Des Moines-based specialty cooking store, AllSpice Culinarium, expanded to Eastern Iowa with the opening of a second location in Coralville on Nov. 18.
The store, located at 901 E. Second Ave. in the Iowa River Landing, opened just in time for holiday meals that may need a new taste. According to owner Andy Haning-Brown, this time of year is the most hectic for the business because of holiday cooking and gift shopping, but they are glad to have opened in time for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.
“The weather has cooperated quite a bit,” he said. “The first couple days were great and so it was nice to be able to prop the door open and welcome people in. It’s been steady but not crazy, which I think is a good thing.”
Similar to the original Des Moines location, the Coralville store will introduce new products throughout the year, rotate vinegar and oil flavors, and team up with other local businesses.
“We have several products that right now are all based out of the Des Moines market that are some sort of partnerships,” Haning-Brown said. “One of the things we are looking forward to here is developing some of those same types of collaborations so that we have local things that are unique to the Iowa City-Coralville area.”
The AllSpice Story
Haning-Brown and his husband purchased the small business in 2013, just three years after its opening in the East Village district of Des Moines. After ten years of ownership during which he said he never worked harder, Haning-Brown said one of the best parts of running a small business is the ability to make their own decisions and do it in a way that aligns with his values.
“You sort of set the ground rules for how you’re going to treat people, how you’re going to treat your staff, what you want it to feel like to employees when they come in,” he said. “We spend a lot of time thinking through and talking about those sorts of things and making sure that we’re staying true to them.”
In 2021, the couple purchased a warehouse in West Des Moines, allowing them to continue packaging products by hand and making plans for the future.
“We knew we were going to expand,” he said. “When we took on the warehouse, we knew we needed to get a space that would support additional locations.”
Upgrades in the store’s technology last year also added to the plans to expand, making it easier to track where online orders came from. The Iowa City region became a top candidate after seeing a large number of orders coming in from the area.
Commercial Property Manager at Watts Group Deanna Printy visited AllSpice in Des Moines last holiday season with Director of Leasing for Iowa River Landing Deanna Trumbull. The two then proposed the idea of opening a second location at the Iowa River Landing, although official plans didn’t begin until February.
“AllSpice has such a good following and we felt it would fit perfectly into our diverse retail mix,” Printy wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.
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She said the unique mix of stores, restaurants, and hotels is what attracts guests, and the Iowa River Landing management team is excited to have AllSpice join the community.
What comes next?
While the opening of the Coralville location is currently the primary project, Haning-Brown said additional stores can be expected in the future.
“I don’t think we ever want to be Target, where we’ve got stores all over the country, but we have a handful of priority locations just based on what people have asked about and where we can see that we’d do a fair amount of business,” he said.
Until then, he is excited to introduce the Eastern Iowa area to the many products of AllSpice.