The Pittsburgh Dish
012 Artie's Hot Sauce: A Tale of Beats to Bottled Heat
(00:59) In this fiery episode of The Pittsburgh Dish, we sit down with the Spice King himself, Arthur Pitt, and learn about his unexpected journey from music, to cannabis private equity, to the hot sauce hustle. Artie dishes out the spicy beginnings of Artie's Hot Sauce, which started as a simple kitchen 'brain exercise' and has now blossomed into a full-blown passion project.
(20:27) Every entrepreneur has a story, and Artie's is a melody of twists and turns, from music mogul to hot sauce artisan. We reminisce about the lessons learned and connections made throughout his dynamic career path, that ultimately led to his current symphony of spice.
(34:46) As the summer sun beckons, we check in with the co-founder of Pittsburgh Foodies, Ashley Cesaratto, who gives her top recommendation for a daytime dining experience. It's a unique tuna melt that steals the show for her.
(36:55) And for those listeners looking to get their grill on, Eric P's grilled naan recipe will surely impress at your next backyard bash. Pull up a chair and enjoy!
(00:59) In this fiery episode of The Pittsburgh Dish, we sit down with the Spice King himself, Arthur Pitt, and learn about his unexpected journey from music, to cannabis private equity, to the hot sauce hustle. Artie dishes out the spicy beginnings of Artie's Hot Sauce, which started as a simple kitchen 'brain exercise' and has now blossomed into a full-blown passion project.
(20:27) Every entrepreneur has a story, and Artie's is a melody of twists and turns, from music mogul to hot sauce artisan. We reminisce about the lessons learned and connections made throughout his dynamic career path, that ultimately led to his current symphony of spice.
(34:46) As the summer sun beckons, we check in with the co-founder of Pittsburgh Foodies, Ashley Cesaratto, who gives her top recommendation for a daytime dining experience. It's a unique tuna melt that steals the show for her.
(36:55) And for those listeners looking to get their grill on, Eric P's grilled naan recipe will surely impress at your next backyard bash. Pull up a chair and enjoy!
Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How did this week's guest earn the name Spice King from all of his childhood friends? We'll learn his story just ahead. Looking for a delightful daytime cafe, We'll check in with Ashley Cesaratto and see where she's going lately and ready to get out on the grill. We have a listener recipe this week that will get the grill fired up. All that ahead. Stay tuned. This week's episode is supported by Chip and Kale Plant-Based Meals. Founded in 2014, Chip and Kale is a 100% plant-based company providing affordable meal kits to all. You can find more information on their website at www. chipandkale. com. Now back to the show. Hey, thanks so much for coming on the show. I'd love you to introduce yourself and what you've got going on right now in food. All right, Doug.
Artie:Thanks for having me. My name is Arthur Pitt and in the last six months, I launched. Thanks for having me. My name's Arthur Pitt, and in the last six months I launched a company named Artie's Hot Sauce. I know I've had that hot sauce. Thank you, Delicious. Yeah, you were referred to me by Ana.
Doug:Ana Eats Pittsburgh. Yeah, you know Ana's been on the show. Tell me a little bit about how the business got started. It's not. Is it one year in yet or not quite?
Artie:I'd say it's about 10 months in, but the first five months, you know, I was just doing it in my kitchen at home. I'm very fortunate to have a nice kitchen and I I'm also a partner in a cannabis private equity firm and I've been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. So you know I love my partners and I can tell when I'm getting burned out with something. And I decided to make some kind of jump in. The hot sauce was more like a brain exercise. For my birthday last year, she bought me a hot sauce kit and I never needed a kit for anything to cook.
Artie:Your wife did, yeah, okay, but I, you know, I looked at it. You know I've been in the hot sauce like 30 years and I looked at it for like six weeks and I was like I can't. What am I going to do here? Am I going to have some kind of venture? Is this just going to be a brain exercise or do I have time to do this? Because when I go into something and I have my mindset to it in terms of building a business, I do it.
Artie:I get a little obsessive. So it wasn't going to be for fun, it was a brain exercise. And the first bottle I made it was my flavor called Arbol Insanity. Yes, and it was very good. So I immediately got some confidence for myself. That was late last spring and summer. I was selling them and I didn't have a license or anything cottage, just really like friends, yeah, and my you know, my wife's a lawyer, um, and she was like you can't do this anymore. Um, you know, I was giving a lot of them away for a while to test the market, but still selling some um and so I ended up like I didn't know.
