When Graham Connolly and Lindsay Otto first met, they bonded over two things: a love of the Jersey Shore and hot sauce. During their courtship, Graham, from Mountainside, and Lindsay, from Demarest, spent time in Holgate on Long Beach Island. There they created a kickin’ hot sauce to go with the shrimp, clams and oysters they loved and the wings they were always tossing on the grill.
Lindsay, left, and her husband, Graham Connolly, creators of World Famous Hot Sauce.
In 2013, when the couple, who live in Manhattan, wed, Lindsay decided to give bottles of their hot sauce as a wedding favor. They found a company to bottle it, and had the printer of their invitations create the first labels for the aptly named LBI Love Potion.
The spicy condiment was so well received that in months they were creating another batch and going door-to-door, up and down the LBI, pitching their product to restaurants, seafood markets and specialty stores, which snatched it up faster than it could be made.
Graham attributes the popularity of his habanero-based sauce to it mellowness.
“We didn’t want it to overpower food with too much vinegar or too much heat,” he says. “People just want to keep consuming our sauce because the flavor stays and the heat goes away.”
Their company, World Famous Hot Sauce, has been growing steadily. The 5-ounce bottles can be found in shops in Bergen County, Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as online at hotsaucewillies.com for $4.99-$6.99,
Graham, 45, and Lindsay, 31, still have day jobs. He is a skin-cancer lab technician and she works in women’s wear logistics. But he takes every opportunity to pitch his product.
“He literally walks around with hot sauce in his bag,” Lindsay says with a laugh.
“There’s a real growing market for hot sauce in the Northeast,” says Graham. “Young people really like hot foods, and people are seeking out more creative recipes than what you can find in supermarkets.”
The line has grown to include an extra-garlic variety, a more Tabasco-like sauce called Old Barney (named for the famous Barnegat Lighthouse featured on the label), and a Hot Shake spice mix “that’s a great addition to Bloody Marys,” Graham says.
The couple say demand for their products has literally quadrupled in 2015.
And yes, they also say quite a few soon-to-be-married couples have ordered cases of sauce to give their guests a little love potion of their own.
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