By Maureen Werther
Growing up, Rachel Dutra, co-owner of Rachel’s Café and Spice Co., resisted the entrepreneurial urge that seems to run in her family’s DNA. Her grandfather opened Castaway Marina after serving in the U.S. Navy. Her father also started his own business, with the family eventually opening and operating the East End Eatery in Glens Falls until they retired about a year ago.
“I always said I wasn’t going to go the entrepreneur route. I intended to do the ‘safe’ thing. But I was just really born to run my own business,” said Dutra.
Rachel and her husband, Dave Dutra, opened Rachel’s Café and Spice Co. in September at the site of the now closed East End Eatery 240 Warren St. Her background includes a master’s degree in education and teaching. Her husband was involved in the amusement park industry, working for Charles Wood and eventually working in the food operations at the Great Escape for about 12 years.
When her family asked her to come back seven years ago to help out at East End Eatery, Dutra cautioned them that it would only be temporary. “But here I am, seven years later,” she said. Within six months, she had helped double the business and made some big changes.
“It felt dangerous, like a big risk,” she said. But she liked it. After her parents retired, the couple thought about going back to teaching or corporate work. Instead they opted to run East End Eatery alone. But, with a toddler at home, they felt as if everybody else except them was raising their son.
After a year, they realized that family was important and they came up with a different business model to allow them to be with their son and still satisfy the entrepreneurial spirit.
“We closed a very successful business because family is the most important thing to us,” she said.
Dutra said she has a knack for customer relations She operates the front of house and Dave Dutra is happy to run the kitchen operation and the organizational component. She also has a talent for blending spices, which is the heart of their new enterprise.
The café component gives customers the opportunity to “try before they buy,” with 90 percent of her custom-blended spices adding zest and flavor to items on the café’s menu.
In addition to custom-blended spices, the menu offers breakfast and lunch items, including eight different “paleo” menu options, a variety of gluten, soy, and dairy-free items, and six different homemade – and home-spiced – soups. They also serve sandwiches, salads and wraps, but Dutra said that they try to serve “whole foods” as much as possible.
She originally started blending her own spices while working at East End Eatery, developing mixes for cookies, soups, dips and other items on the menu She took a lot of those recipes and ingredients with her into their new enterprise. She and her husband opened the online store, www.rachelsspicecompany.com, in May. Their signature blends include “bread winner,” “dipping seasoning,” “fire salt” and Dave’s favorite, “clucky number 18 chicken rub.”
“I’m super passionate about it, and I have a strange knack for coming up with the right blends,” she said.
The Dutra’s work with another family-owned and operated business in Pennsylvania, who are spice wholesalers. “They provide me with the highest quality spices from around the world, some of which they grind for me and some that I grind myself,” said Dutra.
They also do her bottling and labeling for her.
She said that her goal is to become a spice expert and to eventually work with chefs and restaurants throughout the region, and perhaps beyond, to supply them with her signature spices.
Rachel’s Café and Spice Co. is open between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. They expect to open on Saturday by later in the year. For more information, visit www.Rachelsspicecompany.com.