By Gayle Smoot
For The News-Chronicle
"Since late in the last century, folks have been counting on Curt's for the best seasonings and snacks."
This statement is found on the website of Curt Campbell of Oconto. Campbell is the sole proprietor of "Curt's Table Spice," a wholesale spice manufacturer whose home office and warehouse are located in Oconto. His website is spiceguy.com.
He started the spice business when he closed his previous business, Campbell Studios. He decided to do something in which he could indulge his passion, cooking. Curt and his wife of 28 years, Amy Jo, who is a certified dietary manager at Rennes Health Care in Peshtigo, started the business in 1993.
Curt and Amy Jo began manufacturing their spice mixture in the kitchen of their church, which they had licensed as a commercial kitchen. He then distributed the product, literally, from the trunk of his car. He initially contacted restaurants in Door County to use his product as an addition to their table condiments.
That's how he became known as the "spice guy." When he would come into a restaurant, a waitress would usually shout to the cook or manager, "Hey, the spice guy is here." No one really knew what his whole name was, he just became known as "the spice guy."
Today, 10 years later, he still personally distributes his products to restaurants throughout Wisconsin. In addition to his 120 wholesale accounts, he maintains a website and mailing list with another 2,000 retail accounts throughout the United States. He considers his company a "virtual business" because of his Internet sales and business generated by his 800 number which he can access from wherever he is.
Though he no longer personally manufactures his spice mixtures in the church kitchen, it is made to his recipe either in the Fox Valley or Milwaukee. He keeps an "on call" inventory, meaning carrying only enough stock on hand for current orders. When he goes on his rounds state wide, he usually stops to pick up a fresh "trunkload" of product from his manufacturer.
"Eighty Cents and an Onion" is Curt's venture into publishing. What is the book about? Cooking, what else! He got the idea for a cookbook from the address of the publisher listed in the back of a cookbook published by a local Boy Scout troop. The days flew by as he researched and typed recipes. Before he knew it, he had 200 recipes. The title came to him on I43 between Green Bay and Sheboygan on one of his "spice trips."
"Give me 80 cents and an onion an I can make a pot of beans that will put store bought to shame," he told Sammi, the dachshund who rides shotgun on his trips around the state. She looked him in the eye, sighed and went back to sleep. The title was born.
The cookbooks are hardcover with a washable surface and a plastic spine with the title printed on it to make it easy to find on your shelf. You'll find recipes that use all of his products from Curt's BBQ sauce to Curt's Tortilla Chips. He holds nothing back. The book contains the exact recipe he used to win the Egg Harbor Pumpkin Patch Festival's Apple Pie Contest in 1995, with ALL of the ingredients listed.
Speaking of awards, Curt's bratwurst won the Seal of Excellence at the 1996 Wisconsin State Fair. Spurred on by that success, Curt entered a national cooking competition at Mt. Carmel, Ill. He took his 18 sq. ft. mobile BBQ pit called "Luscious." He found competing on the national level to be a whole different ball game.
He recently opened a retail store in Fish Creek. This is another story. (With Curt, everything is a story.) While searching the shops of Door County for a Tibetan prayer wheel, he came across a sign advertising a business cottage for rent in Ephraim. After viewing the cottage, Curt went back to Fish Creek to talk to the owner about it. Curt did not really want a 12-month lease. The owner, however, made Curt a better offer.
"How about the cottage right back here? One door down and set inside the courtyard," he said.
Right in the heart of Fish Creek. Could they afford it? Could he run his New York style hot dog cart in the courtyard? The answer to both questions as "Yes."
Less than 72 hours after first even thinking about a shop and only 36 hours after learning about the cottage, it was theirs.
So if your plans include a trip to Door County this fall, be sure to stop by Curt's Spice Company Store in the Harbor Court Shops on Cedar Street in Fish Creek. While you are there you will be able to sample all of his products and enjoy one of his award-winning bratwurst from the hot dog cart or smoked BBQ from "Luscious." The brats and natural casing smoked wieners are available frozen at the store.
In addition to his own recipes, Curt carries a line of Mexican seasonings he discovered in a Mexican market in Atlanta on the way to a Packers/Buccaneers Game in Tampa. The spices are manufactured in California.
On a trip to Krakow, Poland, Curt discovered olive oil, all kinds of it. Curt has formed a business arrangement with an olive oil producer who imports olive oil from small orchards all over the world. Various olive oil blends will be available for sampling at the Fish Creek store. Curt plans on carrying eight varieties of olive oil and two balsamic vinegars in bulk. You may taste the product and make your choice. It will be bottled fresh before your eyes.
Blended olive oils will also be available. These oils are pressed with various additional ingredients such a Porcini mushrooms, Meyer lemon or blood orange. These ingredients are pressed with the olives, not added after the pressing, so the flavors are melded in the processing. Curt predicted that olive oils will become as much of a gourmet taste experience as wine tasting.
Initially, Curt and Amy Jo worried that the Fish Creek store would compete with their wholesale restaurant accounts. But they were pleasantly surprised that the store, in fact, enhanced the sales of product to the restaurants.
Once people had stopped by the store, they were sure to use the product when they saw it in a restaurant, so the wholesale business increased.
Door
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