Apple Spice Junction

Archive for September, 2009

September is one of my favorite months.   The weather turns cooler with a crisp feeling in the mornings, the leaves are turning into their fall colors, the days are(daylight) getting shorter and there is a longing for the Thanksgiving turkey and all that we are thankful for.  It’s a great time of year.  I think I got my love for the Fall from my Grandmother.  She and my Grandfather were ranchers in Wyoming and used to say that she loved the Fall because they had made all the money they were going to make, they had lost all the money they were going to lose, and she could finally sit back and relax a little.

Every year in the fall, Wayne (one of the owners) and I have a little ceremony that we do with the first pumpkin pies to be sent out in catering.  We always make an extra pie for us so that we can have a slice, too.  Wayne always jokes around as he is cutting into it and tells me that there is not enough for both of us… deep down inside I think he is serious.  We pile it high with whip cream and then take the first bite together.  It’s pretty lame that we do that, but I look forward to it every year.  It always marks the end of the summer for me and transitions me from my Summer Sizzle Barbecue/hamburger/hotdog/chicken mode to my Turkey/Ham/Cranberry Chicken Holiday menu mode.   I move from a summer menu of baked beans, potato and pasta salad and fruit, to a winter menu of mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls and corn.  It’s a pretty smooth transition for me….as long as it goes down with pumpkin pie!

Alison Ainge

Being in the box lunch delivery & catering business provides a unique opportunity to develop strong relationships with our customers. It’s different than the drive thru window or even walking into a fast food joint where you have a brief interaction and then leave.

When a customer calls to order box lunches for an upcoming meeting, the first reason might be because they like the way we build our sandwiches on fresh baked bread or they can’t wait any longer to drizzle our homemade ranch dressing across the top of a chef salad…. We’re honored that so many people love our food. Last month alone, we delivered over 70,000 box lunches across our system.  Personally, I have been eating it for 21 years now and I still love it!

In addition to the great taste behind our menu items is the reliability our customers have come to depend on us for since 1988. We’ve had the great privilege of providing box lunches for many of the same customers for several years now all over the country. On what I would call a fairly regular basis, we’ve been trusted to supply some of our country’s finest corporations with box lunches exceeding 5,000 in a single sitting. Sure, they like our food, but more importantly they trust us to come through and deliver the box lunches on time. They trust that the order will be correct and that every box lunch will have the items in it that were ordered. They also trust that we have taken care of the food properly before hand, during preparation and in transit. These important factors coupled with great tasting food make for a truly enjoyable experience.

To all of our customers, we thank you for the many opportunities to deliver box lunches to your various organizations. We appreciate the trust and the confidence you have in the many Apple Spice Junction teams across the country and we pledge to continue delivering a fresh, delicious product, on time, every time!

Randy Clegg

People are like rubber bands…they perform best when they are stretched.  I heard this recently while talking with one of our franchisees about their staffing levels.  It made me think of a large onsite barbecue I attended with the staff of the Orem Apple Spice Junction store two weeks ago.  The barbecue was for 3500 people and everyone came at once.  We had set up 8 buffet lines to handle the crowd but it was still a little daunting to see that many people coming at you all at once.  It went so great, though.  Everyone on the staff worked so hard that night.  They had already put in a full day of catering and had been preparing food for the barbecue, also.  Nobody was complaining about how tired they were or how long they had worked that day.  The guys cooking the burgers and hot dogs on the grill had to keep all the grills loaded all the time.  It was hot outside…Utah in the summer…and it was so hot in the grill tent.  There was such an amazing spirit of teamwork going on, though.  People were watching out for each other, asking if they could get each other drinks and helping out with watching each other’s stations.  It was a great example of stretching people and people rising to the occasion.

Alison Ainge

Occasionally, I find myself reminiscing about the 21 years we’ve been in business. I think back to the first location in Salt Lake City, Utah that we opened in 1988. Fortunately, we had some real wisdom behind our fresh baked bread. Fritz the Rye King, a Salt Lake icon in the bakery business, tutored us on a daily basis. His wholesale bakery was just 50 feet away and he made it a point to come over every morning about 5:00 am just as we were arriving and just before he was getting ready to do his delivery to local restaurants in town. Thank goodness for Fritz! Both Fritz and his dear wife Anna (Momma to close friends) have passed on now and unbeknownst to him, he still touches the taste buds of thousands of people across our country every year when someone bites into one of our scrumptious sandwiches on fresh baked honey wheat, 13 grain, or sourdough bread. Or when someone orders a box lunch with one of our crisp garden salads served next to 2 slices of our fresh baked bread….. Just today, when I was walking through our dining room, 2 customers who were dining with us for their first time asked me if I would give them the recipe to our honey wheat bread…. They said it was the best they had ever tasted. I got a little choked up, and then I told them it wasn’t our recipe, it was Fritz’s…..

Randy Clegg