Cheese has been a key ingredient in Andrew Arbogast’s life.
Arbogast, 36, is the founder of Arbo’s Cheese Dip, which will debut at its first grocery store, High Point Grocery, on May 15th.
The dip, which he’s sold at pop-up events, is made from a recipe his dad, Charlie Arobogast, concocted years ago. “He may have run across some version of it in a magazine,” Andrew says. “And he just added some different things down the road and made it what it was.”
But Andrew, who grew up on his dad’s cheese dip, says, “All other cheese dips will never meet my expectations.” His dad’s dip was an essential at rotating “Sunday dinners” put on by about a dozen families. Everyone said, “Charlie, bring your cheese dip.”
Andrew also loved to cook. “I remember cooking macaroni and cheese in the sixth grade.” He didn’t go by the recipe. “I was just doing everything by touch, taste, feel, look.”
Andrew also loved to eat. “You can say the passion is not only cooking, it’s food. It’s all food. I love cheap or high-quality — five-star restaurants, but also Big Macs.”
He went to boarding school at Subiaco Academy in Arkansas, but he looked forward to two things on his trips home: his dad’s sweet tea and cheese dip.
Andrew wanted to pursue cooking as a career after high school. “I wanted to go to culinary school ’cause that was my main passion. I learned that passion from my dad.” But his mother told him, “You need to get a real education first. And if you still want to do that, you can pursue that.”
Andrew began working toward a food service degree at Northwest Missouri State University, but he found he had to give that up after he got an ROTC scholarship to finish his education. So he switched his major to general psychology.
After he graduated, Andrew, who became an Apache helicopter pilot, spent 10 years in the Army, which included a stint in Iraq. Instead of asking his parents to send him socks or cookies, Andrew asked them to send him a George Foreman grill.
Andrew also was deployed to Afghanistan. “Before I left, I shipped myself five huge packages of summer sausage and cheese.”
While planning for their mission to Afghanistan, Andrew, who was the air mission commander, sat down with his soldiers and said, “We’re going to break bread together first.” “I came in with this foot-and-a-half summer sausage and smoked Gouda cheese and cut it on the table.”
His philosophy? “Food is morale.”
While in the service, Andrew married and he and his wife, Erin, became the parents of twins. But, he says, the service “was not where my future was meant to be.”
Andrew eventually got a job at International Paper, where he is category manager. Apparently, the culinary life still nagged at him. Last November, he woke up and his first thought was, “You need to figure out how to sell your dad’s cheese dip. You have the willpower, the drive, the passion.” He told his idea to an entrepreneur friend, who said, “If it’s good, it will sell.”
Andrew enlisted his friend and four other people to do a blind tasting between his dip and two other popular local dips. All five people chose his cheese.
Andrew chose the name “Arbo’s” because “it’s short, to the point, and it works.” Needing a catchy slogan to go with his logo, he came up with “Cheese Fix Mafia.”
Describing the dip, Andrew says it has “character and body.” It’s smooth, but chips won’t break when you stick them in the container.
Andrew is excited about Arbo’s Cheese Dip hitting High Point Grocery, but, he says, “My vision for this is to not stop at the local level. I want to be in Kroger. I want to be in Walmart. I want to be everywhere that sells cheese dip.”
Future plans may include a “spicier version,” but Andrew says, “right now, I’m not messing with a good thing.”
High Point Grocery is at 469 High Point Terrace; (901) 707-8102.