Artie:I had to take exams for food. The only experience I have in food is being a, you know, a busboy or a waiter. So I didn't know everything that went into it. There was a couple of yeah, there was a couple of exams I had to pass and I'm not very good at standardized tests. It's just like the serve safe stuff. Yeah, I made my. I made myself a little neurotic about that and I I actually failed it the first time, and then I easily passed it the second.
Doug:Right Now, just to kind of fast forward, you have been producing out of Fulton Commons, so that's a certified shared kitchen space. I've had a couple other makers on that work out of there and you had an awesome lunchtime event awesome lunchtime event. What I really liked is not only did you showcase all the sauces that you're doing, but you had a lot of other local makers, local products, you know, like pizza businesses and whatnot, and your sauces go so well. With all that, how did you get all those folks to kind of come together with you? Is this a lot of other networking of other makers and producers?
Artie:Yeah, I'm good at networking. You know, I moved to Pittsburgh when I was eight years old and I've always been pretty active in in the community. Um, I have a lot of good relationships from my time in music and just like growing up around here, yeah. So yeah, I wanted a partner, obviously with other people like local, like shout out to Dagny oh yeah my friend Tara Mcbride, who owns a, an Italian restaurant in Fox.
Doug:Chapel. Is that the Italian village pizza? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trattoria.
Artie:Yeah, Frankie's Sausage, which is in Sharpsburg. They're amazing. They've been very supportive of me.
Doug:They supplied that we had some Pittsburgh dumplings from.
Artie:Eric White. Oh, sorry about that. Yeah, Shout out to his name's, Eric right.
Doug:Yeah, I'm trying to get Eric on the show too. Yeah, he's a busy dude. He's good, he is busy.
Artie:Yeah, anything I like to do in terms of like bringing people together, it's usually like an eclectic crowd. I have a lot of great relationships around Pittsburgh and I've been able to get like a nice core following, not only because the product's great, but I treat people well.
Doug:Yeah.
Artie:So there was a lot of different kinds of people there and that's how I like it. It was good vibes still, and people were loving the food.
Doug:If people are not familiar with your sauces yet. Can you describe them a little bit to us, because they're different than a hot sauce for sure I use all fresh ingredients.
Artie:I don't use any additives like the stuff that you'd see at the store, like xanthan gum and stuff that thins it out. I think that stuff's really unhealthy. So I tried to think of something different. While I was creating, you know, the initial few flavors and I wanted everything to be fresh. So I make sure that my sauces are all fresh peppers, fresh ingredients. I do use a little bit of vinegar, which I guess is considered an additive, but it actually helps. Hot sauces, you know, stay alive for a while and my marketing angle with my sauce is that everybody who orders them gets them within a week. Five to seven days is my goal.
Artie:I have a wide variety of flavors from you know Mexican to Thai to you know Japanese to Italian. I just added a new one called Lemon Fire, which is like a lemon pepper hot sauce. I'm excited for that one Thank you, I have one called Arbol Insanity, which I've actually had some problems with recently. I call it like arbol eruption.
Doug:Because it started to ferment or something.
Artie:Yeah, and I'm not into fermentation, right, these are fresh.
Doug:I would think if I described them. I love them because they are a sauce, but they're almost kind of stepping into a fine salsa and that's what I like. They're just. They're so good on tacos and I mean they're not. They're not exactly like wing sauce. I cooked a ton of stuff with the teriyaki Thai.
Artie:Appreciate that, appreciate the coverage.
Doug:Yeah, yeah, and then the I think sweet jalapeno is one of my go-tos as well. I brought you some. Oh, thank you.
Artie:Yeah, the sauces are. They're not intentionally a hybrid, because you know I'm still new into this and I'm experimenting.
Artie:Like everybody, loves the sauce, but sometimes people you know say too much is coming out of the lid and you know we love it, but we want to preserve the bottle for a couple weeks, not one meal, but I I have it. You know, it's almost like that on purpose, where it's just kind of like a little bit of a different angle. If you market it as hot sauce, I'm sure some people could call it a salsa, but I don't really think it is besides the hop and jalapeno one, uh, which I actually might get off the menu I feel, really I feel like I have too many greens.
Doug:Oh, I don't know. I think I like the differentiator. The other one we didn't talk about yet is the pizza shop sauce. Yeah, that one's very popular, very popular. And it and the teriyaki tie stand apart because there's almost a specific application. If you had some of Dagny's breakfast pizzas or Yoli's or just regular pizza, that pizza shop is great. On all of that, it's like a good alternative. If you like red pepper flakes, go for the pizza shop sauce.
