The Pittsburgh Dish
Do you really know the food scene of Pittsburgh?! The Pittsburgh Dish introduces you to the people, places, and recipes that make our regional cuisine so special. By sharing personal stories, weekly recommendations, and community recipes, we aim to inspire you to connect with local taste makers and experience the unique flavors that shape our city.
The Pittsburgh Dish
072 Lisa Ray of Hammajack & Pittsburgh's First Hot Sauce Festival
(01:03) Lisa Ray of Hammajack Heat Company joins us to share the delightful origin story behind their uniquely named hot sauce brand – a four-year-old's adorable mispronunciation that became the perfect business name.
(16:12) Lisa walks us through the fascinating fermentation process that gives their sauces distinctive depth and complexity. Though she admits she wasn't initially a hot sauce enthusiast herself, Lisa now crafts some of their most popular flavors, including their best-selling Ginger sauce featuring coconut milk and ginger root. We explore their product line from the original OG sauce to accidental creations like their tomato-free barbecue sauce that became a hit with customers who have nightshade sensitivities.
(22:20) The big news? Pittsburgh's very first Hot Sauce Festival is happening October 4th 2025 at Velum Fermentation on the South Side. Rather than viewing other sauce makers as competition, Lisa has invited 17 competitors to join the celebration, creating a collaborative event featuring food vendors, a hot pepper eating contest, and even a "fire and ice challenge" benefiting Animal Friends for Veterans.
(40:46) We also hear from Ashley Cesaratto about her favorite mobile pizza experience at Vitalia Wood Fired Oven, and Vonn and Quay of Burghade Lemonade share their mouthwatering Jamaican jerk mushroom pasta recipe.
Whether you're a heat seeker or just curious about Pittsburgh's evolving food scene, this episode delivers a flavorful journey through one of the city's hottest culinary success stories.
Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How much do you like hot sauce? This week we talk with Lisa Ray of Hamajack Heat Company to learn about her business and Pittsburgh's first upcoming hot sauce festival. Are you always on the lookout for the next great slice of pizza? Ashley Cesaratto shares the praises Vitalia wood-fired oven. And do you have that recipe or two that's in constant rotation at home? Vonn and Quay of Burghade Lemonade share one of their go-tos Jamaican jerk mushroom pasta. All that ahead. Pasta All that ahead. Stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Chef Alekka LLC. Visit her website at chefalekkacom to learn about menus, services and cooking classes. That's chefalekkacom. Now on to the show. Thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and what you have going on right now in the world of food?
Lisa:Well, my name is Lisa Ray and I currently own Hammajack Heat Company. It's a hot sauce company, which is very exciting. I never thought I'd be making hot sauce or selling hot sauce, but not only am I making and selling hot sauce. I am be making hot sauce or selling hot sauce, but not only am I making and selling hot sauce.
Lisa:I am putting on Pittsburgh's first ever hot sauce festival, which I would never have guessed I would be doing, and it is the most fulfilling professional thing I've had going on in my whole life, I think. Well, congratulations on all of it.
Doug:Thank you. I have so many questions. First off, why don't we just get to the heart of the name? I love that name. Where did that name come from, hammerjack?
Lisa:I love the story and lots of people ask that it was my husband and I. Frank and I had a bathroom remodeling business for about 14 years, just closed it up a year ago and one of our customers, their little four-year-old Max, would call Frank's jackhammer a hammerjack. Yeah.
Doug:Little kids always say the cutest thing so perfect.
Lisa:And that family actually became good friends of ours, and they are hot sauce lovers too. I was not, by the way. This was a thing that Frank and Bob, the husband, had in common, so when Frank brought his sauce over to their house, max pointed and called it ham-a-jack sauce. Oh my goodness, and it was just something Frank was making for fun. Yes, and we give it to friends and family.
Lisa:He just loved hot sauce and it was a passion of his. So fast forward a few years when we decided sure, we can make this into a business and I started looking for a quote in quote real name. There was no better name.
Vonn :It feels really good.
Lisa:Yeah, it's unique, I mean we have hammajackcom because it's not a real word. And I remember our designer, our artist, who redid our, our logo and our labels and they're beautiful. Um, at the time he was struggling with the name a little bit and he said, well, but what is a hammerjack? And then actually I remember it was Irwin at Fulton said to me, well, what was a Pringle? Until everyone knew what it was. And I said you're right. And now I mean hammajack is hammajack, it's our sauce and I love it.
Doug:I am noticing you're wearing a hammajack t-shirt today. And I sort of see a jackhammer in there in some way, but I hadn't picked that up until we talked about it, so that's perfect.
Lisa:And lots of people mispronounce it as hammerjack.
Doug:Yeah, I think I want to do that.
Lisa:Yeah, yeah, until you get used to it, and then it's just it rolls off the tongue as hammajack it does. So it's a lot of fun.
Doug:So Frank was sort of the start. Your husband, frank, was sort of the start.
Lisa:He was absolutely the start?
Doug:Yes, and how long has hammajack as a sauce that people can buy? How?
Lisa:long has that been going now? Well, I like to say legally. Well, I like to say legally, when we got our health department permit from the county. That will be three years this October. Oh, congratulations.
Doug:You're coming up on an anniversary, then.
Lisa:We are, we are and of course we were making it before that and giving it away. Yeah, it was so much fun. But the funny thing is most of our sauces and at the time all of our sauces were made with peppers from local farms.
Doug:Okay.
