Some family businesses start with a business plan. KEY’S Southern Spice started with a rainy day and an 8-year-old rummaging through the pantry. What Kari Yarbrough mixed up in her family’s kitchen in 2015 became a dry rub now used in Fairhope restaurants, stocked on grocery shelves across the Gulf Coast and shipped to customers in 48 states.
The story of the Fairhope-based seasoning company is a story about a young cook with a confident palate, a barbecue-loving father who believed in her recipe immediately, and a family willing to spend late nights packaging bottles by hand until the brand could stand on its own.
A Rainy-Day Experiment
It was a rainy day in 2015, and Kari’s father, Chad Yarbrough, was planning to barbecue chicken and ribs. Kari decided she wanted to make the dry rub. She pulled seasonings out of the cabinet and started mixing whatever looked promising.
“This looks like it would be good,” she remembers thinking as she picked through the pantry. When she finished her base blend, she tasted it against a store-bought rub the family already had and decided hers was better. Chad used her mix that night, and the family never went back.
Kari has described the whole thing as a happy accident, but friends and family loved it right away. “There was no hesitation, Dad wanted to get it out there the next week,” she said. “I was nervous to put it in front of people, but I was interested to see what would happen.”
Testing the Recipe on the Sidelines at Troy
The family’s first test kitchen was the tailgate. Chad played defensive end for the Troy University football team and enjoys competitive barbecue, so the Yarbroughs mixed up a big container of Kari’s rub and began grilling along the sidelines at Troy baseball and softball games, sharing barbecue with fans.
Troy, home to the university’s Trojans, sits in southeast Alabama’s Pike County, and its game days draw a loyal local crowd. The Yarbroughs’ grill became a popular stop as they fine-tuned the recipe, which took about six tries to get just right. The original formula, Kari says, is written in pencil and “very sloppy.”
“Getting KEY’S Southern Spice up and running was a family affair with everyone joining in the prep work,” Kari said.
In 2016, the family moved from Troy to Fairhope when Chad, a commercial banker, joined United Bank as senior vice president of commercial lending. That same period, the brand landed its first grocery account: KEY’S Southern Spice went on sale at the Piggly Wiggly in Troy.
Late Nights and a Co-Packer
In the early days, the business was entirely homegrown. “We came out of the gate swinging, working late into the evenings packaging product,” Kari said. Assembling a single case of 12 bottles took about an hour, and demand kept climbing.
To keep up, the family contracted with an Alabama co-packer, a manufacturer that produces and packages food products for other brands. The co-packer also handled the nutritional information required on the label. Consistency was the priority, and once a non-disclosure agreement protecting the original formula was signed, mass production began.
The family found that working with a co-packer actually improved the product. “The quality of the ingredients is hands down better, fresher, higher grade, and more intense than store-bought ingredients,” Kari said. One ingredient in particular gives the blend a signature note, and getting it right mattered. The spice is also packaged in amber-colored bottles, which help protect the blend from UV light that can fade flavor over time.
One Rub, Many Uses
As the business grew, Kari began experimenting with the rub in marinades and sauces. She says it works with pork, beef, chicken, wild game, fish and vegetables. “The flavor profile changes with each protein. It’s not the same every time,” she said. “It’s not sugary, you can use a little bit for a hint of flavor or add more for a more robust flavor.”
Using the spice as a base, the family developed a lineup of sauces that covers much of the Southern barbecue map:
- A Red Sweet Sauce
- A Carolina-style sauce
- A mustard-based sauce
- An Alabama White Barbecue Sauce
That last one is a point of state pride. Alabama white sauce, a tangy mayonnaise-and-vinegar sauce associated with Decatur in north Alabama, is a regional specialty rarely found outside the state. Kari has said her goal was to fuse the North Alabama and South Alabama palates into one.
According to the Yarbroughs, the blend is all-natural, contains no preservatives or MSG, is gluten-free and is low in sodium.
Restaurants, Retailers and 48 States
Word spread to local kitchens. Bill-E’s in Fairhope lists KEY’S Southern Spice on its menu and won an award for dry rub wings made with it. Dragonfly Foodbar in Fairhope and Dragonfly Tavern in Daphne use it as well, and one Pensacola restaurant goes through 25 pounds a month.
When the family last shared details on their retailers, the spice was sold at stores including:
- Greer’s and Piggly Wiggly locations
- The Blind Butcher Shoppe
- Farm Fresh Meats in Robertsdale
- Joe Patti’s Seafood, Maria’s Seafood and Apple Market in Pensacola
- Tacky Jacks in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach
- Specialty shops throughout the Gulf Coast
The brand ships to 48 states. About 90% of sales are wholesale to retail stores, with the rest coming from direct orders. The family prides itself on speed. “If we get an order on Monday, it’s delivered on Tuesday,” Chad said.
Sampling has been the brand’s most reliable marketing tool. “The KEY (pun intended) is getting it in people’s hands,” Chad said. “Sampling works. We get you hooked.”
The pandemic tested the business. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, restaurants closed or shifted to takeout, and the family struggled to buy bottles amid widespread supply shortages. “There was a run on everything,” Kari said. Chad kept competing in barbecue contests, where judges and fellow cooks told him they had never tasted anything like it.
Competitions and Community
Competition barbecue has been part of the brand from the start. The Yarbroughs provide spices for many cooking competitions and have won awards in the pork and chicken categories at Bar B Que and Blues in Foley.
KEY’S Southern Spice sponsored a chef friend at the World Food Championships, the large culinary competition held at The Wharf in Orange Beach for several years in the 2010s. In 2017, that chef placed in the top 10 in the steak category. Kari was invited to judge a grandparents category for home cooks competing for fun. The family has also taken part in Culinary Fight Club events, a competition series that raises awareness of hunger and funds through its Fight 2 Feed program.
“We are very pro-Alabama,” Kari said. “Alabama is our home state, and we support local businesses for most everything.”
The Name, and the Young Woman Behind It
The brand name is a play on Kari’s initials: Karen Elizabeth Yarbrough. Both KEY’S Southern Spice and the slogan “Unlock the Flavor with KEY’S” are registered trademarks of her business.
Kari has been helping in the kitchen since she was 6 or 7, and she says she has a near-perfect palate. “There is not a food I have not tried to cook,” she said. Judging cooking competitions has broadened her perspective. “How you cook certain dishes can vary. There’s not just one way to prepare things.”
When she spoke about the business in 2024, at age 18, Kari was clear that she did not want to turn her hobby into her career. Her plans were to study to become a certified nursing assistant after graduating from high school in the spring of 2025 and then pursue a degree as a registered nurse. “This venture has been a big part of my life. It has taught me time management, and I’ve met so many people. It’s been a lot of work but so much fun!” she said.
Outside the kitchen, she played softball, did gymnastics and spends her free time outdoors. “I love to hunt and fish, and we belong to a hunting club in Uriah,” she said, referring to the small Monroe County community north of Baldwin County.
Even with college plans ahead, Kari was still working on new products, including a sweet and savory marinade. “I want my spices to work with everything,” she said. For a brand that began with a rainy afternoon and a child’s curiosity, that ambition fits.