By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
Several years ago De Stewart had an idea that a cooking segment could add some spice to a Northern Kentucky cable television show. Little did he know that idea would help him become an iconic figure with a million dollar business.
Colonel De Gourmet Herbs and Spices has three retail locations, at Findlay Market in Over the Rhine, the Friendly Market in Boone County and Jungle Jim’s in Eastgate.
A ribbon cutting is scheduled at the Hiland Building in Fort Thomas this morning for Colonel De’s Production Kitchen and World Headquarters, which will allow Stewart to further expand his operation.
Stewart’s image and signature mustache have become the brand’s trademark image.
As Stewart, now better known simply as Colonel De, prepares to open the new facility, he reflected on the journey that has added excitement to his life and spice to the lives of so many others.
“We literally came out of that television show,” Stewart said. “The business itself is 12 or 13 years old, but ten years ago this past February is when we first opened at Findlay Market. The first day I had two card tables and 15 items and it has grown from there.”
Colonel De’s now carries more than 500 items.
Stewart has been doing dry production at the Friendly Market location, but the new facility will allow him to make “wet” products, such as barbecues sauces, vinegars and pizza sauces.
“We were doing wet before, but we had to borrow someone else’s facility, so we were always behind the eight ball trying to get it done,” Stewart said. “Here there is no excuse; we can just get in there and make it happen.”
The new facility will add retail in the storefront at the end of the month. There are plans for a test/training kitchen this summer that will host cooking classes and charity events.
Colonel De’s also has a thriving online business, which Stewart says has room for significant growth because of “the amount of stuff we carry.”
“We’ve got stuff that if you want to purchase it retail, I don’t know where else you would go” Stewart said. “You couldn’t get it from our suppliers because of the quantity you would have to purchase. I’m taking a large volume and breaking it down for the consumer.”
Stewart once had a customer call from France after an online purchase, to verify that the order was legitimate.
“I love answering the phone because I never know who is going to be on the other end,” Stewart said. “We use the U.S. Postal Service, so we can get our products to anywhere they deliver.”
Stewart says the production facility will be able to offer smaller batches of wet and dry products and that will benefit local businesses.
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to fill a niche that is just currently not being served,” Stewart said. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many restaurants that create their own product and want to sell it to the public, just simply can’t because it’s cost prohibitive.”
Colonel De’s, for example, currently supplies all of the dry product for Sharonville-based Jim Dandy Family BBQ.
“The company that is doing his barbecue sauce has an 800 gallon minimum,” Stewart said. “He said, ‘by the time I get halfway through, it’s out of date and I have to throw it away.’ He’s a pretty heavy hitter and he’s in Jungle Jim’s and Remke’s, but if you are buying that much sauce, you better be in all the Kroger’s and he’s not yet.”
Colonel De’s also supplies a lot of products for local bars and distilleries.
“Places like Braxton and Rhinegeist, the brewers, come to us because you can take a lot of the products we have, especially the florals, and you can make a killer beer with those,” Stewart said. “The guys from Second Sight and New Riff distilleries also come to us and we try to do turnabout. We have a spiced marinate and we’ll use Second Sight’s spiced rum, so they are getting from us and we are turning it around and bringing it right back home to use in another product here.”
Stewart spent several years in the information technology field and was known as the “Businessman Chef” while on the Insight Communications program, “Northern Kentucky Magazine.”
Stewart said after his segments on the program hosted by Tawana Thomas and the late Dick Von Hoene, people were always asking where they could buy his spices and the seeds for the business were planted.
The appreciation of cooking, however, took root when, as a child in Louisville, Stewart helped out at his grandfather’s fish and poultry market in Louisville. A young boxer named Cassius Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, was a customer.
Stewart also developed a rapport with another famous “Colonel,” who knew a little bit about herbs ans spices. Stewart once worked for, and went to the same church as, Harlan Sanders after the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder sold the company and moved to Louisville.
Stewart pays homage to his grandfather and other influential family members in the colorful labels on some products, including Uncle Otis Barbecue Sauce and a still-under-development Grandpa Pigeye pepper sauce.
When Stewart opened the Friendly Market location, with an FDA-approved facility in the back, he thought his production problems were taken care of for several years.
“But the first time you get two or three tons of spices in, you realize, you are in trouble,” Stewart said.
Stewart’s wife, Susan, suggested the name Colonel De because of her husband’s status as an honorary Kentucky Colonel and his signature mustache provided a perfect complement for the branding imagery.
Stewart is a Fort Thomas resident and serves on a committee that is trying to get the stables at the historic fort converted into a multi-use building. After one of the meetings, Dan Gorman of United Property Group approached Stewart about leasing the site at 18 North Fort Thomas Avenue, which formerly housed a jewelry store.
“I said, ‘I love you brother, but I don’t need retail, I’m in dire need of production space,’” Stewart said. “He got this funny look on his face and said I still needed to see the space.”
Initially Gorman planned to block off the front for retail and use the back of the property, which has separate access, for another business. The size of the space, however, made it a good fit for Stewart’s combined production and retail business.
The jewelry store also manufactured custom pieces, so the site already had the proper zoning and a world headquarters was born.
“Things really couldn’t have worked out any better,” Stewart said.
For more information on Colonel De’s Gourmet Herbs and Spices click here .
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
Congratulations, my old friend. am so glad for your success.