When Alexander Strack planted a few peppers for his wife in 2010, he never expected to turn it into a business.
Now, he bottles the peppers into hot sauces that he sells at farmer’s markets and to some restaurants.
On the bar of Calhoun Street Soups, Salads and Spirits, there are hot sauce bottles of varying degrees of heat. It’s Alexander’s Gourmet Peppers, made by Fort Wayne resident Alexander Strack.
“We go through the bottles really quickly. People do seem to like it a lot,” said Lydia Maxwell, a server at Cs3. “We have some regulars that come in, and they put it on their potato chips all the time. We have like seasoned potato chips, and they just pour gobs of it all over.”
Maxwell says the medium-heat sauces are the most popular, but some adventurous customers want to try the hottest sauce--Venom.
“I haven’t worked my way up to trying the Venom yet, but someday we’ll get there,” Maxwell said.
Server David Skalicky tries to describe the hottest sauce:
“It’s just like getting a quick, really hard smack on your tongue,” Skalicky said. “So, it is definitely hot as far as hot sauces go.”
Strack says Venom is not just hot--it’s painful to most people. It’s made from a mix of peppers, including trinidad scorpion pepper, ghost pepper, scotch bonnet and lemon drop. Some of those peppers he has to buy, but most he grows on his own.
He started growing peppers in 2010 to complement his wife’s Cajun-style cooking, but his crop yielded more than he expected. To store the peppers, he made them into a sauce. His friends liked the sauce so much, they offered to buy it. The next year, he grew more peppers and started bottling them in five-ounce jars.
“For a local product, it’s something very unique for Northeast Indiana,” Strack said. “And that’s why I get a good reputation because it’s very unique, it’s very tasty. Honestly, I think it’s the best thing this side of the Mason-Dixon, but people have to decide that for themselves.”
He used to have a full-time job, but he wasn’t getting paid enough. After having a discussion with his wife, Strack says it made more sense for him to quit his job and work from home.
“We decided... it’s best that I just stay home with the kids, and if I sell one bottle of hot sauce a month, I’ll be farther ahead,” he said. “So, I mean, I’m well beyond one hot sauce bottle a month.”
Strack says the business is still in the early stages. He sells the hot sauce at farmer’s markets and to some restaurants in Northeast Indiana.
He also sells his hot sauce online and from his home. I caught up with him while he was having a garage sale. Children’s clothes, toys and other items are out on display, including bottles of his hot sauce. He explains the flavors of each hot sauce to a potential customer.
His two children play nearby, with his daughter occasionally helping him collect money. Strack’s children also help him in the community garden near Foster Park, where he plants most of his peppers.
“I do take the children to the garden with me,” he said. “You know, they have their opportunity to help me pull weeds, but the biggest thing is that they’re getting out and they’re learning. Stuff that kids from the city can’t usually do.”
Strack says that while his hot sauces are out on display, he knows not everyone wants to try them, especially if they don’t like spicy foods.
“I don’t exactly solicit,” Strack said. “I set my hot sauces out, and people ask what it is and I say, ‘hot sauce,’ and I offer them a try, and then they will ask me if they can buy it. That’s generally how it works.”
And that’s how it worked for the customer who was sampling the hot sauces at the garage sale. Fort Wayne resident Natasha Pinson came to Alexander’s house for the garage sale, but left with a bottle of his hot sauce.
“It was spicy at first and then afterward it gave you really that kick,” Pinson said. “It was really good. I enjoyed it.”
She says more than likely, she’ll want to buy more of Alexander’s Gourmet Peppers. And that’s exactly what Strack is hoping for.