Specialty Food Magazine

WINTER 2014

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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producer profile …uniting the modern love of gourmet and the simplistic tastes of generations before us. A luxurious indulgence that won't break the bank. It's a honey of a fnd! doing a disservice to my wife and family. I also knew we had something special—we just needed to get it right." Discover an intriguing Raw Honey well worth the pursuit Life is Sweet! Vintage Bee...Everyday. 919.699.6788 | www.vintagebee.com Fancy Food Show Booth #5714 Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 5714 HOT CHOCOLATE on a spoon Just add hot milk, water or coffee! The Big Break Early in 2010, Henderson sent some jars of Bacon Jam—a condiment made with pureed bacon, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar and slow-cooked onions he created to accompany his burgers—to lifestyle magazine Real Simple. "We only started bottling the bacon jam because Skillet was becoming synonymous with it. Whenever someone mentioned us in the food blogging press, bacon jam would also get a mention," he recalls. Customers would ask for it at the truck or email requests. "My goal was to hunker down and just cook, but I was getting bombarded by requests for bacon jam." When the condiment got a mention in Real Simple later that year—as one of the top 50 holiday gifts, no less—the floodgates opened. A hundred jars a month quickly turned into 10,000. Henderson had to shut down the food truck for a month to focus on making enough Bacon Jam to fill orders. "The mention in Real Simple was a seminal moment for us," he recalls. "I knew Skillet had brand potential pretty early on, but Bacon Jam was the biggest catalyst in helping us create a brand. It was a great addition for us—both for the attention and as a revenue source." In the two years that followed, Henderson and his team worked out production kinks—getting rid of the glass jars, gaining USDA approval, finding a co-packer—to ready Bacon Jam (in two flavors: original and fennel black pepper) for retail shelves. What customers could once get only online or from the Skillet food truck is now available in more than 400 retail outlets across the country. Growing the Brand Today, the Skillet founder has his hand in several other initiatives in the Pacific Northwest, including Hollywood Tavern, a unique and inviting burger and whiskey bar in Washington wine country; Westward, a contemporary, nautical-inspired restaurant and bar located waterfront on Seattle's legendary Lake Union; and its sibling Little Gull Grocery, an oyster bar and grocery. But Skillet Street Food and Bacon Jam remain the darlings of Henderson's many projects. He is currently working on new labels and fine-tuning the recipe, as well as creating other condiments that tie into the Skillet Group brand, which is made up of three restaurants named Skillet Diner, a catering company and, soon, three foods trucks in total. What started out as an adventure with three employees has turned into a solid business with 300. "We are still small in the condiment world and will never be Heinz," Henderson remarks. "But we'd love to make it so when people think of bacon jam, they think of us." 260.969.8335 • www.debrand.com • wholesale@debrand.com Nicole Potenza Denis is a contributing editor to Specialty Food Magazine. 94 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com

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