OkieSpice & Trade Co. to open in north Sand Springs this winter
/Steve and Kim Zieg are the owners of the soon-to-open OkieSpice & Trade Co. in Sand Springs. (Photo: Sam Shook).
The north side of Sand Springs will soon be the recipient of a brand new business, possibly the most unique business in Sand Springs. OkieSpice and Trade Co. just had its first health inspection and is in the final stretch of preparations before opening this winter. Homegrown Sandites Kim and Steve Zieg, both graduates of Charles Page High School, are the owners.
Located at 501 West 2nd Street in the old Roary D’s Hair Emporium, the cooking and novelty store will fill a niche that had previously been unoccupied in Sand Springs. The store will carry cooking supplies, novelties, and Made-in-Oklahoma products that are often hard to find.
“When we got married we were able to take some really nice vacations and long road trips and found some really spectacular stores that had a lot of these kinds of products in them,” said Kim. “We love cooking and spices and seasonings. The spicier the better. Initially it was just going to be spices and then we’ve kind of branched out to ‘Made in Oklahoma.’ We just want to have things in here that are unusual products. We’ve found a lot of neat things in our travels and we’ve tried to incorporate some of that and bring it back here for people in Sand Springs.”
A display of OkieSpice products. (Photo: Sam Shook).
The store will be growing their own peppers and creating a few spices on their own, but most of the inventory will be bought through suppliers. They will also carry salsas, summer sausage, chips, drinks, smoked cheeses, and grilling items, as well as nostalgic candies and soda pops that are often hard to find in regular convenience stores. “We’re trying to really focus on the Oklahoma vendors,” says Steve. “We want to help them have a place to sell product.” They will even carry pork rinds that you can microwave a portion at a time so they don’t go stale.
“We do have a big garden,” said Kim. “Every year we grow peppers, that’s just our wheelhouse. We grow great peppers, the hotter the better. We’ve done that for years. We’ll dehydrate and grind and make our own powders. We’ve got a whole cabinet full right now of jalapenos, ghost peppers, Carolina reaper, poblano. We were hoping that we would be open in time that we would have those out for purchase as well. You can’t find those kind of peppers around here. Maybe next year.”
While Kim manages the OkieSpice operations, Steve will be maintaining his employment with the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company where he has worked for the past 35 years. “This is kind of a prelude to retirement,” says Steve. The couple will be celebrating their sixth-year anniversary this October. Together the two have seven adult children.
The two decided to invest their business in Sand Springs to support the community, says Steve. “We think we have something here that’s unique and different and could be a draw for people from the greater Tulsa area. Having grown up in this town and raised our children here, we wanted to do something here in Sand Springs.”
“We’ve utilized a couple of his high school friends that have had talents that have been able to help us,” says Kim. “We’ve tried to stay local. The sign was made by Andy Anderson Metal Works.” The carpenter that did the work in the building graduated with Steve and local artist Jonny Rice is painting a mural on the east side of the building.
“I love Sand Springs,” added Kim. “Sand Springs is seven minutes away (from Tulsa). It’s time that Sand Springs changes its course.
“Opening has taken us longer than we planned or had thought it would,” says Steve. “This is the first time we’ve done a business, so there’s been a lot of learning for us to get to this point. We know we still have more learning to come.”
“The City has been pretty easy to deal with,” said Steve. “The building inspectors have been pretty good to work with. We haven’t had a lot of interaction with the City outside of that. We had to do sign permits and those went by pretty quick. They’ve gotten back with us really quick when we’ve had a need.”
The business plans on holding a soft opening for the first couple of weeks, followed by a grand opening weekend at a later undetermined date.