Lisa:Okay, and we found Fulton Commons around this time three years ago, actually All right and by the time we got through all the paperwork and the certifications, it was October before we got our permit, but pepper season's about over then.
Doug:Oh yes.
Lisa:And so, okay, now we have this kitchen for a year, what are we going to do to make sauce? So I've found this a number of times through the business and through life. You know, challenges breed invention, right. However, we did not sell a whole lot that first year because we weren't even making a lot of sauce. So I feel like this past year was our first serious year of selling.
Doug:Yeah, like exponential. Yes, we're in a groove.
Lisa:We're in over 26 stores and I do lots of markets, and and now, of course, we have to guess how many peppers should we get this fall to put into fermentation? What do we expect next year? Next year so, um, and we have branched out and we do buy some peppers non-local that are sustainable year-round but you have to at this point because of your production.
Lisa:Yes, yes, every time we've had a challenge like that, it's bred something better, like at the time when we couldn't get many local peppers. One of the peppers we use is jalapeno peppers. It's a basic, basic pepper. You can get that year round. I go to Whole Foods if I need to and get some. So I said to Frank hey, the only peppers we can get are jalapenos, and we can get a ton of them. So you have to make a sauce with just jalapeno, and that's how Sublime was born.
Doug:And it's a popular sauce now. Oh, so good yeah, and good yeah, and just to catch our listeners up. So you mentioned you were committing for a year. You are in Fulton Commons. A couple of our other guests operate out of there. They have this beautiful commercial kitchen in the lower level. And you also mentioned Irwin. Irwin Mendelssohn is one of the owners of Fulton Commons, so he's giving you a little nudge and direction.
Lisa:Yes, what's a Pringle? I love that. Yes, he loves following our story and he loves the energy. I come in with always some other silly story. Oh, so perfect.
Doug:Well, you know it's also. We talked about this with Mike Harding and a couple of other folks. Yes, even just being there and seeing everyone else do their thing and their story is also motivating too, and to learn from other people like what are you doing?
Lisa:How are you navigating? That we love it. I mean because you're working with other entrepreneurs who are passionate about what they're doing. They're friendly, you know they'll give you free food samples and they'll give you advice on your sauce, and there's a lot of collaboration and it's very inspiring and we love that energy. It's been very helpful to us actually.
Doug:That's how we first connected. I was there for some other lunch.
Lisa:Thing right, yes, yes, I think Barb was doing a sampling of her food. That's right, AB Kitchen, AB Kitchen, yes yes, and what's great too is it's helped us with dinners. You know we'll buy from the people down there.
Doug:Oh yeah, so you can actually feed yourself.
Lisa:Yes, yes, yes.
Doug:Oh, that's so good. Well, Lisa, I want to just pivot a little bit. One of the things we haven't talked about yet are the different hot sauce flavors. You hinted at the Sublime. Can we just do a rapid fire of some of them? We don't have to do all of them.
Lisa:Sure sure I'd be happy to. Well, we don't have to do all of them. Sure sure I'd be happy to Well, OG was the original sauce that Frank made over years.
Doug:Okay, the one you would give away to people.
Lisa:Yes, he just had the one sauce, and but he would tweak it each year, each harvest.
Lisa:He would go to local farmer's markets and find cayenne peppers, which led us to the specific cayenne pepper. That's a whole other story. That just took his sauce to another level. We just took his sauce to another level. We felt like it was the perfect pepper. And then one year he was just a friend, gave him some random peppers and he tried something with that and and developed I forget what we called it oh, jalapeno. So at the time we had this cayenne sauce, we were calling it and we had a jalapeno sauce.
Lisa:And then we ended up with a trifecta that had three peppers, and these were the early renditions of our sauces.
Doug:Well, and can I ask about a couple of the ones that intrigue me, ginger?
Lisa:Oh, I love talking about ginger because, okay, like I said, I'm, I was not a hot sauce person, I was. I had the business background, I was a CPA, and I was the one that said, sure, we can start a business, just go into all kinds of debt and you know, that's how you will be fine, but you have a good viewpoint of it.
Doug:You have a good sort of background.
Lisa:Yes, I manage small businesses and things, so I knew that we could do it.
Vonn :Whereas.
Lisa:Frank was convinced that it's not something we could do. When we started selling hot sauce, I thought, well, I better start eating this so I can talk, because, honestly, before we sold it, I'm sure that I tasted his Frank sauce. I can't imagine I wouldn't have, but I didn't use it on any regular basis. It just wasn't my thing. I don't know.
Doug:Well, that was a question I had for later. It's like was hot sauce a big thing for you?
Lisa:No it was for Frank and I love spice and flavors and variety of food.
Lisa:It just wasn't something that I reached for, yeah. And so when we started selling it and I was at markets you know different farmers markets and things I thought, well, I better, I need to taste this so I can talk about it. So a couple of years ago, we had some leftover fermented cayenne pepper because we do ferment all the peppers that we use and I thought I was feeling inspired. I feel like trying a recipe. I have no culinary background Neither does Frank, by the way. We have no history in this, it's just pure passion and fun. But I was just I'd been listening to some podcasts and food podcasts. I said to Frank I'm feeling like podcasts. I said to Frank I'm feeling like coconut milk and ginger root for this sauce.
Doug:And he looked at me kind of funny and said for a hot sauce, Because it's not common. No, that's why it kind of sparked my interest.
Lisa:Yes, and fast forward. It's our most popular sauce. It's the highest selling and it was my first rendition of it.