Artie:So good. You know, I wasn't even really following trends like it was until after I started getting that out to people pizza shop that people started sending me information about, like Mike's Hot Honey Shout out to them. I knew those guys in brooklyn. They're doing so well and it's become like a kind of a trendy thing yeah but I'm being honest that I didn't know that or realize it.
Artie:I was in my kitchen. I call my lab, I'm very fortunate again to have a nice kitchen space to experiment, working and I had ate an edible and I get creative and I get focused. You know, as some people say, they do, and I was. I was sitting there and I was thinking to myself I have Mexican sauces on my menu. When you go to a mexican restaurant, there's always a red sauce, a green sauce, a blend, like whatever you want. When you go to an italian restaurant, they have a wide variety on their menus. Why is it only crushed red pepper?
Artie:uh calabrian chili paste, or like a gross salty fermented banana pepper and it's become a popular thing. I think even tabasco sauce or sriracha has like a pizza themed one, and I didn't know, uh, and I was like said to myself oh I, you know, I have a mild banana pepper in my fridge, Let me try to do something here. So I made like a very heavy, like garlic, mild banana pepper sauce that I have a couple secrets to and I don't know. Some people like to drink it.
Doug:Oh, really, they're refreshing. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I love it, and I think because that little bit of vinegar too, it is a palate cleanser in some ways.
Artie:Yeah, they're selling out so fast that I'm learning a lot about business. I don't have any experience in this.
Ashley:And.
Artie:I'm running out of labels really quick and they're expensive, but you got the last one. I ran out of them. I've been like hustling all week to get like a couple hundred labels in because I got to keep moving these. And it like hustling all week to get, like you know, a couple hundred labels in Cause I got to keep moving these and I it's, and it's pretty organic to like the sales of pizza shop. So once in a while I actually have like a thought that I should just concentrate on pizza shop.
Artie:But then you know, when I I keep good track of stuff and everything else sells like pizza shops a top seller, but as long as everything else sells I'm not going to. You know, take out my menu, right? Well, sometimes it's like man, you know, if I just focus on that I it's the quickest sauce to make and you know it would be, it would be easy to to scale up with, just that, I think. But I got too much passion for like everything and I'm expanding the menu.
Artie:I'm not, I'm not taking that out. I did buy Artie's pizza shop domain in case, in case, I do it.
Doug:This is your entrepreneurial spirit.
Artie:I mean, you're still in a, you're still in a learning and an experimentation phase right now, 10 months in Totally man and, like the first, like six months, I've been in Fulton Commons for almost four now, and it was very it is not as much anymore, but it was a very humbly experience moving in there and seeing all the other companies with larger operations, and I don't have any experience with cooking in a shared kitchen community space. I have a lot of experience cooking, so I'm not necessarily comparing myself, but I'm taking a look around and I'm going here I am with like 10 pounds of peppers, and these people are creating a massive amount of food. There's there's big companies there. The last four months, though, like, everyone's been very helpful there and I've learned a lot from the chefs and people care, and it's a it's a great community, so I'm glad to be there, but there's, you know, I have, you're correct, I'm early and I have a lot to learn.
Doug:I think if, for any of our listeners that don't know, fulton Commons is a shared working space, it's over on the north side and they've got this phenomenal kitchen on the ground floor. So you get a space, you get to use the shared equipment whatever you need. You get some storage, cold and hot storage, I think. And I would imagine, if you're doing all this on your own, I'm sure you can talk to your family, you can talk to your friends, but being amongst those other folks that are doing something in the same neighborhood as you, so to speak, and food, there is like a lot to learn, so I would enjoy that.
Artie:Oh, yeah, I mean Harvey's there.
Doug:That's a really big company around here.
Artie:Yeah, the delivery service. Yeah, a guy named Mike that runs Family Table. That's also an excellent company. My friend Corey that works there. He has the Funky Biscuit. Okay yeah, really good food. But anyway, it's an excellent community. People are helpful Whenever I had questions. I don't have as many anymore. When I first thought about doing this, I said to myself I'm going to find some major partners and capital partners and build my own space. Then I went and took a look at a shared kitchen community. I was like I don't know how to do anything. I'm doing a good job at running my little space and I'm going to be there for a while. That's awesome.
Doug:I read a little bit on your About page and your love of spice and hot sauce and from a younger age. Could you tell me a little bit about that story, on how you sort of discovered and sort of came into being the spice King that you are today, or known as?
