Welcome to part four on my coverage of the 2rd Annual Weekend of Fire. In our last edition we left off with me leaving the final day of the event. After a good nights sleep at Joe and Linda’s place (thanks guys!) I was off to CaJohn’s open house tour of his factory in Columbus, Ohio!

His factory was just up the street when I got distracted by a very large nursery for plants called Oakland Nurseries (1156 Oakland Park Ave, Columbus, OH). Something there was calling out to me so I pulled in and saw it. They had lined their front with Black Pearl Peppers! What a find. I snatched one or two ripe pods and munched on them while I walked around what one would call a haven for plants. I later found out that the owner is Max Reiner’s (from Sauce Cartel) uncle. What a small world (especially when compared to the size of our universe).

Black Pearl Pepper Plants.

I got back into the car, drove another mile and there I was, at the center of it all, the mecha for hot sauce making, the…Harold D. Hard Fire Equipment Specialists building? Huh?

CaJohn’s glorious building.

CaJohn explained the long origin of the company and building to me so I’ll just distill it into a little brief summary. The building was his fathers and CaJohn and his brothers used to do fire equipment testing and such there. Ownership got a little finicky and Cajohn ended up getting the building and now he makes sauces in it. He’s been meaning to change the sign but I have a feeling he doesn’t want to take down the old one.

Since I was the only one there besides MSK (it helps to be early) I got a good long talk in with CaJohn and was shown a lot of his neat collectables, sauces, and things that were made for him. Including a huge art piece that can only be described as a “Chili-Stand” complete with small bottles of hot sauce inside and flame lights on top. Cool!

Just plain stunning.

Mmmmm…salsa.

On passing, CaJohn spotted that I was starring at his awards cabinet with my mouth hanging wide open. He commented lightly in a tone of voice that gave one a feeling that he just gets awards thrown at him on a daily basis, “Ya, I’ve got a lot more at home.”

That’s a lot of Golden Chilli’s.

CaJohn’s office.

Slowly, all the industry folks started to arrive and we ended up hanging out in CaJohn’s office. It’s quite roomy in there and his desk is just the right fit…oh? Did I forget to mention we all got to take turns in the Captain’s chair?

Passow? A respectable business owner? Ha!

Once enough people had gathered, CaJohn started his tour of the factory. We began in the collectable making area and got to see bottles that were waiting to be dipped in wax. There were shopping carts full of them! Next he showed us the large garage that was the Shipping Department.

If I was a dishonest person, some of those would have been relabeled with my address.

Up next came the kitchen, where the magic takes place! There were two walk in coolers at one end, a bottle roller, label attachers, kettles, mashers, smasher, crushers, and pourers. He showed us the sauce pouring machine that had a neat feature; variable piston sizes that only allow the appropriate amount of sauces to pour out of it.

Where the magic happens.

”I once caught a Fish Pepper thiiiis big.”

As the food was being prepped outside, a few of us and Mark (one of CaJohn’s most excellent employees) got a exclusive and private tour of the off-limits second floor.

The crew preps the food.

The place was a little disheveled and as Tracy Campbell (Cape Fear Pepper Company) put it, “I feel like we’re sneaking around an old abandoned office building, this is exciting”. It was exciting indeed. Products were left lying around, boxes of collectables everywhere. But amongst the dust were some real treasures! Like the world’s largest bottle of Sauce 10, a autographed collectors cabinet filled with CaJohn bottles, or the all so groovy cigar humidor cabinet that contained super rare sauces!

Must be a pain to shake it up for each use.

A collectors dream.

Tracy Campbell does some advertising for CaJohn via a beer can holder he found.

We were escorted back down stairs when we heard that the food was done. CaJohn had his crew prepare quite a feast! Potato salad, CaJohn gumbo with Jolokia sausage, pulled port and a few other things along with some sauces to pour on it (I got my first taste of 10 BBQ sauce (which I didn’t even know existed….I WANT ONE! I WANT ONE!). We were all gracious and readily consumed like the good little carnivores we are.

Afterwards CaJohn was presented with an amazingly accurate scale replica of himself that Tracy’s wife made out of clay. It even had his signature pepper Hawiaan shirt on!

”I shall call him ‘Mini-Me’. “

After this we all kind of just bs’ed around until CaJohn got the idea that we should sample a new product of his. Now, I can’t say what it is but what I will say is it deals with a barrel and it’s hot as heck! This new product is genius and to think of what he thought of to do to the sauce was outstandingly creative. Even MSK, who really doesn’t have much of a heat tolerance, tried it. I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

The face of a man in pain.

It was starting to get late and we were all feeling the need to either break it up or get food. Sensing this, our host took us to Fiesta Jalisco Mexican Restaurant (2670 E. Dublin-Granville Road, Columbus, OH 43231). Now, I lived in Mexico…er….Los Angeles for 5 and a half years. I’ve eaten at practically every Mexican joint in the town so I have a good idea of what good Mexican food should taste like. This place is better than good, it’s freakin fantastic!

We got served “alligator Jalapenos” which were Jalapenos sliced down the center (it resembled an alligator’s mouth at that point, hence the name), deep fried, and then they sprinkle it with seasoning salt and some lime juice. Oh god they were to die for and that was just the appetizer! Everyone’s main coarse looked great and my Burrito gave me flash backs to my favorite Mexican restaurant back in LA (El Coyote).

Every thing was cooked just right and the stuff was fun too. When we were standing around talking one of the staff walked by with a plate that was steaming. He purposely gave a quick, short exhale causing the smoke to envelope us so we could smell it. What fun.

With that, my trip for the Weekend of Fire had ended. It was an absolute pleasure to meet the people that I did and to be allowed to view CaJohn’s impressive, extensive operation. A lot of beer was consumed and a lot of fun was had. Thanks to everyone who made this possible (special thanks goes out to John Hard, Joe and Linda Levinson, Tracy Campbell, MSK, and DK). Be sure to stay tuned to this site because, starting soon, I’m going to be reviewing the stuff I got from the show.

RSS feed for comments on this post.