Local Pet Store Owner Get Spicy By Launching New Brand Of Hot Sauce

Reptile pet store owner Jordan Leal is going from selling geckos and iguanas to selling small-batch hot sauce by launching his brand ‘The Hub Sauce Co.’

Jordan Leal with his Otafukumami (Chili Crisp oil) and ghost pepper honey mustard with a Nigerian uromastyx from his House of Scales Business. Leal is celebrating the sixth-year anniversary of his House of Scales Business this Saturday. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Leal is the owner of ‘House of Scales’ in Brookdale Plaza which has been operating for the last six years.

He had the idea of getting into the hot sauce business after his oldest son crafted a barbecue sauce in school for Father’s Day. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it opened up free time for Leal to explore a new business venture since it slowed down his business and had more downtime.

“We were basically made to pre-order everybody's orders,” explained Leal. “We'd come in the morning, pack everything and then it was sitting around waiting for people to pick up their order.”

He learned more about small-batch hot sauce businesses over social media groups during COVID-19 lockdowns which sparked his interest in starting his own business. He grows several of his own ingredients used in his product and sources locally for everything else.

He eventually launched his brand in February with his first product being his ‘Gold Medal Mustard,’ a ghost pepper honey mustard.

“It's probably one of the most rewarding things when you make that first sale,” explained Leal. “The first person I made my first sale to in the hot sauce company was the same person that was my first sale in this pet store.”

In addition to his mustard, he released a chilli crisp oil containing garlic crips called ‘Otafukumami’ with Asian-inspired flavours. He is nearing the development of a spicy peanut sauce and spicy barbecue sauce.

His hot sauce has already garnered international attention, selling his products in the United States, Europe and South Africa.

“Selling something that I've made start-to-finish is unbelievable,” said Leal. “It's a great feeling to have people happy about what they are eating.”

His products are available to order online at his website. They can be shipped or picked up at House of Scales on Fridays. Leal plans to make his product more widely available by having mom-and-pop shops carry it. Snack Attack Supermarket is scheduled to open a Lindsay location in the near future and Leal says they will carry it there.

He is also promoting his brand at upcoming farmers’ markets and festivals. He is attending the Hastings Waterfront Festival on Aug. 19 and Heating Up the Captial 3 in Ottawa on Sept. 16. for his hot sauce brand.

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Local Entrepreneurs' Hot Sauce Ignites Peterborough's Taste Buds

Too hot? Too bad! No Refund Hot Sauce has made its way into Peterborough made by Dr. J’s BBQ & Brews and Chemong Lodge co-owner Adam Brown.

Addison James “A.J'“ Brown (pictured) and brother of Adam, co-owns Dr. J’s and Chemong Lodge. The Brown family purchased the latter two weeks ago. Photo Courtesy of Adam Brown.

After being developed during Adam’s restauranteur career in Toronto, the hot sauce has found its way into Peterborough retailers such as One Fine Foods, Primal Cuts, Sweet Beast Butcher Shop, Flannigan’s and Brown’s businesses.

The brand features seven different hot sauces and three mayos, featuring their suicide sauces called “Adam’s” and “4-Alarm”.

The sauce was developed 10 years ago when Adam’s original restaurant, “The Fox and the Fiddle” in Toronto for their chicken wings; a food Adam is a huge fan of. That spawned the idea of having a suicide sauce.

“If you’re going to have great wings, you got to have a great ‘sui’ sauce,” said Adam.

The “No Refund” name was inspired by a questionable customer experience with the sauce.”

“We had some customer send it back saying it was too hot,” said Adam. “We asked ourselves, ‘Can you send back suicide wings?’”

No Refund currently has three variants of spicy mayonnaise and seven hot sauces available for purchase. Photo Courtesy of Adam Brown.

Brown’s friends suggested bottling the suicide sauce and selling it to local distributors. He opted to take that advice after customers who were strangers gave him the same feedback.

“We had friends saying we should bottle the sauce,” said Adam. “Once we kept hearing customers who were outside of our friendship circle saying the same thing, we heard it enough times and said why don’t we explore this a bit?”

With how flexible hot sauce recipes can be, the possibilities are endless for new products in the future.

“We played with it a lot. We’re always experimenting with peppers and flavours,” “All of our sauces are inspired regionally from all over the world. Diverse in heat and flavour.”

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