Ashley:We didn't tweak Now granted over years.
Lisa:Frank tweaked. He got the ratios of everything like how much? Pepper how much vinegar, how much salt, things like that. But I took his recipe and applied some different ingredients and just made a one-off batch. I thought, yeah, and people loved it. But we were all out of cayenne. That was the last of the cayenne for the year. So that's when we took a chance and bought some fermented cayenne pepper and I tried to recreate the ginger and I couldn't it just wasn't the same, but it also was.
Lisa:It was still good, okay. So we tweaked that into what is now called our bison. That's our version of a buffalo sauce. Oh yes. And then our artist said let's make this a little bit different. Called bison it's not exactly buffalo sauce, not exactly buffalo, but it's close has a lot of the same ingredients, almost all the same ingredients as the ginger, except for the base. Pepper is a different type of cayenne, yes, so again a mistake, that that's not that's not yeah.
Doug:Well, I love it and I also really appreciate the names as well as the flavor combination. Can I ask you about one more?
Lisa:Yes, or maybe two. I love talking about them.
Doug:I will admit you brought me some today and I'm excited. But I am a little bit of a heat wimp, so anything that has a little sweet to it.
Lisa:So you have a sweet heat one, right, and you'll like the ginger, because I'm a heat wimp too. I'm getting better.
Doug:Yeah, me too. Jalapeno I can handle when we get higher. And if you're throwing Reaper into some things, then I don't know. I don't know, I'll taste it for fun.
Lisa:We have Reaper in our flair, which is based off of our OG, but again, it's with those cayennes that we purchase, so it's a little saltier, a little bit more vinegary tasting, for some reason. And then we added a little Reaper because we were getting requests for something a little hotter. Our sauce, if you ask Americans or Pittsburghers, our sauce is probably spicy, but it's not, really not in terms of hot sauce when we look across the board at what like hot ones is doing and stuff like that there's probably some that are quite.
Doug:They're just going for that ridiculous hot
Doug:Right Some of them are, but some of them.
Lisa:The thing is, people have different heat tolerances and when you get up into the higher heat I'm now experiencing this for the first time we have that sweet heat and it has a habanero pepper in it. Frank doesn't like habaneros. We never made anything with habanero, but we kept getting requests, so you've got to listen to your customers, right? I made a version of the sweet heat with habanero and I wanted it to be hot, like our flair sauce, like at least as hot as that, and it's not. But people love it so much that I don't want to change it.
Lisa:But I've made a couple of versions. Or I've made a version where I double the habanero because I'm experimenting with maybe offering a hotter one. Yeah, and I tasted it and I said to Frank it was so intriguing. I said, yeah, it's hotter but it tastes better. And he said, well, that's because you're just tasting more of the pepper. So if you have a higher heat tolerance, it just allows you to taste a different flavor that otherwise it just feels like pain, so you don't even taste it.
Lisa:So that's what I'm learning You're getting into those layers or notes of flavor, you're expanding your own palate. Yes, that's so great. Yes, it's a lot of fun.
Doug:So much fun. Before we move away from the sauces, did I also see a barbecue sauce on there somewhere.
Lisa:Oh yes, barbecue sauce was another mistake. I was trying to make a smoky hot sauce because we don't have one, and I didn't want to use liquid smoke. I try to be as what I would consider authentic as possible, and so I bought some maritas dried moritas from Reyna's.
Doug:Down in the strip district. I love getting dried peppers from Reyna's in the strip. Yes, yes.
Lisa:And I got these Moritas, which I now understand to be dried and smoked red jalapenos. Yes so red jalapenos are a little bit sweeter and a little bit hotter than red jalapenos are green jalapenos just left on the vine longer.
Doug:Yes, and then also, what I understand is a Chipotle is a dried green jalapeno.
Lisa:Yes so.
Doug:Morita. Am I saying that right? Yep, morita is a dried red jalapeno that's also been smoked, so it's got a great smoky flavor.
Lisa:Oh, my goodness, the smell and the taste of it, that smokiness is incredible yeah so I use those, I use some of our fermented jalapeno and a number of other ingredients. I just kept adding things until I got the flavor I wanted. I have whole cherries in there which you can kind of taste if you pay attention, and we have some local raw honey. Oh, and the other thing is well, it turned into what tastes like a barbecue sauce instead of a hot sauce. So I just embraced that and that's how we market it.
Lisa:But one thing I wasn't thinking of there are some people that can't eat tomatoes, and so they generally can't eat barbecue sauce.
Doug:Yeah, there's usually the tomato paste base.
Lisa:Yes, yes. So I've had people that have that situation. They can't eat tomatoes, so they can't eat barbecue sauce, and they love our sauce and they say finally, a barbecue sauce I can eat because it's all peppers.
Doug:Yeah, and yours contains no tomato product, it's all peppers.
Lisa:Yeah, and yours contains no tomato product. Correct, correct, and in fact the base of it, instead of tomato, is fermented red bell peppers.
Doug:So yeah, because we can't have all just hot peppers, they'll be too hot, they'll mellow it out a bit. Yes, that's so interesting.
Lisa:Yes, and it is so delicious, it's too hot. I always say this my palate is getting better with handling heat, but it is too hot for me. But I eat it anyway because it's so delicious and I'll just have some. I'll just have some Greek yogurt like a sour cream type thing on the side yes To smooth
Doug:it out. Yes, to smooth it out.