Artie:Yeah, my first real experience with like getting into hot sauce. I watched a, do you? I don't know if anyone remembers a movie, poetic justice, with Tupac and Janet Jackson. Janet Jackson kept putting Tabasco sauce on her popcorn. I think I was about eight or nine years old and I was like this looks good. So I think my parents had some Tabasco sauce in the house that, when I think back on it, it was used, probably about as slowly as my Bubby used to use hers, which I remember like the color fading in her kitchen. I thought Tabasco was very good on popcorn and I got into that. And then I used to participate in basketball clinics when I was very young and get-togethers. I'm from Point Breeze Squirrel.
Doug:Hill area in the.
Artie:Jewish community, and on Wednesday nights they had like get-togethers for all the younger kids, and I used to sneak out with my friends, and you know, run down Murray Avenue and run to Aiello's great pizza shop, and I saw the crushed red pepper and I'm probably 10 crushed red pepper over everything. I couldn't believe in immediately, like the same with Tabasco. I was like you know, I couldn't believe how much enhancement spice gave flavors. From what I remember, that was about 30 plus years ago, and then I, the day it really happened was I, my father, uh, Bruce Pitt, took me to San Diego for a week, for you know he was, he had a work event.
Artie:We go to meet some of his friends at dinner, and it's a thai restaurant and I'm into spicy, I'm I don't understand, though, that well, and again, I'm still like 10 or 11. And I get the yum knee. That's a very popular beef salad that's served at Thai restaurants and I order it and I think right away they asked how hot I want it to be. I was like the hottest and, man, I just remember like biting into it and I had rice next to it. It was like it happened like organically. Oh, my God, this is the most delicious thing, and even more so than Tabasco.
Doug:It's a spicy dressing. Oh man, I never cause.
Artie:Tabasco and crushed red pepper are just like they. Sure they're a little spicy, but they're uh, they're simple. Yes, from that day on it it never ended and my tolerance got better. So, by the time, most people I don't think, I don't know, maybe a lot of people get an hot sauce when they're 10 or 11, but I don't, I didn't know any, I don't think so and I was really into it, like started collecting bottles of hot sauce. My dad would get me them, my mom would get me them.
Artie:Then, when I was about 14 or 15 years old, I tortured my mom and complained about how bland her food was and that I didn't like it. And she told me I was going to start cooking for myself. And I didn't believe it. You know no-transcript, I believe. One night I came home and there just wasn't much or anything to eat, and so I whipped something up real quick and within like six months, I think, I got a lot better in the kitchen. My dad and I were very into white rice then before we figured out maybe it's a little unhealthy to gorge with it. So we'd make huge things, and you know I love eating hot sauce with white rice. I don't think you can get a better feel Because it's such a straightforward.
Artie:You're sauce with white rice. I don't think you can get a better feel Because it's such a straightforward. You're going to actually taste the sauce. Yeah, it's even. It's better than anything. So my dad and I used to. You know I'd cook and we had a rice cooker and our favorite memory was it going beep, you know when your rice cooker is ready. I started using, like this bottled Szechuan sauce that I still see once in a while. But then I look at the sodium. Yeah, doing your own sauce, you can regulate the amount of sodium.
Artie:I have less sodium than mine, and I use Kikkoman, so I use the lower sodium that. I do add brown sugar, though, so it's not the healthiest sauce that I have, that one. I just started cooking a lot at home and I think everybody liked it. Even my mom and my parents continue to cook.
Artie:I didn't have to come home and cook for everybody every night but I was happy too and I started incorporating more spicy things and different kinds of sauces into my dishes and man, I was just hooked. You know, after high school and college I continued to do that. I continued, like you know, I think, when we used to have like parties. I'd trick people, which is a little bit cruel, but that's stuff like this happens in college. And you know, dave's insanity sauce yeah, it's like pepper extract. To me it's like one of the hottest things I've ever tasted in my life and people knew I loved hot stuff and they used to come, you know, come over and we'd, when we were in college, we'd have fun barbecues and all kinds of stuff and I'd spice everything up. I used to have people eat. It was like a challenge to see how much Dave's insanity Everyone had had a bunch of drinks by then. I continue to learn more and I actually used to use it in my tomato sauce.
Ashley:It was really good.
Artie:People loved it. I recently tried to do the same thing with my sauce at Fulton Commons and my spaghetti sauce is falling off.
Artie:I got to work on that but my tolerance got higher and higher and higher and by the time I would, I think I could eat such spicy food. When I moved to New York City I got to taste not that there wasn't stuff in Pittsburgh growing up, but it's just New York City Any cuisine you can imagine and like there was some of the hottest peppers I'd ever had in my life like an African cuisine and I got really into authentic Szechuan that they didn't have much of that growing up in Pittsburgh.
Ashley:Yeah.
