Trey Daugherty
From his base of operations in Fort Worth, Walter Kinzie and his event company Encore Live threw parties across the globe, most notably, perhaps, inaugural events for President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017.
“When it was all said and done, we ended up working on nine of the 11 official events, including the organization and execution of the swearing-in ceremony,” Kinzie says. “It was just a really fascinating experience.”
“In 2012, I told the company, before we're done, we will work on a presidential inauguration. I didn't know that it would be the very next one. It did not matter to me who the candidate was. There had been 58 of these things, and I was producing one of them. It was a major honor to serve the country and to be standing at the edge of history.”
He innovated during the COVID shutdowns, launching the Encore Drive-In Nights Series. Concerts by Garth Brooks, Metallica, and more entertained hundreds of thousands of fans at outdoor theaters across North America.
Kinzie is pioneering again — actually, he’s formulating.
Kinzie Foods sells barbecue sauces, six in all, including a Kinzie Reaper Spiced BBQ that will undoubtedly put a kick in the brisket.
Kinzie began the business from his new permanent home in South Dakota, though he’s in Fort Worth “on a near weekly basis,” he says. One reason to come back is because Corey Jones is here. Jones is the designer of all the graphics, from the bottles to the website, plus photography. So, too, is Erica Batterman, a food blogger Kinzie works with.
Kinzie likes to say this venture was just a big accident.
An aunt made the original recipe years ago. Kinzie started making it to give to clients as a unique gift.
“It was maybe 2022,” Kinzie says. “I got a phone call from someone who said, ‘Hey, where can I buy this stuff in Nashville?’ I’m, like, ‘You can’t. I just make this in my kitchen, but I’ll send you some.’”
Not long after, someone in Houston called with the same question. A restaurant began putting it on tables.
“I didn't even have logos or labels on them. This was not a business. This was me just being flattered that people liked something I made, so I just did it in kind. It kind of just got nuts.
“It got to the point where I went from making one batch a year that would produce 80 little Mason jars to making it every week. And this one particular day, it was early June, I think I had 200 jars that I had to make.”
Where there is a market, there is a business. And today Kinzie Foods is a business selling directly to the consumer online. Kinzie contracts with a co-packer in Denver that makes the products. Distribution happens in Rapid City, South Dakota. Kinzie anticipates retail shelves in the near future.
Kinzie, meanwhile, is going across the country introducing the sauces to new consumers at home and garden shows, gift shows, and the like.
“I went to a food and wine festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado,” he says. “It crushed. It was insane.”
