Sassy Sauce seeing steady success
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A staple that was established at a popular downtown Indianapolis restaurant is continuing to grow its footprint throughout the state.
Farmer’s Sassy Sauce was created at the former Acapulco Joe’s, which closed in 2019, but Indianapolis native Brian Farmer continued to make the hot sauce for friends and family before deciding to make it a business during the pandemic.
The company delivered its first product in the spring of 2021, and Farmer says total sales doubled in 2022.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Farmer said the company’s early success is attributed to word of mouth.
“We started getting orders right away, and we started getting orders all over Indianapolis from our online store, and we couldn’t figure out why because we weren’t doing much marketing,” Farmer said. “There was a Reddit threat, and someone said, ‘Hey, if you’re looking for this, you should try Farmer’s Sauce.’ We just kind of went with that and started doing more online social presence.”
Acapulco Joe’s at one point had two locations, with the second being at 71st and Binford Boulevard on the northeast side of Indianapolis. That restaurant was later renamed La Chica’s Mexican Restaurant, which was sold to Farmer in 1996.
Farmer would go on to sell the restaurant in 2000, but said the idea to start the sauce business came in 2020 after making the sauce for his son’s fraternity.
Farmer’s Sassy Sauce became family-run business, and the hot sauce is now available at more than 70 retail locations around Indiana, including Kroger and Fresh Thyme stores, as well as the Indiana State Museum and Paradise Shops at Indianapolis International Airport.
The sauce is made, packed and shipped by Sauce Crafters Inc., a co-packer located in Florida. Though the sauce is not made in Indiana, Farmer said it is made with tomatoes from Elwood-based Red Gold Inc.
Farmer said the company saw 100% sales growth in 2022 through e-commerce and retail channels. That growth has been maintained through the first two months of 2023 as well.
Looking ahead, Farmer said he wants to make a more concerted effort to get the word out.
“We want to focus on marketing at this point to make consumers aware that this is the Acapulco Joe’s sauce. They can get it at Kroger, Fresh Thyme, Needlers…[and] various retail outlets,” he said. “We are also looking at doing some more digital marketing through our social profile. Every time we have done a campaign, we get a boost in sales immediately. We’re getting very good responses from our marketing campaigns. So we’re gonna lean into those a little bit.”
Farmer said the company aims to add about 30 retail locations to its portfolio in 2023. And more products are on the way.
“There’s a salad dressing that was very popular at Acapulco Joe’s, and so we’re looking to diversify and maybe have another co-packer do the salad dressing. There’s one here in Indianapolis that has approached us, and we’re looking at doing that so that we don’t have all of our eggs in one basket.”
A timeline for production of the salad dressing was not provided. Farmer said there have been discussions regarding the company eventually bringing all manufacturing to Indiana, but timing isn’t right at the moment.
“We do have a partner who’s approached us about establishing our own manufacturing facility in Kirkland, Indiana,” said Farmer. “But right now we’re just not at the volume where it would justify us bringing that in-house.”