Doug:I think you introduced a lot of people to hot sauce that maybe hadn't kind of pushed their own limits. I love the thought of cooking from your family from age 14 and up and you still like to cook today, yeah.
Ashley:Yeah.
Artie:I do. We don't have as much time. I always like to cook. I don't really like to go out to dinner. So last night I woke up in the middle of the night. I had a lot on my mind. I was like I wonder if Doug is going to ask me what my favorite restaurants are in Pittsburgh. Because they're very, very simple, because they're very, very simple. But I still do like to cook. I don't eat as spicy as I used to, even though I'm making hot spicy sauce, hot sauce. When I first was getting into this business, I think only like 1% to 2% of consumers actually like the kind of heat that I do. I can eat like a Reaper pepper, oh yeah.
Doug:No, that's not me. I'm a wimp.
Artie:It's nobody, though it's not me I'm a wimp.
Doug:It's nobody, though. It's not normal, but you've had such a long buildup to that, starting at age 10, like you said.
Artie:Well, I, cooked everything, you name it. I was married and divorced already, and I think the only thing my ex-wife would say about me was that I had chef potential. So I don't have as much time to cook now, but I wish I did. When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter, I cooked almost every night, but we don't have as much time anymore. It's not there, and having a two and four-year-old, I'm a little bit of an older dad.
Artie:And anyone would be tired but I'm a little extra tired, so sometimes cooking at night is pretty simple, like a protein, some pasta and something that only takes 20 minutes, whereas I used to have more brain capacity.
Doug:You've got a lot going on. You and your wife both have businesses. You've got two little girls. Right now You're doing it all. Thank you, yeah.
Artie:This is Artie Pitt from Artie's Hot Sauce, and you're listening to The Pittsburgh Dish with my main man, Doug.
Doug:So what I wanted to also ask is you have this really fascinating background before the hot sauce. You did most of your growing up here in Pittsburgh, though, like you said, and then went off to college.
Artie:Yeah, what'd you study? I went to Allegheny College up in Meadville. I was a little bit of a knucklehead in high school, but smart and got decent grades and stuff. So I knew I could do it somewhere. But a bigger university I wouldn't have made it, I would have flunked out. What did you study? Oh, I studied history. My minor was creative writing. I actually have an MFA too that I never used because when I was getting my MFA, initially I wanted to be a lawyer, master of fine arts yeah, okay, and writing. But when I graduated from college I came back here and I wanted to be a lawyer. So I was kind of like a courier clerk for a company called Papern ick and Gefsky, which is a really big real estate law firm. And going back to me not being good at standardized tests my LSAT first score I was like I can't do this. So at night I studied for my MFA.
Doug:And tell me a little bit more about the entrepreneurial stuff you got into music and a bunch of other things.
Artie:Yeah, I did some party promoting when I was younger. I think I was always very culturally relevant, a bit of a tastemaker. So when I was about 24, around the time where I was doing the real estate appraisal and working at the office, and doing some other things and trying to figure it out.
Artie:an old friend of mine, two old friends of mine, were managing a kid named Wiz Khalifa. Yes, and in November 2004,. I started to get the sense before that that I didn't want to stay in Pittsburgh anymore, not because I didn't love Pittsburgh, but I was getting by, but I felt a little lost.
Doug:You needed to spread your wings.
Artie:Yeah, and I went down to a studio named ID Labs that was in Lawrenceville. Years ago they built a huge facility in Etna. We worked closely with ID Labs. I went down there to meet with Wiz's original team and Wiz walked into the room and I just kind of got this sense that it was something that could change my life. And I wanted to work in music and I wanted to do something with music, but I never knew how, like nobody. Like there'd been a little bit of success from Pittsburgh, but not much. So I started just doing anything I could. And you know I was in the nightlife scene. A lot around Mm-hmm exists. It's in la.
Artie:Now I had to. I had to prove my value, because the my buddy that that started it before I got involved had been in the industry for years. So I had to create my value. And then I was like you know what I'm really going to challenge myself? Because I feel like I feel like I conquered Pittsburgh with, with Wiz, like in terms of like promoting him and like getting his name out. I did it, we did it, Wiz did it, but in a couple months. So I got this like feeling. One night I just got this vision. I was like I should move to New York City and I like started telling people. People were like what I was? Like I'm going to go work with Benji in New York City and start this label. The kid name is Benji Greenberg and I moved to New York City in August 2005.
