MOSES LAKE - Inside the former Ann's Diner in Moses Lake, preparations are being made to make and sell a versatile grilling and dipping sauce.

"Schmiggitty Sauce" business partners and friends Matt Cunkle, of Harrisburg, Penn., and Dan Ogden, of Moses Lake, can quickly rattle off many ways to use the sauce.

"If you can grill it, it's good on it," commented Ogden.

With hot and spicy varieties, the sauce works well with potatoes, as a dip for potato chips, a salad dressing, mixed in and on eggs, and on sandwiches, they explained.

"We don't call it a barbecue sauce," Ogden said. "It's too limiting. It is good on anything. Everything and anything."

They plan to sell the sauce at Michael's Market & Bistro, Lep-re-kon Harvest Foods, the farmer's market and other locations.

They expect to have the Moses Lake location, at 1515 W. Broadway, Ave., ready for business in about two weeks. 

Ogden plans to open a large manufacturing plant somewhere in Grant County in possibly a year and a half and have other West Coast locations. He expects to hire about 20 people to work at the Grant County plant.

Cunkle explained he started the business about a year and a half ago.

"Dan was a good friend of mine," Cunkle recalled. "I called to let him know how I was doing and how I would market this."

Ogden flew to Harrisburg to see Cunkle's operation. 

Ogden liked what he saw. The pair decided Ogden would take care of operations on the west side of the Mississippi. Cunkle would do the same on the east side of the country. 

They want to market the sauce through fundraisers for terminally ill children and disabled veterans and their families.

Next summer, Cunkle says they can put those programs in place. 

"When I first started this company, my goal was to find five kids with a terminal illness, design a T-shirt and hat to their personality with my logo and teach their families how to fund raise." 

He never wanted to give them money, rather, he wants to help them earn it.

"If you help them earn money, it gives them pride," Cunkle commented. "They're not just a charity case. The communities and families in this country need to get back to helping one another."

The sauce is a family recipe of Cunkle's, Ogden said.

In 1989, Cunkle was helping a friend who owned an RV dealership.

Cunkle was preparing food for the business, smothering bratwursts and burgers with the sauce.

"This old boy said, 'If you don't make a million dollars off this sauce, you're a fool,'" Ogden said. "He took this to heart."

Ogden and Cunkle are committed to using American made products for their sauce. 

Neither are former military members, just proud of their country.

 In 30 years, Cunkle has the goal of using the same product label and a glass jar for the sauce, like today.

"I'm just very proud of our country, very proud of the people in our country," Cunkle said. 

Many products are made outside the United States today, Cunkle said. 

"We now just consumers," he commented. "You can't survive as consumers. I look at it like this, there's been many families, men, women and children who paid the ultimate sacrifice so we can sit here and make this sauce. To not pay homage to them is an insult, to me."

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/pages/Schmiggitty-Sauce-Inc/139001216161926 or call 509-953-2448.