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Though a 12-year-old may prefer bubble-gum ice cream with extra sprinkles and a cherry on top, as palates mature, an appreciation for complex flavors take shape.
J.D. Pasternoster was no exception. As a child, he was picky with a standing order at McDonald’s: a Quarter Pounder, hold the mustard and ketchup.
"I was always one of those bland eaters," the 43-year-old from 21st and Shunk streets recalled.
Not these days. Now he’s more open to add a little kick to his meals and not just any fiery liquid will do.
Pasternoster’s launched his own J.D.’s South Philly HaHa Hot Sauce five years ago and now it can be found, in addition to the company’s Web site, in supermarkets like Whole Foods and Giant. The six products range from hot and barbecue sauces to salsa and were born out of a lifetime love of gardening. It was only when the entrepreneur relocated a decade ago he brought his hobby to fruition.
"When I moved to South Philly, I got my garden set up and redid the whole backyard. It had perfect growing conditions," he said. "During the height of summer, it’s maybe getting 14 hours of sunlight. That was enough for me to buy the house. The first year, my wife was like, ‘Cheese and crackers! How many peppers can you get?’ I had chili peppers, all kinds of hot peppers. I was giving them out to whoever would take them. Then I started reading up on how to preserve them. I didn’t want to grow stuff to throw it away."
About five years ago, Pasternoster began preserving his veggies in vinegar or vodka. To make the best use of them, he read up on how to make hot sauce and conjured up a recipe after a lot of "playing around" with various ingredients — a process five years in the making, with results he was "really happy with" only in the last year-and-a-half.
Pineapples and figs went into his two flagship concoctions: Pyro Pineapple Hot Sauce and Figgin’ Hot Sauce. Before these, J.D.’s Vodka Pepper Sauce was a simple blend of peppers preserved in alcohol and spices made in his kitchen.
The signature products remain among his top-sellers at small stores and supermarket chains. As the business grew, Pasternoster’s condiments were created and bottled at a food-production facility in Punxsutawney.
The fig sauce — spawned from his mother-in-law’s plentiful trees — has been altered a bit and is now Figgin’ Hot Dippin’ and Grillin’ Sauce. But don’t let the ingredients fool you; just like the character on the Pyro Pineapple bottle, Pasternoster’s sauces are sure to set a mouth on fire.
Or at least make it feel that way.
"The Pyro Pineapple is hot, it’s got medium heat, a decent little kick to it. The Figgin’ Hot is hot! There’s lots of jalapenos in it," he said.
Growing up in Burlington, N.J., Pasternoster took the gardening lead from his mother and his own green thumb began with coddling tomatoes in his family’s 20-by-20-foot parcel, which he soon found was not as easy as it looked.
"I was growing 20-foot plants, but only one or two tomatoes. Then, when I learned how to properly grow fruit, started to read up on it and get some books and get into it, it became a passion of mine," he said.
He continued gardening through high school, taking a hiatus when he went to college on a baseball scholarship to St. Leo University in Florida.
"It was weird. I was a jock, yet I was a gardener. I didn’t let everybody know that," he recalled, laughing.
He returned to the area and married wife Carmen, 38, in 1995, making their first home in the Art Museum area. Ten years ago, they moved south to be closer to Carmen’s family at 22nd and Shunk streets.
From that time until 2003, Pasternoster was experimenting with his first two products, bottling them and giving them away to friends and family. Fueled by compliments and the drive to make his hobby a lucrative business, Pasternoster decided to sell door-to-door to small grocers in areas like the Italian Market, Center City and West Philly.
First it was hot and grilling sauces and, about 18 months ago, he developed salsa and barbecue sauce.
PA Preferred — a partnership between Giant and the state’s Department of Agriculture to showcase and sell locally grown and produced foods — approached Pasternoster at a food show, where he was selling the sauces, several years ago. Eventually, they helped him get hooked up with the supermarket, where his products first appeared last spring.
Sales have steadily increased since his door-to-door days, which averaged 200 to 500 cases a year. In ’07, Pasternoster estimated he sold upwards of 3,000 cases.
Pasternoster — who works from home for Club Assist LLC selling car batteries to AAA’s mobile battery replacement program — keeps his hot sauce business a year-round project. In the growing off-season, he coordinates production to store demand, including Di Bruno Bros. in Rittenhouse Square, selling his products, ordering figs and peppers from places like Texas, Florida and South Carolina — since his garden alone can’t produce enough for the retail needs — to be sent to Punxsutawney, where he travels every three months or so to oversee production.
When he’s growing peppers on the side of his home in his 32-by-3.5-foot garden May through October, he takes them to Punxsutawney, where they’re combined with additional peppers, figs and other ingredients to make his six products — two salsas and four sauces — that sell for $4.95 each.
He has two days in the spring to map where his 45 to 55 chili pepper plants are going. A handful of tomato plants for his products and personal use also are given space. The varieties differ each year, depending on Pasternoster’s experimentation level. Last year, the range included Jamaican Hot, Tabasco Green Leaf and Rocoto Yellow. The weekend after Mother’s Day, he plants.
His recipe is still followed, but once a product is for commercial sale, he said, the processing, bottling and distribution must be done in an FDA-approved kitchen, hence the move in 2003 to the upstate-Pa. facility.
Although regulations don’t allow for the product to be made locally anymore, every other aspect of Pasternoster’s sauces and salsas has roots in South Philly, including the name.
"One night I was at [the Italian-American Club, 25th and Wolf streets], hanging out with my brother, trying to think of a good name for the hot sauce. This drunk guy leans over and said, ‘How about HaHa?’ then he almost fell over. [HaHa] just kind of stuck, so we said how about it? I never told the guy at the bar that," Pasternoster said.
"I put [South Philly] on the [label] because, hey, listen, South Philly is a great place. I’ve enjoyed my time here. It’s where I originated the product, it’s a known place for food, too," he said.
From there, Pasternoster brainstormed with his family on the marketing. They came up with cartoon characters of pineapples, figs and chili peppers — like the pineapple’s mouth that’s on fire or the pepper driving a motorcycle with a fig beside it both wearing sunglasses for the Extreme XXX BBQ sauce.
"We wanted to keep it light, didn’t want it to be too serious," Pasternoster said. "I think people like [the sauces]. I’ve never gotten any negative feedback."
Most of the product is sold on shelves in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. Recently, Pasternoster joined forces with Nino’s Fresh Pasta at 12th and Mifflin streets to produce Figgin’ Hot Ravioli stuffed with ricotta and his Figgin’ Hot Sauce for a twist on the classic that’s gone over well, he said.
Pasternoster said he’d like to get more involved in similar deals with small stores and businesses and maybe even pass the trade on to one of his three children — Leo, 11, John Paul, 8, and Eva, 6. But passing the torch is a long way off and HaHa is still in its infantile stage, with hopes of greatness for the future.
"It’s come a long way in five years," he said. "I’ve developed the recognition of a product."