Artie:I just got to work and it took years and years and we struggled and we had some investment capital and we were really down. Wiz was up and down. Obviously, it's kind of like hitting the lottery if you find somebody and develop them and they turn into a superstar. So it was years and years of hard work. We got, you know, we did things independently. We signed with Warner Brothers. They dropped us or we left, whatever. And then we did our own thing again and we kind of did it like old school, like rock star lifestyle, just said, you know, forget these major labels, let's build ourself. And kind of just got in a van and toured the country, build ourself. And kind of just got in a van and and toured the country, yeah, and did it all on our own and did call instead of mainstream radio and huge budgets we did college radio.
Artie:We utilized what was becoming really big on the internet, which was, you know, your digital population, the digital world. Yes, we started doing my space and music blogs and lots of videos and just getting things out really fast instead of waiting on anybody really pioneering in some of those places people hadn't.
Artie:I believe so and like sometimes I jumping forward a little bit. You know, in 2008 I was introduced to a kid named Mac Miller. Rest in peace. Yeah, you know, when we when we developed him that was even more so indie than wh we had the first number one independent album in 2011 in like 30 years, like everybody went right on to that way of promoting and marketing that we were doing and you know, I watched it all happen and we got our props, but probably not as much. And all these years later, I still think about it. Yeah, and I watch, like former peers who have climbed really high. And you know we were building this company and Benji had like a 200 square foot apartment in the East Village if you even want to call it apartment, a room.
Artie:And we were just like we had to like get through it, to build, and not to be boastful, but just showing my journey. When we got dropped from Warner Brothers, I wasn't sure if anything was going to happen and we just put our heads down and kept working hard and thought outside the box, which is what I like to do and what I still do, and by like 2012,. We had office space in Tribeca in New York City, so it was a good idea that I'd move there, and we had an office in Hollywood, so we went from being like absolutely nobodies to really like living a dream. Like most mornings, I woke up. It didn't even feel real.
Ashley:Yeah.
Artie:We we really had a great run. So I I that ended around 2016, 2017. I was really burned out and there we were having some family stuff going on at home and I was in Pittsburgh and I was really burned out and we were having some family stuff going on at home and I was in Pittsburgh and I was supposed to. We were going to leave New York City my ex-wife and I and my dogs and we didn't. It wasn't going to work, so it didn't happen. I came back to Pittsburgh and, I'll be honest, I was a little lost again and it happens. I think it happens to everybody, but it really happens to entrepreneurs who move on from something because it's like a death.
Doug:Right, and how do you reset? I was scared for a little bit.
Artie:And there was a lot going on. But I caught my breath and I was living. I got divorced and I was living in Bakery Square, where Reizenstein used to be, and I lived in East Liberty when I was a kid and you could smell the Nabisco factory from my window and it just everything felt like strange and out of place. And I had a friend in New York City who I hung out with him a lot in New York. He also worked in music and he started telling me what he wanted to do with cannabis. And I'm like this guy was talking about this in like 2010, like what was going to happen in cannabis, and I'd always just look at him he's a little crazy, but I always looked at him like he was crazy. I'd be like what the heck are you talking about, man? And then he started introducing me to more things and I have a very good network. And then he started introducing me to more things and I have a very good network.
Artie:We co-invested with other people. It was not similar to music because there was a lot more investment money involved. Our company, our brand's name, is Cali Stripe. We white label for very big brands in California and have our own brand, but it just it didn't feel like great because when I got in I was like this is going to blow up overnight and it's going to be federally legal when you know, in 2020, you know, if there's a Democrat per se or whatever that gets in, it'll be federally legal and we'll all be generationally wealthy. And it definitely did not work that way and it's still not working that way for people. Taxes are crazy out in.
Artie:California. All my businesses were and are I'm still involved.
Doug:In California In.
Artie:California. I'm like these taxes are crazy. I also noticed that probably over 50% well over Americans don't like cannabis. So I do a lot and I went into it with. Oh, you know, I freely smoked marijuana and I've been around it and it's not a big deal, but it is to some people. You know, I'm getting older, I'm a dad. Yeah, changes. I'm not sure how marijuana affects a brain when the kid's… yeah, 16 or 17 and I don't really see it and it's not like a greed thing for me. I just don't see it ever getting to the point where it's like dips and then it's like bitcoin, like it's.
Doug:It's not happening you've learned so much in just in business and in I have many different facets of business. So bring me back to like what are you, what are your thoughts? You're 10 months into this hot sauce endeavor. What are some goals? Where do you? Where do you see it going for you?
