Open World Spice Company History
Welcome to Open World Spice Company!
Back in the mid 80s we started up a neighborhood restaurant, Fets Bar and Grill on Vancouver’s trendy Commercial Drive and nearly a quarter century and three kids later it’s still going strong. Our friends and customers have watched our kids grow up in the restaurant. Now a couple of them still work there, one in the kitchen and the other serving on the floor. Some of the spice blends originated in our restaurant and have been in service there for many years. After all these years it’s time to share our spices and recipes with you.
Our Cajun blend was the first, nearly 25 years ago, then Cypress Hills Steak spice followed by our Jamaican Jerk Blend and the Woodford Rib Rub. We have used these spice blends on everything you can imagine, meats, salads, pastas, sauces and soups.
Life is too short so I have a few rules to live by:
- Anything we do in life we should enjoy doing.
- Live, laugh and love everyday.
- Learn something everyday and be sure share it with others.
I know there are some things in life that are a little less enjoyable than others, but if we teach ourselves to enjoy more of the things we do, then life just gets better and better. When we find things we like doing we tend to make of an effort and more time to do them more often and the better we get at them the more pleasure we get from doing them. Cooking is no exception, the more we enjoy creating food the more everyone will enjoy eating it and never forget that this includes you. To me the best part about cooking is sharing with others.
I’ve cooked professionally for over 25 years and I love watching people eat what I’ve prepared. My wife thinks it’s a bit odd but, when you watch someone eat what you’ve cooked, and they don’t know you’re watching, and a smile comes across their face as they sample the food on their plate, you know they like it. I like looking out from the kitchen and watch the people in our restaurant eat and socialize and it brings me great pleasure knowing that we built this place and people from every walk of life all come here for the same reason.
If you live, laugh and love everyday, how can you go wrong, right?
I love learning, teaching and sharing. I always share what I’ve learned in the hopes of making a difference in someone’s life. The other day a long lost yet familiar face came to visit us, this young man is now 37 and he worked for us 19 years ago. He had just moved back to the “drive” and was happy to see we were still here. He let us know that he always remembered that his first real job was working for us and that we had made a positive impact on his life. I told my wife that this why I do what I do and that this is why I am who I am. It gives you a good feeling knowing that you’ve made such a positive impact on someone’s life. I enjoy sharing my experiences with others and love hearing about the experiences of others.
Over the years, running a restaurant can take it’s toll on you but we look at it in a slightly different manner, so going to work for us is going to entertain people with food and drink. We love to entertain at work and at home and cooking outdoors is my favorite. Wind, rain, snow and even in the sunshine I cook outdoors all year round. It’s great to invite good people over and have a couple of cocktails, share stories and enjoy some great food.
I hope that I can inspire you to do the same. I’ll share stories, recipes and cooking ideas with the hope that you will share the same with us. We’ve incorporated a forum on this site for you to sign up on and share your recipes and thoughts. If you post a recipe that we, and or others like, we’d love to post it in our recipe section.
At Open World Spice Company we want to inspire you to cook and create and we hope that our line of spices will help you do that. You’ll notice that some of our recipes aren’t really “recipes” at all they’re more like ideas and suggestions. We want you to create your own path and we’ll meet you down the road in a bit to share your stories with us.
Remember: Express, Experience, Excite