Lisa:And the ingredients we use. It's expensive so I wasn't going to make it, because I have to charge like $12 a bottle. But people buy it, yeah, so I'm making it, you meet where the market is.
Doug:Yes, yes, yes, how wonderful.
Lisa:This is Lisa Ray with Hammajack Heat Company, and you were listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.
Doug:You know you have mentioned this a couple of times and I'm just curious because I've never done it. I've never seen hot sauce made, but I do understand that there is a fermentation process, at least to some hot sauces, to some. Yes, are most of your hot sauces fermented?
Lisa:All of our hot sauces include fermented peppers.
Doug:Let me just ask you, because I'm intrigued by the science of it, when you're doing this, when we're going to ferment a pepper, let's talk about how and why. So what does this look like when you're going to ferment some peppers? Are you putting them all in a container with salt or just water and a lid Like? How does that work?
Lisa:Well, it has changed as we ramped up. It was different when Frank would make it at home.
Doug:Yeah.
Lisa:And only make 30 bottles of hot sauce at a time for a season. He would ferment the peppers in brine. Okay, so he would chop up the peppers, put them in salt water yes, and the key was then to put a weight on top of the peppers to make sure none of the pepper was exposed to air.
Doug:You got to keep it under the water. Yes, Under the water.
Lisa:So there's no brine under the brine under the brine, so there's no oxygen exposed. So that's, that's what would create mold.
Doug:Would you see little bubbles coming up then?
Lisa:After just a day or a couple of days, you see little bubbles coming up. Yes, they'll be in glass jars, yeah.
Doug:So if someone's intrigued and I've also seen like fermenting, like ball jars that have sort of a release lever and stuff too If somebody wants to do this at home, you can't. You're leaving it on the counter at room temperature.
Lisa:You're not putting it in the fridge or anything the fridge or anything. No, that would stop the fermentation or prevent it. I mean I do it at home in just a regular 16 ounce Mason jar with cabbage for sauerkraut, and I just have it sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks.
Doug:And let's talk about the why for the peppers. What does that do versus using a fresh pepper? I mean, is it necessary because of mold or is it a flavor enhancer?
Lisa:Right, right. Well, and first of all, when we did the brine, when we came to Fulton Commons, actually, one of the chefs that was working there said why aren't you doing mash? You can fit so much more than doing a brine. So what? We do now is we chop the peppers up and then mash them.
Doug:Yes.
Lisa:And we don't add any water, and we just add salt. So this is like the liquid from the peppers now have been really released and exposed. Yes, interesting. And then we mix salt in with the peppers and then we put what's called a salt cap on top of them. Then we seal it with a little release valve that allows gas to escape, but nothing to come in, no new oxygen to come in so that's what we do now is the mash.
Doug:That's the pro way.
Lisa:Right, right, right, and it was very scary. The first year we did it Actually, that was last fall we had over a thousand pounds of mash.
Doug:Yeah.
Lisa:And we did not have experience.
Doug:Yeah, You're like I hope this works.
Lisa:Yes, and it did.
Doug:Yeah, well, I'm asking about the mason jar way for our listeners, because I don't think I'm going to do that either, but I'm so glad it worked out. You didn't have any big explosions or anything. No, we had.
Lisa:Actually one time James, who now owns Wise County I remember him texting me or calling me One of your buckets has some pepper stuff coming out of the top because we had filled it too close to the top.
Doug:Oh yeah, a little out of the top because we had filled it too close to the top. Oh yeah, a little air.
Lisa:Uh, what's that called headspace?
Doug:yes you need to allow headspace because it is going to bubble and it is going to, you know, rise doing its thing yes, so it snuck out and getting back to what's the why behind it with the peppers, oh yes yes, frank just always fermented this the peppers for the sauce because that's what he had wanted to do.
Lisa:I wasn't sure why, but it does definitely give it a unique flavor. It's a richer, deeper flavor than just a plain pepper, and for our purposes, because we like to use the local peppers. They're only in season for a couple of months, so once you put them in fermentation they are now good for months or years oh yeah, because you've preserved them like you would a sauerkraut or something yeah, that makes so much
Lisa:it's amazing that you can take this fresh produce and not even have to refrigerate it. Just mix some salt in, you know, to simplify it. They can sit there for months or years years.
Doug:I never thought about that. Thank you so much for the education. I'm asking truly because I want to know.
Lisa:Yeah, yeah, it is interesting and I guess I always thought that maybe all hot sauces had fermented peppers, but they don't. There's a variety of them and I will have people asking specifically. They're looking for fermented sauces because it does have a different flavor.
Doug:And I also think what I'm gathering from some food trends in the world too is fermentation helps with digestion, it enhances flavors. As you said, it's breaking down some of the cells and the different components of whatever you're fermenting and it just makes food taste better.
Lisa:And it's good for your gut bacteria. Now the issue is we then cook it?
Doug:So you're pasteurized in a way.
Lisa:It is pasteurized Now, before we cook it, we always pour some in some bottles for ourselves. Right, because we want that beneficial bacteria and in the future I do want to market that. We call it raw, like our raw ginger, our raw OG.
Doug:Would that have to be like refrigerated then, after bottling I?
Lisa:still have to do more research, because when I actually spoke with the health department, they told me it would actually be shelf stable because our pH is so low. Yeah, but once we open it, maybe we'd have to refrigerate it. I need to really dive deep.
Doug:We'll be on the lookout for that.
Lisa:But I've had. All my friends have tried it. They say it tastes even better. I mean, I think it tastes better too, but, I we started doing it because of the beneficial the health benefits.