Artie:I don't know. I, you know, I learned day per day, like when I first got involved, uh, I was. I felt like I was doing really well and again, I'm very ambitious and I said I want to meet with giant eagle and all the supermarkets. Yes, and I did. I met with well, not all of them, but Giant Eagle specifically, and that was like for like a month last fall I was like hell bent on getting in Giant Eagle. Giant, they're good people, the people that I met there, and Anna actually introduced me to them.
Doug:Did you meet Paul Abbott? Yeah, he's going to be on the show?
Artie:Oh he is. Hi, paul, how are you doing? It was Paul and, I think, another woman named Laura, and they liked the sauces, but I think that they were a little concerned how fresh they were. What I'm learning is that the way for a small company right now, for me, is to get on a lot of these events I've been doing in farmer's markets. That I'm learning every day. Yeah, so I'm on, I'm on getting invited to like events in the spring and the summer, and when I have my events, like you went, like you know, I sell a hundred, 200, 250 bottles of stuff's good.
Doug:So and you're in some places too, like at Frankie's sausage. You're in there.
Artie:Dagny's. I think has some of your sources, dagny's New people pick it up all the time Frick Park, market and Point Breeze, which is amazing for me it's kind of like full circle.
Artie:Coming home, right yeah, and with Mac Miller we shot a video there and it has like half a billion views. Mac made Frick Park Market famous, and Frick Park Market was another origin of spice. A buddy of mine, eddie Jackson, and I used to run out of Starrett in Point Breeze, where I went to middle school, and go to Frick Park Market and I learned about flaming hot Cheetos, oh yeah, so we'd buy them for a quarter and go back to school and sell them for a dollar. You were an entrepreneur even back, then yeah.
Artie:No, totally, it was always in my head, but with this I'm not so much worried about the supermarkets now. I mean, it's an honor that some of them even know me and have shown interest and like the sauce. But I think my route now is to identify all the top local markets in each neighborhood, get it everywhere. So I'd say it's in like seven or eight stores, a bunch of pizza shops, and tomorrow is actually my first day working with my sales guy. So I've been taking my time just like, really like building a strong core. I've kind of had that same approach in music and cannabis. Everyone knows how to reach me, everyone knows how to give me feedback, uh, and I consider, like my consumers, a family yeah like it's cool.
Artie:So right now my focus is on being as active as I can in the spring, summer, fall in markets and outdoor and events outside, because that's where little guys like me make money and get the name out and the supermarkets and bigger places will come.
Doug:I love it, artie, I always love to give a moment for you to also plug where people can get to you. How can they find you?
Artie:Everything's artishotsaucecom A-R-T-I-E-S-H-O-T saucecom. You can find us on Instagram. Same thing, artishotsauce on Instagram. Twitter, the same. Facebook the same. Again, our marketing angle is that we get sauce to people within five to seven days of it being made. It's a different kind of almost like a hybrid hot sauce. People have the option to order on the website. We're actually we have, we've had orders in 27 states, wow, which is really cool. That's awesome.
Ashley:Yeah.
Artie:So the word's getting around not only here but outside of here, so you can order it online. You can reach out to us directly on Instagram and someone's always there to Instagram social media. Everyone's there to respond and we have a really cool like a delivery system that gets it to people quickly and I do the hand deliveries too. I like doing stuff like that and I also tell people that they're welcome to stop by this awesome facility that you name drop Fulton Commons, before to say hello and to pick up their sauces, because I think that's not too many people have been inside a facility or like a shared kitchen, community space.
Ashley:Yeah.
Artie:So right now those are like my main three options and it just went up on my website you can buy cases which are cheaper than single bottles. Obviously, hopefully, after this spring, summer and fall, things will be on a higher level, but even if they're not like I'm in this, I'm committed to it. I love it.
Doug:Artie, I always ask everybody a final question what's the best dish you have eaten this week?
Artie:I love Garbarino's, where the Twisted Frenchman was.
Doug:Yeah, over East Liberty yeah.
Artie:It's on Baum Boulevard where the Twisted Frenchman used to be Garbarino's, and I love that kind of Italian food where there's like they serve. You know, it reminds me of like Little Italy in Boston or New York City, like real Northeast feel. I've heard that before from other people. Man, is it good there? I love their chicken parm dish. Yeah, I go for chicken. Their chicken parm like is amazing and their food's amazing, so that that was the best meal I've had. I also love Szechuan Spice and, like Chengdu, Gourmet is close and everyone knows Chengdu yeah, Szechuan Spice where Jimmy Sangs was on um center avenue. Everything like their spicy fish filet, their Chongqing chicken, which all that stuff's become a little bit more well-known in that cuisine they're the best in town, people don't know it.
Doug:Szechuan Spice, Szechuan Spice.
