Hey there Husker Locker members! Starting today, we’ll be giving you a spotlight on one of our business partners, which provides our great deals for the Locker Pass discount.

Periodically, we’ll be letting you know not only about the history of our business partners, but the great deals you can get with them. Remember that only a Locker Pass gives you access to these terrific deals, so don’t delay in picking one up!

Today, we look at Bandiola Spice, an awesome new spice company in the Nebraska area. Catch the owner at the Farmer's Market in Lincoln, or online at: www.bandiolaspice.com. At either place, flash your Locker Pass card and get $1.00 off each bottle of spice. And once you've had it, man, you'll want more of it...it's terrific!

Enjoy the story written by Ryan Boetel, also known as Boetel on the HL site!

It’s never too early to grill out.

Its 8:00 on Friday morning and Wally the Beertender is grilling T-bones, pork chops and corn and talking live on 104.1 The Blaze. The food is being handed out in free samples and the grill is being raffled off, and what is tying all the products together are the Bandiola Spices smothered all over the meat.

The owner of the Bandiola Spice Company, Michael Gochnour, is standing off to the side nodding approvingly. His spices have been on the market for almost six months now and he’s hoping enough people have tried them by the time tailgate season rolls around.

“Get to the goal line with Bandiola Spice, so to speak,” Gochnour said – almost like he was testing a new company slogan.

That’s sort of the approach Gochnour has taken to his business so far, the same approach to grilling out. It’s never perfect, there are always things to learn and improve on, but if the food on the grill is tasty, then people will come.

Gochnour imagines that his product will travel to grills around the world from word-of-mouth advertising which is why he’s at Lincoln’s Farmer’s Market every week and radio shows promotions like this one getting grillers to use his spices.

“They’ll really like them once they taste them,” he said. “That should be enough.”

You can get the spices online at bandiolaspice.com or at one of the 15 stores in Nebraska that are selling the spices – a list is available on the Web site too.

The spices are the culmination of Gochnour’s two-year project. He describes them as a combination of tastes from around the country done the Nebraska way. He went to rib and barbecue fests around the country, places like Kansas City and Lynchburg, Tenn., and talked to the best grillers about what spices they put on their food. Then he returned back to his home in Lincoln and used all the resources available to him at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to get his company off the ground.

He sent his spice combinations to East Campus where they were taste tested and tweaked slightly, and he got small-business advice from UNL extension programs available to entrepreneurs through the College of Business Administration.

“I didn’t just throw everything together and say here you go,” Gochnour said. “Everything good in life takes time.”

There are six types of Bandiola spices: Steak, pork, chicken, rib rub, barbeque and popcorn. After they’ve all been tried, Gochnour said the best chefs will start to experiment with combinations to get the perfect spice.

“There are no rules to barbeque,” he said. “Everyone’s the king of their own backyard.”

Wally the Beertender – whose real name is Dave Waldron – is an account executive for 104.1 The Blaze, but really he’s the closest thing to a professional tailgater there is. He’s switched over the Bandiola spices once they came out and is now a guru on the different ways you can use them.

I asked him about the different combinations of Bandiola spices he has learned over the last few months and he tells me to see for myself and hands me another ear of corn that he marinated in Crisco oil and the steak seasoning all night.

He said the strategy works even better with fresh asparagus.

Uh, Mr. Beertender it’s 9:00 in the morning and I think I’m on my third ear of corn.

But Wally’s almost done eating his corn; he takes huge chomping bites all the way down an entire side, working almost half the ear bare in a matter of seconds. It the closest thing to a chainsaw eating corn I can imagine.

“See?” he said with a mouthful of corn.

Waldron said he combines the pork, rib rub and barbeque spices on ribs, tenderloin and pork chops. But the exact amounts don’t matter, he said, it can be different mixtures based on the preferences of the cook. For example the rib rub is spicy so if that’s not your thing you can sweeten it up with the barbeque spice. The most important thing, Waldron said, is if you master the spice you will get the ultimate compliment at your tailgate.

Someone will come back for seconds and ask you “What did you put on that?”

Permanent Link to this Blog Post