Lisa:The health benefits yeah, everyone loves a health benefit out of something fun like hot sauce, right, something that tastes great, right, right? Although I'm very careful, a lot of my friends will say why don't you promote more that you don't have any bad items? Quote, unquote bad items. You know ingredients in your sauces because they're all whole foods. We don't use any binders, any fillers but, I want to be careful to not make claims.
Doug:Right.
Lisa:So I don't. I'm not big on saying all natural or any of that. I want to let it speak for itself. The all of our labels have the ingredients quite large because we're proud of the ingredients, but I don't make that an advertising point, okay, fair.
Doug:All right, Lisa, I want to pivot a little bit. You guys have been at it for three years or so, right, and I guess in that time you discovered that there has not been a hot sauce festival before.
Lisa:Right In Pittsburgh. Right, how great I mean Pittsburgh is a festival town. That's right. Yeah, Right, how great I mean Pittsburgh is a festival town. That's right. I mean, last year we discovered there's a mac and cheese fest and what goes better on mac and cheese than hot sauce? That's right. So we went there it was at one day and we sold a ton of hot sauce, but there's progi fest. There's of course.
Lisa:Picklesburg right and which is known across the country. And there's so many festivals tacos, et cetera, et cetera but there's not a hot sauce festival.
Doug:Where it's the star.
Lisa:Right when it is. Just, yeah, hot sauce is the main event and that's very popular in other cities. Yeah, so we went to our first one. My husband and I went to our first one in Cincinnati just about a year ago, last August Jungle Jim's. It's a very large grocery store.
Doug:I have heard of Jungle Lims. It's an experience? Yes, it's a thing.
Lisa:It's overwhelming. I don't know how you could shop there. There's too much going on. But we went there for their weekend of fire, they called it. It was two days with plenty of hot sauce vendors. We were one of about 50 hot sauce vendors.
Lisa:So these are all of our competitors in the same room. It was our first time experiencing this and the thing that really left an impression on Frank and I was how helpful and kind and supportive all these other makers were here. We are like new kids on the block and they're giving us advice. I mean, obviously nobody shares their recipes. We're not talking recipes, but we met people who do fermentation as well and we talked about that. We talked about co-packing, advertising. They're just so helpful, they're really supportive and I feel like Pittsburgh, I feel like the food world of Pittsburgh or the food businesses, is very similar to that. It's, I like to say it's very much the mentality of the rising tide raises all ships.
Doug:We hear that a lot on this show and I love it. I see it too.
Lisa:Yes, and not just food. Small businesses that's right. There's so many collaborations I mean, look at how many breweries there are in Pittsburgh and they they're co-supportive of each other.
Doug:The pizza places, all the pizza people really support each other, even though, to your point, they're sort of competitors, but not because they're all so different.
Lisa:Right, and that's the thing, because they're all so different. If you like pizza, you want to try all the pizzas, that's right. If you like hot sauce, you want to try all the hot sauces these people have collections, like I've seen basements with shelves of hot sauces.
Doug:So you're onto it.
Lisa:And I've had stores tell me well, we'll only carry your hot sauce, it being nice, and I say that's great. I appreciate that. But I'm not offended if you carry another hot sauce, because I know the hot sauce market. I know those consumers, they want to try all the hot sauces. So the idea of having a hot sauce festival.
Lisa:I mean it's really cool to think I've invited 17 of my competitors have agreed to come to this event and it's a pretty cool feeling and I think after they talk with me and understand where I'm coming from, they're excited to participate.
Doug:Can we just give a couple high-level details. This hot sauce festival is happening this coming October 4th.
Lisa:Yes, it's a Saturday. First Saturday in October.
Doug:Okay, so it's happening October 4th 2025. Yes, as you've said, you're up to 17-ish vendors.
Lisa:Including us, it'll be 18 hot sauce vendors.
Doug:Yeah, and there's going to be other folks there too.
Lisa:Yes we'll have food vendors and things.
Doug:Because you other folks there too, yes, we'll have food vendors and things, because you got to pair it yes, exactly.
Lisa:Will you do a hot ones? Yes, tasting of course, in cold friends kitchen we'll be making the wings.
Doug:That's great oh, they're great. I follow them on instagram as well, so that's fun yes, they'll be making the wings we have.
Lisa:We have a hot pepper eating contest for crazy people, and I'm talking carolina reaper type peppers, and these people eat a lot of them.
Doug:They have to have like medical staff handy, just in case.
Lisa:So the hot pepper eating contest and, for what I like to say, the little bit less crazy people, but still crazy. And we have our fire and ice challenge where you eat a hot pepper and it can be a jalapeno, it depends on your heat tolerance, but you consider hot and then you get an ice bath because Pittsburgh tub club will be there. So you do the fire and ice challenge. It's free to attendees and for each person who does it we're going to donate $20 to animal friends for veterans.
Lisa:So we can guilt people into it.
Doug:Come on, you got to do it for the dogs and the veterans. Oh my gosh, that's perfect. Lisa, I love that.
Lisa:So much fun we're going to have a fire entertainer, a person flying through the air a couple times. Wow, it's just so much fun. Where is the location? It's at Velum Fermentation.
Doug:Okay, it's in the south side right under the Iron City Clock. That's right, the new clock that just lit up, yes, oh my gosh.
Lisa:And tickets are available for pre-sale right now on your website. Is that right? They are very much available and I really want people to pre-buy, but I understand that's not very common. Most people wait to the last minute.
