All I can say is bless my mom’s heart. The day I arrived in Cleveland to visit her (Heidi) and dad (Richard), she immediately whisked me away to Legacy Village in Lyndhurst, Ohio. There it was, Heather’s Heat and Flavor! I walked directly up to co-owner, Brian Marx, and introduced myself as a fellow chili-head. We immediately hit it off. He gave me the grand tour of the shop (read: he stood behind the counter and pointed at things with his laser pointer).

They have a vast collection of chip dips, BBQ sauces, rubs, over 100 different kinds of hot sauces, collectable and much more! Even more impressive is their collection of spices and dried peppers, including their own brand of blends, which include “Brian’s Cajun Blend” and “Brian’s Chili Powder”.

Brian and I then spent a good ten minutes bantering back and forth about chili peppers and hot sauces. He kept feeding me samples (on toothpicks) of sauces and testing my heat tolerance. One of the first things he gave me was a pin sized drop of the 7.1 million SHU extract sauce that is known as… The Source. After about the fifth sauce sampler, Brian’s assistant, who was now very wide eyed, exclaimed, “WOW! You just put the whole toothpick in you mouth ever time! You don’t test for the heat level first, you go all out!” To which I grinned and retorted, “Never fear the heat, embrace it.”

Overall, I was extremely impressed with this store. The co-owner, Brian, was extremely knowledgeable of ALL of his product and of most things hot. He’ll point you in the right direction, give you suggestions of what to put certain sauces on, and hand out easy to do recipes (I am looking forward to making the Hallowevil Pumpkin Pie). You can visit Brian and Heather in the Legacy Village location at; 24687 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst, Ohio 44124. Or you can visit Brian’s mom at the First and Main location; 94 First Street, Hudson, Ohio 44236. Be sure to tell them Jon from The Hot Zone Online sent ya!