CALDWELL, IDAHO — Craig and Katie Smith are the owners of Idaho Spice Company inside the Oakes Brothers Building in Caldwell. The husband and wife team seemed to have mastered the work-life balance, or at least Craig has.
"She's the brains, the beauty, the brawn behind everything. I just do what I'm told," joked Idaho Spice Company co-owner and husband of Katie, Craig Smith.
Craig, a ten-year veteran, spent a decade working with other vets after his military career.
"I had a pretty good job at a certain place and I was getting a little stressed and I decided to resign and Idaho Spice Company is kind of my mid-life crisis!" laughed Craig.
Cooking at home had grown to be something they loved, even if out of necessity.
"We have six kids between the two of us, so we pretty much had to run a kitchen in our own house for the longest time. We had to be creative, be able to budget appropriately to be able to feed all the kids in our house," said Idaho Spice Company co-owner and wife of Craig, Katie Smith.
He wanted to follow his passion for cooking and got more than he bargained for after Katie entered him into a nationally-televised contest.
"So I got a job at the Tower Grill as a chef, and literally two weeks or a week after I resigned my job, we got a call from Food Network, they wanted us maybe to be on the Great Food Truck Race, so we did some interviews for that, and a few months later, we were on the Great Food Truck Race!" exclaimed Craig.
If nothing else, he says it was a good experience.
"I like to tell her I'm a celebrity chef but she tells me I lost so I can't really count that," said Craig.
Upon his return, the couple started selling various spice blends.
"We started at the Caldwell Farmer's Market, their market, and we had what? Seven blends? Yeah, I think it was six or seven blends," questioned Katie and Craig.
A small amount of product, and, at the time, a different name.
"We were Life 44. And we came up with that because all of our kids in like middle school and high school, they either had a 4 or a 44 on their jerseys," said Craig.
Their current name came from part brainstorming and part disbelief.
"Idaho Spice Company sounds kinda cool, but there's no way that's available. So we went to the Secretary of State's Website and I was like, uhh it's available. And we looked at each other and we were like yes!" exclaimed Craig.
With a new name and a growing inventory of fresh spice blends, their ever-increasing customer base often asked where they get their spices from. The answer? Everywhere.
"We work with between 20 and 30 different companies, cause like I said this Aleppo pepper is kind of junk from this company but oh my gosh it's so good and tastes so much better from this company. I mean that's how important it is for us to get the freshest and best tasting that we can get," said Craig.
That same customer-base also kept asking when they'd have a brick and mortar store. That dream came true for them just last November.
"I'd like to say we have good support from the community. So they all came out, I mean, you couldn't walk in here. There were so many people here during our grand opening," said Craig.
And you'll never find products from this little mom-and-pop spice shop in big box stores. The couple says that even if it costs a bit more, they always want full control over what made in Idaho spice blends they're selling to their fellow Idahoans.
"I'm not here to make 20-billion dollars, we're here to just provide a good product to the people of Idaho and give them something for their money," said Craig.
For more information on Idaho Spice Company, or to place an online order, you can visit their website here.
