By Allison Michelli
The classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich is getting a makeover with the help of Sprelly, a new nut butter company from Fredericksburg sales director-turned-entrepreneur, Adrian Silversmith. The brand, which already sells a variety of nut butters at Northern Virginia farmers markets, is now branching out with the opening of a brick and mortar location in downtown Fredericksburg.
Starting in October, Sprelly will have a permanent counter space in the Made in Virginia Store, offering both retail, fresh-churned butters and jellies from Fresh Batch Jams and a cafe with sandwiches, crepes, coffee and dessert.
After winning the People’s Choice Award at last year’s Made in FredVA business competition and the crowd favorite award at January’s Startup Weekend, Silversmith and a small team of dedicated supporters, including his wife Casey, started selling the nut butters at the Fredericksburg, Manassas, Spotsylvania, North Stafford and Dale City farmers markets.
Silversmith’s longtime friend Eric Shoup, who has over 30 years of culinary experience, helped him develop recipes and create the unique peanut butter and jelly sandwich combinations that will be served at the new location, like the peppered rooster: cashew butter, Thai chili jam, chicken breast and pepper jack cheese. Sprelly will also feature a self-serve Nut Butter Bar, an idea inspired by Silversmith’s visits to frozen yogurt shops with his children, with flavors including salted butterscotch peanut butter, white chocolate almond butter and Old Bay peanut butter.
The white chocolate almond butter pairs well with a Nilla Wafer, sweet, yet yielding a natural texture that reassures the eater that the indulgence is still a (semi) healthy choice. The sweet Thai chili and honey roasted peanut butter works on sturdy saltine crackers, just like snack time in daycare. At home, Silversmith uses the butters as ingredients, creating sweet Thai chili marinated shrimp or the Maui Waui, a grilled sandwich Silversmith plans to enter into Fredericksburg’s upcoming FXBG Sandwich Invitational, combining pineapple coconut jam, almond/cashew/coconut nut butter, sharp provolone, bacon and Virginia ham.
Along with nut butters, Sprelly also designed the Spronut with the help of Paul’s Bakery, a local doughnut shop. The Spronut (no relation to the cronut) is a doughnut hole filled with raspberry jam and topped with a variety of Sprelly’s nut butters and chopped nuts.
Prior to coming up with the concept for Sprelly in June 2013, Silversmith worked as the director of sales for seven and a half years at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center, but was laid off in July 2013. Aside from busing tables as a kid, Sprelly is Silvesmith’s first leap into the restaurant business. His most recent entrepreneurial pursuit was converting the bed of an old Ford F-350 to a dump bed so that he could deliver top soil and mulch to people on the spot. Among other things, Silversmith also dabbled in network marketing but his main venture Sprelly has taken off faster than he ever expected. “I just wanted to try anything that I could try to see if I could make anything out of anything and I couldn’t really, I failed. I failed and failed and failed but this has been the success.”
Silversmith hopes to eventually open a Sprelly food truck and a second store by April 2015. He says, “I’m excited to put a dent in society in a positive way. I think people, generally speaking, are sick and tired of just stuff and I want to do something fun and different and community related. It sounds very kumbaya, but why not have a big community table where you’re sitting there eating a sandwich and can maybe strike up a conversation with a stranger and support the community.” / Opening in October: Sprelly at Made in Virgina Store, 920 Caroline St., Fredericksburg
