Justin Anderson shows his spicy side on store shelves
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
For a lot of folks, the pandemic brought out the best in them: working out, catching up on reading or learning a new skill. And there was certainly more cooking at home. The latter was a wave Justin Anderson caught. But then it also sparked his entrepreneurial side as well.
Having already developed two products since his high school days, the now-35 year-old discovered he wanted to add some flavor to his steaks, and he had had enough of his own pantry’s offerings.
“Cooking so much at home, I got sick of my all-purpose seasoning in my pantry,” Anderson said by phone from his home in Fort Worth. “So I began experimenting with different blends and starting combining ingredients you don’t usually find” together.
So he started playing with purple shallots, green peppercorn and smoky Korean red pepper (among other items). The result was more than just a seasoning he could use at home; it then became Bel Air Ranch, which hit store shelves late last year.
Anderson launched the product in December 2021 at Central Market where he already had an in with the grocery store. His relationship with the store wasn’t a new thing.
“I had been working on this soft granola — making it my own, coming up with my own version. I turned it into a product and commercialized it,” he said. “I launched it at Central Market right before I graduated high school.”
While a student at Lee High School (the name has since changed), the entrepreneur started his first company: Anderson Trail premium soft granola. He graduated in 2005, then moved to Fort Worth to attend TCU, where he was recruited into the entrepreneurial program and studied both business and liberal arts.
After graduation, Anderson knew he had to reinvent his original product — only this time, he was going to go big.
“I found Bill Schneider, a new business partner, who brought in the capital. I wanted to make the product more snack-able and less ‘granola for breakfast.’ So we developed WOATS, which we launched at ExpoWest in 2013.”
Anderson showed the new product to Central Market first, and that company finalized the deal to carry the product at the expo in Anaheim, Calif.
WOATS was a big hit for Anderson, growing into more than 8500 stores and outlets, including Target, Walmart and Home Shopping Network.
But production stopped in August 2021 — or rather, was put on hold. After all, he was essentially a small business, and there was a pandemic happening.
“At some point soon, I want to bring that back as a direct-to-customer product,” he said.
But Anderson’s focus now is much more spicy.
Although Bel Air Ranch’s origins are in Anderson’s kitchen, he had a longtime friend in mind as he was experimenting. Way back in his middle school days, he and his best friend Spencer Knudson-Simonsen and Spencer’s mother,
Nancy Knudson, were really close. But he saw something special in Nancy’s tastes.
“She was kind of like this Martha Stewart type. When I went over to their house, it was like they lived in a magazine. She helped me with my first granola product,” he said.
Bel Air Ranch, Anderson said, ties back to Nancy.
“She has this seasoning she swears by from this boutique seasoning house. It’s this nice, expensive blend, and I wanted to pay homage to that,” he explained. “I was tinkering with it and compared it to her blend and even with the same ingredients and could notice the quality of my ingredients, which I sourced at Central Market.”
He said a side-by-side comparison left a chicken bouillon flavor in his mouth after he tasted Nancy’s blend.
After positive feedback, he figured he had a new product on his hand.
“I wanted to change things up for people cooking at home. You can rub it on any protein, put it on a baked potato or make a ranch dip out of it. It’s universal in its application and elevates any flavor.”
Not only can it be found at Central Market in Fort Worth and the Northwest Highway location, shoppers can also buy it at Roy Pope Grocery and Neighbors House Grocery, both in Fort Worth, as well as online. Anderson added that Central Market plans to expand Bel Air Ranch to be available in all its stores in the near future.
“I learned a lot with the other products, and so my goal was to optimize this one product and see what all we can do with it.”
So far, it sounds like Anderson’s doing just that.
Shop his products at EatBelAir.com.