Doug:And so they are a little cheaper on your website right now. If they pre-buy, I think they're $15 if you pre-purchase, yes, and $20 at the door yes, all right, so save five bucks.
Lisa:Yeah, save five bucks, and actually starting October 1st. If you buy them online, it's also $20.
Doug:Okay, so they're going to go up.
Lisa:Yes.
Doug:So go get your ticket and go.
Lisa:Yes, yes.
Doug:All right. So let's recap that for our listeners too.
Lisa:So this is Saturday, October 4th. Yes, and what time of day For general admission? It starts at 1230 in the afternoon and it runs until 6 PM. For VIP ticket holders it starts at 11.
Doug:AM A little pre yes. Schmooze and taste and do whatever you want, right.
Lisa:And they will have their own scavenger hunt arranged for that time period where they will look for things and they'll. There will be prizes awarded and they will at least for the first 100 VIP ticket buyers they'll get their own tote bag to carry all the hot sauces they purchase.
Doug:And you did mention food vendors hot sauce vendors, of course. They're all sort of selling and sampling their stuff. Is this like a limited capacity thing, like could you sell out? People should probably know.
Lisa:Yes, it definitely can sell out, and I expect it to. We are capping it at 1,500 people and that includes the volunteers and people running it.
Doug:Yeah, yeah.
Lisa:Because Vellum is a large place for a brewery, but it still can't hold an unlimited number of people.
Doug:The whole city. Yeah, right, right right, we can't do a Picklesburg right in there. Right, right right, this might really have a thing. So again a reason to get some tickets ahead of time before they sell out.
Lisa:And one thing I did want to mention is at Velum they also have this very large game room with pinball machines and a pool table, and that's going to be included as well.
Doug:A lot of good things, and of course beer. Of course. Well, that goes with wings hot sauce yes, yes, yes, and non-alcoholic.
Lisa:we'll have ginger beer there. Actually, Jackworth ginger beer is going to be there 111 Juice we love that An ice cream place. You know things to cool your palate.
Doug:Yeah, yeah, and the NA movement is something that I think is super important. So there's always so I keep saying there's always some options and that's just such a good thing.
Lisa:Yes, yes, not even for people, and you're being responsible.
Doug:Yeah, I love that Well well-planned, and we're wishing you the best.
Lisa:Thank you, thank you, I'm very, very excited.
Doug:Lisa, I did want to pivot a little bit and just ask some background. You and Frank had this business for years. Did you both grow up in the local?
Lisa:area. Yeah, we are passionate about Pittsburgh. We love it.
Doug:Frank grew up the first part of his life in Crafton not very far from where we are right now, not very far from where we're recording.
Lisa:Yeah, and then he moved to Baldwin and I similarly grew up in Baldwin. I moved a few places when I was younger, but we've been born and raised in Pittsburgh Always in the Pittsburgh area. Yes, so we love it.
Doug:For you before you met Frank. What was food life like? Did you ever think hot sauce would be in your future?
Lisa:Never, I didn't even know it existed Really, I mean before Frank. I mean he and I have been together since I was 19 years old, so yeah, it just wasn't even on my radar whatsoever. I knew from a young age young being shortly after college that I wanted to manage businesses, or have my own small business, which we did with the bathroom remodeling business, because Frank is incredible with all things home related. He can build a whole house himself.
Lisa:So we took his skills and my business background and made that happen for 14 years. We sustained ourselves on that business and made that happen for 14 years. We sustained ourselves on that business. Prior to that, frank was a boilermaker for over 20 years. Wow, and he was pretty high up in the boilermakers at the time. But yes, that's a little bit of background about us. But, yeah, no culinary experience whatsoever Other than we cook for ourselves at home.
Doug:And we love food. I was going to ask are you foodies, or do you even like to cook at home? We do. I love food. I was going to ask are you a foodies or?
Lisa:do you even like to cook at home? We do, yeah, yeah. And we like experimenting. You know we make. I make my own sauerkraut, frank will make homemade pizzas. We don't do it a whole lot, but we do love, we do prepare our own food at home and we enjoy experimenting with it. And our son does as well.
Doug:Excellent, my, my insider question, then, is which hot sauces are you grabbing or using the most at home, or do you have a dish or two that you like to?
Lisa:It depends on the dish, I used to unequivocally say ginger. A lot of people, when they see me at a market selling sauce, a lot of people will ask what's my favorite sauce and I tell them it is the ginger. If I had to pick just one, it happens to be the best seller too. But anytime I'm making steak I reach for the trifecta because I didn't realize it's like the best steak sauce. Wow, it's a really good steak sauce and Frank uses flair a lot, especially in a breakfast burrito or in a chicken noodle soup.
Doug:Interesting.
Lisa:You know what else is really good. You know what else is really good. Any of our sauces or other hot sauces in a plain ramen noodle bowl. It just gives it some flavor a different flavor.
Doug:It's a picker up or two, because there's a little like vinegary-ness to it and that heat.
Lisa:Excellent, yeah, so it depends. I mean our sublime I love on hard boiled eggs, oh my goodness. But the sweet heat, that's our latest flavor and that's delicious on everything. Actually, actually, I just had that on vanilla ice cream. Wow, you have to try it, because up front, when you have that sweet heat, you get the local maple syrup and whole peaches. You get that flavor. So it is quite sweet up front, yes. And then the habanero comes at the end. Some people call it a sneaky sauce.
