By Traci Angel
Local company Holland Mills LLC is spicing up foods across the region. Its Fallen Angel sauces and Sun Drenched spice rubs are winning culinary awards nationwide because of tasty and unique flavors such as Ginger Rum barbecue sauce and Original Sinner tropical sauce.
Dana Holland and Brett Burdsal founded the company in June 2004. Holland returned to St. Louis in 1996 after 14 years away. During that time he attended culinary school at Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island and worked in restaurants in Switzerland, Napa Valley, Idaho and Colorado. When he returned to town he opened a Caribbean restaurant, Babalu’s, in the Central West End. He closed Babalu’s in 2001 to do food catering and consulting. Holland wanted to start a spicy food company to sell the sauces he had been creating over the years and hooked up with Burdsal, who was running Zubelle Communications Group with his wife, to start marketing the sauces. Products can be found at gourmet food stores throughout St. Louis or on their Web site at www.fallenangelsauces.com.