With the long days of winter in the rearview mirror, sunny thoughts of spring turn to fun-filled activities such as Easter and family egg hunts, Mother’s and Father’s Days, wedding and baby showers, birthdays, graduation parties, entertaining family, friends, and more.
“We are ready to put the ‘fun’ in any event with our signature products that can really add that ‘over-the-top’ eating experience to any special occasion,” noted Rachel Marciniak-Matthews, owner of The Bassett Nut Company and founder of Rachel Michael’s Gourmet Popcorn.
Marciniak-Matthews acquired Bassett Nut Co. in 2022. “It was an easy yes when the Bassett owners asked if I was interested in buying the company. We have worked together over the years by combining expertise and leveraging our lines of business. This deal just made good business sense,” she said. “I wanted to keep the Bassett Company brand in the Toledo, Ohio market and this was a perfect fit for my popcorn company.”
She merged the two businesses at the 5307 Monroe St. location and has expanded into the adjacent retail suite, tripling her space. To emphasize the Bassett brand, she had the original downtown company sign replicated by a world-renowned artist on the building last fall. “We have merged the 96-year-old Bassett Nut Company and the 13-year-old Rachel Michael’s Gourmet Popcorn, creating one brand identity. Customers need to know that Rachel Michael’s Gourmet Popcorn is a sub-brand of the Bassett Nut Company brand,” she explained. During the transition, Marciniak-Matthews made a sizeable financial investment in the facilities and the retail store space along with acquiring state-of-the-art equipment. “We are working towards building a dynamic retail store experience for our customers.”
“The culture I foster is for our associates to be customer-focused. We are experienced and demand excellence from ourselves. We can help to make any entertaining celebration incredibly fun and flavorful,” she promised. “We love to have our customers indulge themselves with our hand-crafted premium products that are very affordable. We love our customers, and we love the community. We listen to our customers and drive product development and innovation based on feedback.”
 “I have tremendous pride in our signature product selections. We offer everything from jumbo cashews, deluxe mix, almonds, pecans, lemon creme almonds, white chocolate cashews, pistachios, English toffee peanuts, crème brulé and butter rum peanuts, sweet & spicy mix, custom trail mix, and much more. Popcorn fanciers can find over 30 flavors made from scratch. Our customers number one choice is buckeye, a blend of chocolate and peanut butter, and a Chicago-style mix, yellow and white cheddar, confetti, Piggy Pop, s’mores, cheddar jalapeno, along with many others,” she stated..
In addition, customers can find an assortment of chocolate products including dark and milk chocolate-covered almonds, pecans, cashews, deluxe mix peanuts, cherries, pecan patties, English almond butter toffee, chocolate malted milk balls, pretzels, raisins to name a few.
“This fall I successfully launched, with my previous business partner from Rachel Michael’s Gourmet Popcorn, an exclusive ‘Hometown Flavor’ gift basket that includes a unique line of Dan & Mike’s Bourbon Barrell Honey, summer honey, and preserves along with our Bassett Nut selections,” she said.
“We produce many of our gourmet food products in our on-site kitchen. All our popcorn products are made from scratch using my original trademark recipes. Our selections of chocolate and gourmet nuts have a tradition of 96 years in Toledo. We pride ourselves on the freshest products, friendly customer interactions and affordable excellence. We offer a variety of sizes that start at $3 to satisfy any budget and work extremely hard to keep a cost that is pleasing to our customers,” Marciniak-Matthews added.
Along with entertaining and special events, The Bassett Nut Company offers personal and corporate gift options. “These gifts have been well received for over 96 years and continue to be people pleasing and impressive whether for a friend or a business,” Marciniak-Matthews said. “And, best of all, we can provide custom designs and company logos on our corporate gifts. We are experts.”.
“Please stop by and see us. It is never too early to plan your gifting needs. We encourage you to visit our website.
The store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm. Please visit bassettnut.com to view our products and order online where you can send our ‘deliciousness’ to family, friends, associates, or clients locally and nationwide,”  Marciniak-Matthews said. We are also excited to announce that you can place an order ahead of time on-line, pay, and pick up at the store to save time with your busy schedule. We encourage you to give it a try.

About Bassett Nut Company
The Bassett Nut Company was founded in 1928 in the Magnolia Street garage of Sam Bassett. Bassett first started nut processing in his reconditioned gas coffee roaster, sending the aroma of fresh roasted peanuts throughout the nearby downtown neighborhood and luring customers to his makeshift setup. His first move was to Morris Street, under the High-Level Bridge. In 1963 he relocated to 43 S. Huron St. In 1989, the business was sold to a lifelong Toledo family. At that time, Bassett Nut Company was thriving as a processor, wholesaler, and retailer of fresh roasted nuts, dried fruits, snack mixes, and gourmet popcorn.
About Rachel Michael’s Popcorn Co.
Marciniak-Matthews comes from an entrepreneurial family. Her parents, Sheila, and Ken opened an innovative ice cream store, the Igloo on Douglas Road and Monroe Street in 1972 as one of their real estate ventures.
Marciniak-Matthews said she and her family had fallen in love with the gourmet popcorn they found in Chicago. And, after a decade of experimenting, she came up with a recipe for caramel popcorn that satisfied them. She gave the caramel popcorn as gifts and people began to place orders. As the demand grew, she decided to open her store in 2013. The popcorn shop featured a variety of popcorn flavors from savory to sweet in small, medium, or large.