THE RETURN OF STUPID

It is with great pride and excitement that I am able to announce that Park Avenue BBQ & Grille is bringing back its original hot sauce.

In 1988, I started the Park Avenue chain with the philosophy that if I created the recipes that I liked, eventually I would find some customers that agreed with me. After coming up with our recipe for PA’s barbeque sauce, I made another recipe for what would be our hot sauce.

I made a hot sauce that I loved. I must mention that I am a hot sauce fan. To me, a great hot sauce should have an irresistible flavor, not to mention quite a bit of burn, and a little bit of perspiration.

With these two sauces we set out to conquer the BBQ world.

The problem was some of my customers would accidentally put a tad too much of our hot sauce on their food. We knew this because they would be red faced, waving their arms, and wildly screaming for water. In most cases, we had to prepare another meal for the customer who went a little wild with the sauce.

One day, a customer called me over and asked why I had made the sauce so darn hot, to which I replied, “That’s the way I like it!” The customer sat quietly for a moment and then blurted out, “Well that’s just STUPID!”

The very next day, with great sadness, I changed the recipe for our hot sauce. This meant that I would have to prepare my own personal hot sauce to use when visiting my restaurants. And so I spent the next 19 years doing so.

If effect, I had broken my own rule. Better late than never, I had decided to fix that, for myself and for lovers of hot sauce.

Beginning 10/7/09, Park Avenue will offer three BBQ sauce versions, mild, hot, and the original “STUPID.”