in business since 1966 of his severe nut allergy, so any aspect of production that might include or expose ingredients to peanuts or nut oil wouldn't work. The proposition, with the caveat, went before the company's board of directors, who saw a niche market on the horizon. 

"They came back with the plan to make an extension of the factory – a new production facility that doesn't produce anything with nuts," Tagliani said. "Some factories don't want to go to that extent, so they just put on the label 'may contain peanuts or produced in facility with nuts.' La Petite Bretonne represents me."

A little history:

The Montreal native's life has been complicated by a nut allergy since infancy. At times, his arms had to be restrained to prevent him from scratching his skin until it bled.

Peanut allergy accounts for the majority of severe food-related allergic reactions, tends to present early, usually lasts for life, and can be provoked by trace quantities of peanut in highly sensitized individuals. Currently, there are no curative therapies, and management is limited to avoidance and symptomatic treatment of reactions with epinephrine.

"When I was really young, doctors knew there was something going on with skin rashes," Tagliani said. "They said it was because of what I eat, but doctors couldn't pinpoint anything until I was old enough to do the tests."

He's had to be ever-vigilant about not only the food he consumes, but anything he might come in contact with that would contain nuts or nut oil. There have been serious reactions – a few even life-threatening – over the years. An on-the-go lifestyle adds stress and danger.

In April, for example, Tagliani arrived in Long Beach, Calif., for the race weekend, checked into the hotel and showered before a scheduled track walk with his Team Barracuda-BHA engineer Todd Malloy.

"I jump on the golf cart to go around the track and I start scratching myself and my skin goes red like a tomato," he said. "They look at me and asked if I had a bad sunburn. Then it dawned on me. There was sweet almond oil in the shampoo. I wasn't going to die because it didn't really touch my throat, but it was really uncomfortable. For about 30 to 35 minutes, it's going to make you have a bad reaction to your skin."

Tagliani travels with a case containing auto-injectors that deliver a single dose of epinephrine to reduce airway swelling. An antihistamine also is usually nearby for milder cases such as the Long Beach incidence.

"It's difficult when you go into a restaurant because people sometimes think you're picky," Tagliani said. "It doesn't make me adventurous in a restaurant. Chicken, steamed vegetables -- the more plain the better. More difficult is when you're traveling and you can't have your own food and sometimes you just need to eat but you can't just grab things on the fly. That's when you can get yourself in trouble.

"A snack is really difficult to even try. You go to Starbucks and you see oatmeal cookies and you ask and they say, 'No, you should be OK.' Should is not enough for me. Now (wife) Bronte usually fixes a meal, packs it in Tupperware for my backpack and I stink up the plane because there's broccoli and chicken and vegetables."

The Tag on the Go deal "comes at a perfect time," Tagliani said. The cookies are healthy – Vitamin A and D and iron are added before the baking process, the chocolate is 50 percent cacao from Laura Secord (a Quebec company) and the No. 1 ingredient is oatmeal – and he and Bronte were part of the taste-testing along the way to the final recipe.

"I don't want to put my face and name on something people will criticize," said Tagliani, who noted the third variety coming soon will be oatmeal/raisin. "It's safe for kids without nuts. If you're training or on a bike ride or in the gym, it's a great snack."

Distribution will permeate Canada through various supermarket chains, with 5 million units sold in 2012 a realistic goal. There are plans to cross the U.S. border in autumn. Potential sponsorship opportunities abound for the driver of the No. 98 Honda-powered car and the team, in addition to exposure for the IZOD IndyCar Series.

"I'm lucky they wanted to do this," he said.

Dominique Bohec, vice president of sales and marketing for La Petite Bretonne, said the launch of the cookie line is a joint venture with Tagliani, who owns the brand. The company, inspired by the nut-free cookies, recently invested $10 million (Canadian) to make all their production lines nut-free. 

"If we're making this one product without nuts, why don't we do everything nut-free?" he said. "We realized, after we met Alex, how dangerous this is, especially for kids. We see this being available soon in convenience stores, in airports and other retail outlets. The future is very bright."