Doug:Yes, the heat comes, sneaks up on you.
Lisa:Yes, and instead of vinegar. This is the only sauce we make that doesn't have vinegar. It has a local kombucha.
Doug:Oh wow Vibrant sunshine.
Lisa:Yes, so it's very smooth.
Lisa:It doesn't have that vinegar sharpness. Yeah, expecting it might be okay. It was phenomenal.
Doug:Did you mention you're going to have an ice cream or milk or something at the hot sauce festival?
Lisa:We are going to have an ice cream stand. The Parkside Creamery will be there. I met them at an event earlier this summer. A nice little place. The owners were very nice, their product was delicious, and I really wanted to promote small businesses at this festival. Absolutely so, and I have talked to them about having the sweet heat.
Doug:Yeah, I would say you have a moment to sprinkle that on and try it out.
Lisa:Yes, how perfect. Yes, thanks for reminding me about that. There's so many things to remember for the festival, but yes, Earlier, you asked me to remind you about milk. Oh yes. Well, if you've watched Hot Ones, for example, lots of people are familiar with that. They have a glass of water and they have a glass of milk. A lot of people will use milk to calm down or cool down their mouth.
Doug:They think it's taking some of the capsaicin away. Yes, yes.
Lisa:Yeah, I honestly don't know. I do know that when I did a sampling last week of our version of hot ones, our lineup milk seemed to help me. Granted, I'm only having a little drop of the hot sauce.
Doug:Right, you're touching the tongue and like, okay, that's enough.
Lisa:Yes, but my understanding is beer or not just beer, alcohol actually helps evaporate the capsaicin off your tongue? I'm not sure. Yeah, but I do know that chocolate does the opposite. So if you are offered a chocolate hot sauce, I'm not saying don't have it, because it can be delicious, but it will stick to your tongue, it's going to linger. Yes, wow, it's going to linger, but it's interesting but I really I don't have that part of the festival covered in terms of a milk source well, maybe someone will hear this and be like hey, right exactly.
Doug:Well, I'm so excited and so let's just kind of move on and talk about that a little bit more. We've said that that's the big event happening October 4th for the business. Are there any other goals or events happening in the coming year? Anything, anything else new coming up?
Lisa:You know it's funny. We're just kind of rolling with our gut and where this takes us I did not expect. For example, just last month, Giant Eagle Market District two of the Market District stores started carrying our sauce Thanks to three rivers grown. That's our distributor. We sell to most of the most of the stores that we sell to. I sell directly to and I like that relationship and distributor. We sell to most of the most of the stores that we sell to. I sell directly to and I like that relationship and I deliver it to them and and that's very helpful like wise county biscuits or mort's.
Lisa:Yes, uh-huh coffee, yes, yes and also especially people can order directly on your website yes, yes, which is always great when we get to online orders, but three rivers grown also distributes our product to places like Wholeys and a number of other places, and Giant Eagle was one of their largest clients and I really honestly even told them that's not. I'm not, that's not a goal of ours to get into Giant Eagle, because number one, that's a lot of stores.
Doug:That is a lot of stores.
Lisa:For us to really ramp up.
Lisa:And then I had a fear of them wanting a discount because our sauce is not inexpensive.
Doug:Right.
Lisa:You know, to sit on the shelf next to these less expensive sauces may not go over well. However, the Giant Eagle Market District is a little bit elevated. Yeah more curated.
Doug:And they have a focus on local.
Lisa:Yes, yes, they do. So two of the stores started carrying our product two months ago. And then, the next thing I know well, Three Rivers Grown said to me I can probably get you into some more of those market district stores and I said please don't, because I don't want to run out of product. I have this fear of growing too fast and we've been growing organically. I think that's uh, that's valid.
Doug:You know you want to maintain a good product, you want to have fun with it.
Lisa:Yeah, there's a certain degree of pressure and we want the quality to maintain be maintained right however, a few weeks later I got an order through an email for our largest order ever for all six market districts, because they wanted to have us on special for the whole month of August. So, they have us on sale on special displays. It is just unbelievable. It really. If we were to have created a goal for ourselves, I wouldn't even be thinking market district would be attainable at this stage in our business. Oh great. And, and even better, they didn't ask for a discount.
Doug:Yeah, yay, well, that's a good news story all around.
Lisa:Yes.
Doug:Wishing you all the best in that.
Lisa:So we're just rolling with it, and we could have never predicted that or forecasted or planned for it. So I don't want to limit myself by coming up with some grand plan. I'm not good at that. Anyway, you're still rolling with it.
Doug:I'm good at rolling with it, it's working.
Lisa:Yes.
Doug:Well, if people want to actually buy direct from you or even just follow you, why don't we remind folks of your?
Lisa:website and any social media that you like to do. Where can people find and follow you? Yes, well, they can go to our website at hamajackcom that's H-A-M-M-A-J-A-C-Kcom, and they can order there. We ship across the country and we are most active on Instagram. Our handle is at Hammajack Sauce and we are also on Facebook. My sister recently created a TikTok account for us, but I'm not good at maintaining those. Fortunately, anything I post to Instagram does mostly go to Facebook.
Doug:I do the same, yes.
Lisa:And it also posts to our website.
Doug:Oh, that's good yeah.
Lisa:Yeah, yes so, but Instagram is the most popular.
Doug:Yeah, where you're most active. Yes, it's where I'm most active, so people need to look you up, give you a follow.