Artie:Over Chengdu. Yes, okay.
Doug:That's a good ending. Spicy take too.
Artie:A hundred percent it's better, and if somebody doesn't think so, I'll treat you for your meal.
Doug:That's amazing. Yep, Artie Pitt, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure. Up next our weekly recommend hey everybody. So we're back with our friend, Ashley Cesaratto, from eating with am I saying this right? Eatingwithashley. pgh? Yes, okay, on Instagram. Yep, amongst so many other things you do, I was wondering if you could give us another restaurant recommendation for this week, and this time maybe like a daytime or breakfast time spot. What's a favorite of yours around town?
Ashley:Sure, so I absolutely love Mediterra.
Doug:Oh yeah.
Ashley:Like you walk in. I've only been to the Sewickley location, but they have one in Mount Lebanon as well.
Doug:And also down in Lawrenceville.
Ashley:Yes, they do, they do, yeah, so you know. Obviously they're doing well. People like to eat there, but it's just. It's a really cool atmosphere. It's very lively too, so on the weekends it can get pretty loud, just as an FYI. But their food is just so incredible and, oddly enough, my absolute favorite thing, and something that I have to order every single time, is their tuna melt.
Doug:Oh really.
Ashley:Yeah, they. They put um like braised greens on it and cheddar cheese and I think like a red pepper sauce.
Doug:And what's the bread? They're really known for the bread.
Ashley:Yeah, yeah, I mean that's how they started. Right, is it their farm bread? The farm bread is my favorite, so if I'm you know if I see them at the farmer's market or if I want to order, I get the farm bread it's. I believe it is a half whole wheat sourdough Delicious.
Doug:So, yeah, you're kind of getting the best of both worlds, but their pastries are delicious.
Ashley:Their salads are incredible and very vibrant and healthy and delicious. So Mediterra.
Doug:Yeah, it's a great spot and I love that the family's been around now. They've had the bakehouse. You know their bread is delicious and they've just taken it to the next level with these cafes. So so good.
Ashley:Yeah, absolutely.
Doug:Ashley. Thanks again. Thank you, Bye. Ashley Cesaratto is the co-founder of the popular Facebook group Pittsburgh Foodies. You can follow Ashley on Instagram at eatingwithashley. pgh. This week's recipe comes from listener Eric P, who we've heard from before, and he's back with another recipe which is going to get us totally ready for the grilling season. Let's give him a call and see what this grilled naan recipe is all about. Hello, hey, Eric Doug. Hey, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Hey, I'm calling about this recipe that you submitted this week. It's the grilled naan that you have been using for pizza. It sounds super simple and perfect as people are going out to the grill. How long have you been making this recipe?
Eric:Yeah, we've been using this for about two years because, like you said, it's really simple. It's a great way to get those grills going and do something different besides burgers and hot dogs. It's a great alternative. It's super easy, really fun to do.
Doug:Yeah, I see that you said you use them for pizzas, but I guess you could do like any kind of flatbread or something you know, other toppings. I guess we should walk through the recipe first for anyone that hasn't seen it on the blog. It's just flour, melted butter and warm milk. A little bit of salt in there Looks like you put in some seasonings, so there's not actually any leavener in here like yeast or anything. You just get to mix it up and wait maybe about 20 minutes until it's fully hydrated. Is that right?
Eric:Yeah, and that's the best thing about this you can decide at 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon that you want to have pizza on the grill and you mix this up and it's ready to go within the half hour.
Doug:Oh, that sounds terrific and it looks like that they grill up really quickly, like just like two to three minutes on each side. So if someone is doing this for pizzas, like I'm sure, sauce and cheese works fine, but like any other vegetables or something, they'll turn out crunchy unless you kind of pre-cook them. Is that right?
Eric:That's right. So what we do is we can do our traditional pizza for those who like the sauce and cheese, but sometimes I'll grill and saute a little chicken mushrooms. Maybe use hummus as the base. I think it's a little alternative to the traditional pizza.
Doug:Oh, that sounds terrific. I mean like all of this together is like the perfect sort of summer grilling base, for I would even just spread oil or more butter and some herbs on it. It would be great for an appetizer or something.
Eric:Yeah, I mean, it's kind of easy to even do your own little pizza bar. You put out a bunch of seasonings, toppings and let everybody make their own.
Doug:I love it. Eric, thanks so much for the recipe. Take care. Bye-bye.
Eric:Thanks, doug, bye-bye.
Doug:We'd love you to share a recipe with us. Just go to our website at wwwpittsburghdish. Thanks, doug, bye-bye.