After running her own company for two decades, Diane Clark just wanted to retire and paint gourds for the rest of her life. And so the Price Hill resident got two work, selling her gourds – some of which are carved into bird houses painted to resemble giraffes, Pinocchio heads and flamingos – at local farmer’s markets and festivals.
Noticing a lack of male customers coming to her booth, Diane’s husband, Dave, wondered if they should start offering something that might draw them over. He suggested bourbon pecans, which Diane soon started making in their kitchen. The process was relatively simple. She would whip up a mixture of egg whites, bourbon and honey, stir in the pecans, add spices such as clove, nutmeg and cinnamon, then bake them for about 45 minutes in the oven.
Diane must have stirred up some kind of magic in her kitchen since, in no time flat, the bourbon pecans were outselling her gourds by a long shot. So much so that she and Dave decided to move production to a larger facility at Findlay Kitchen where they now cook them about once or twice a month. Their granddaughter suggested they name their company Daveyboy’s, which Diane agrees makes it sound more like a hip startup food company than a retired couple’s second act.
Unlike mass-produced candied nuts, Daveyboy’s are exceptionally crunchy, with a coating that’s light enough on the sugar to allow the warm spices to shine through. While mass-produced bourbon pecans can be chewy and cloying, these are anything but.
After a representative from Hard Rock Casino tasted some of Daveyboy’s pecans at Art on Vine, he asked the Clarks if they would consider selling them inside the casino’s coffee shop. “Hard Rock is what really got us started,” Diane told me. These days you can also find Daveyboy’s at Dorothy Lane Market, Jungle Jim’s, Carl’s Deli, Silverglades, the Party Source and the Kentucky Bourbon Bar, among other places. They recently introduced a new product called Bourbon pecan crumbles, which can be used as a topping for everything from salads to ice cream.
Diane said she’s still surprised by her success.
“I was just going to enjoy the rest of my life and paint and have fun,” she told me. “But I’ve been really energized by this. If we were young, we would take it really far – but we will try and take it as far as we can.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: A retired Price Hill couple finds a second act with bourbon pecans
Reporting by Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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