Ending the Year on a Hopeful Note

My guests this week on the LIVE! Culinary Series are optimistic for what the future holds in hospitality.

My last full week of the LIVE! Culinary Series for the rest of the year was fantastic. As always, I welcomed guests who are passionate about the hospitality industry as well as inventive about how they do business.

Co-op Sauce founder Mike Bancroft joined me Monday to chat about his latest release: a collaboration with Goose Island Beer Company for a limited edition hot sauce featuring the 2020 Bourbon County Stout “Kentucky Fog” variant. “Fogukattā” blends the barrel-aged stout brewed with Earl Grey, black tea and honey with Japanese-style umeboshi made by Co-Op Sauce with Michigan plums. There are only two ways to get it: in-store at Sauce & Bread Kitchen or online through Co-Op Sauce’s Frequent Fire Club subscription program.

His company has been helping underserved communities and Midwestern farmers since 2002. He started creating specialty hot sauces to help raise desperately needed dollars for youth arts and entrepreneurship programs in Humboldt Park. Some have even gone on to start their own hot sauce companies. But why hot sauce as a way to make money?

“[Hot sauce] is fairly universal,” exclaims Bancroft during his episode, which he conducted from his Rogers Park/Edgewater store. “Who couldn’t use a little hot sauce on whatever they’re eating?”

The company has done exceedingly well over the years, inspired by seasonality and local ingredients for its sauces, and helping local restaurants bottle their signature sauce for public consumption. Thus far, Co-op boasts a catalogue of more than 30 sauces, with additional collaborations with Bang Bang Pie Company, Honey Butter Fried Chicken, and Two Brothers Brewing, among others.

See the interview, including a virtual tour of the Co-op Sauce shop, in its entirety right here.

Two of three of the Esendemir Sisters joined me also this week for a LIVE! Culinary Series episode. Comprised of sisters Arzu, Goncha, and Funsun, the Turkish-American restaurateurs are also first-generation immigrants. Their fast-casual Mediterranean concept launched in New Jersey more than 13 years ago, and they’ve worked hard to overcome many barriers.

Goncha and Arzu chatted about the difficulties they’ve endured, from being discriminated against because they were women to being shunned at first because they weren’t making traditional Turkish cuisine at their Flatbread Grill restaurants.

These sisters are savvy, and their next move, in 2021 and beyond, is to franchise their fast-casual Mediterranean concept with ghost kitchens as well as sell their artisan, small-batch flatbreads through a company called Thumb Bread.

“Arzu early on was very specific about brand identity,” says Goncha during our conversation. “That’s what makes Flatbread Grill able to go from New Jersey today to … a virtual kitchen in California in January or February. It’s like we never miss a beat because it has that brand equity. … it is important for long-time sustainability.”

Here’s the full interview with the Esendemir sisters.

And branding also comes into big play at Chicago’s Big Jones, where chef/owner Paul Fehribach is utilizing his empty dining room and kitchen to whip up batches of artisan sauces and seasonings to sell online. He’s also carved out space for a weekend-only, pop-up doughnut shop for sales of craft beignets, buttermilk bread, old-fashioned doughnuts, and more.

“We make all of it in house,” Fehribach says during his episode of the LIVE! Culinary Series on Friday. “We just found ourselves with extra capacity, and we’ve wanted to start another company to get [these products] onto grocery-store shelves.”

Sales from these products, including fish pepper hot sauce, Cajun seasoning, and barrel-aged Worcestershire sauce, have helped boost profits at Big Jones as well as helped to keep his employees working.

The pop-up pastry shop came about because as temperatures dipped this fall, so did brunch business as dishes like eggs Benedict are best enjoyed on premises. Fehribach, who has been planning for years to open another concept, says he went from a 300 cover Saturday or Sunday to zero. His idea of putting the likes of peach butter-stuffed beignets, buttermilk biscuits, lemon pistachio Old Fashioned doughnuts, and more on the menu has proven to be a great success for Big Jones.

Check out the full interview right here.