Lisa:Yes, we need some more followers. We have 730, some followers, and I thought, oh, it'd be great to get to a thousand.
Doug:I think we'll do that. Yeah, yeah, all right, lisa. The name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. I always have a final question for our guests. Oh, that's right. What was the best dish you had to eat this past week?
Lisa:Wow, there are so many amazing places to eat in Pittsburgh and unfortunately, I don't get out to many of them often. However, there's a place near Fulton Commons that I happened to pop into a couple of days ago. Actually, it was Wise County Cafe. I'm there often because I deliver sauce there, et cetera, and I had it seems like such a simple dish. I had their chicken salad sandwich. They make the most simple things so delicious and complex in flavor.
Lisa:You know it was a chicken salad sandwich, but it had a pickle flavor in it, a very lemon flavor. It was delicious. It was actually the first time in a while that I ate too much. I felt too full. I've been doing pretty good with not overeating lately, but it was just too good. I should have stopped at the first half, but it was delicious, it was the best bite?
Doug:Yes, and this is at Wise County Cafe. Wise County Biscuits on the north side.
Lisa:Yes, yes, yeah, and I had a little side salad and it was very fulfilling.
Doug:Lisa Rae, it has been such a pleasure to talk with you and learn about hot sauce. Thank you so much for taking some time and thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.
Lisa:Well, thank you so much for having me. I love talking about hot sauce.
Doug:This is great. You're in the right field Up next if you're constantly on the hunt for the next great slice of pizza, ashley Cesarotto shares one of her favorites. Hey everyone, we're joined today with Ashley Cesaratto of Eating with Ashley on Instagram. Ashley, I always like to ask where you're going out and about for some new bites. I was wondering this week if you've tried any new pizza places.
Ashley:Well, a pizza place that I keep going back to again and again is Vitalia Wood Fired Oven, and they're actually a food truck. Yeah, they go to a lot of different places. Their home base is kind of in the Cranberry area. Ok but they'll go to festivals and different events. They do it with cannoli and it looks super fun. So if any of your listeners are looking for something different for a party like that's, that would be a great choice.
Doug:Now, where were they camped out when you had them last?
Ashley:They were in Cranberry. So there was I think there were two weekends where we went twice in a row. Well, because they had some specials that were just insanely delicious.
Doug:And I'm not going to reveal where Ashley lives, but I'm going to say this is a little bit of a drive. You went there on purpose because it's so good.
Ashley:Yeah, I mean it's mostly highway, you know.
Doug:Yeah, it was worth it.
Ashley:It was absolutely worth it.
Doug:So mainly you've driven to Cranberry to have Vitalia. Have you located them anywhere else?
Ashley:They actually catered my brother and sister in law's wedding. Oh yeah, so they'll. They'll do different events. Sometimes they're maybe outside of a hospital, or they'll do festivals and things in the summertime. Oh, that's so cool.
Doug:So I guess it would be best to maybe check out their website or their social handles to see where they'll be. And so we're talking about Vitalia wood fired oven. It's a food truck and you need to check them out. They're worth the stop.
Ashley:Absolutely, and they keep their socials very updated. They always pin their schedule every week.
Doug:So they're super easy to find. So smart Ashley. Thanks so much.
Ashley:Sure, thank you.
Doug:You can follow Ashley on Instagram at eatingwithashleypgh. What recipe is in constant rotation at your house? Vaughn Jennings and Shaquayla, dukes of Brigade Lemonade share one of their favorite dishes. Vaughn, when we were here last, we talked all about your and Quay's business making all of these great flavors of lemonade, but I noticed that you guys were talking about loving to cook as well at home. Is there a recipe that you make that is sort of on the rotation all the time, or just something that's super special?
Vonn :Oh, let's see, there is a jamaican mushroom jerk pasta that I make. Oh, chef's kiss, oh yeah, um, and you have to get the mafalda noodles, oh yes you have to. You have to get those mushrooms. Of course, I make everything from scratch sauce peppers, uh, uh, get your Scotch bonnet peppers, oh, a little spice there oh, she's a spice girl.
Doug:Oh, everything has to be spicy make it hot, but you like this Quay, you like this. I love it.
Vonn :I love it I just I'm not as much of a spicy girl, so I'll be having to say not and not as heavy. I look, tone it down just a tad, but with the pasta it's perfect actually yeah, it's I love it that, just the way that she makes it.
Doug:Describe it a little bit more to me. Is it like saucy? Yes, do you like, use a Cajun?
Vonn :seasoning. Yes, so it is saucy, I make it's like an Alfredo sauce. Yeah, I make it from scratch. Oh, so it's a plant-based heavy whipping cream, of course some seasonings mixed in, and it has to simmer because it actually darkens. Oh man listen, I'm going to make you some.
Doug:It sounds delicious, and I mean great for plant-based, but I imagine you could add some shrimp in there or something if you wanted to. Yeah, because I told you I'm not giving up my seafood. I know you said this to me before, all right, so what do you call it again?
Vonn :The Jamaican jerk pasta mushroom pasta.
Doug:Jamaican jerk mushroom pasta. I'm going to get that recipe from you. Yes, Vonn Quay, thank you both for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.
Vonn :Thank you for having us. Thank you and thank you for Pittsburgh Dish. My guy, Douglas, he has things to say and it's amazing. Thank you again.
Doug:Douglas. Thank you both. Do you have a recipe? Share it with us? Just visit our website at wwwpittsburghdishcom and look for our share a recipe form. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie accordion company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.
