A new shop in central Phoenix for all your hot sauce needs
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Little Shop of Hot Sauce opened last month at 7th Street and Virginia Avenue. Photo: Jeremy Duda/Axios
Whatever you crave in the hot sauce department, a new store in central Phoenix has it.
The big picture: Little Shop of Hot Sauce opened for business at 7th Street and Virginia Avenue last month.
- They've got commonly found items you can buy in grocery stores, but most of the shelf space is taken up by harder-to-find specialty items.
- The shop has something for all tastes and spice-tolerance levels, and owner Matt Berger is there to help you find the right sauce for you.
State of play: For years, the location housed Berger's vape shop, Butt Out.
- Berger's wife is from Senegal, so when the vape shop closed, they converted it to Senegal and Beyond, which sold African clothing, food and more.
- Berger said that business was unsustainable, but the store carried dozens of hot sauces, which he also sold at a farmers market. He started getting requests to be a vendor at biker events, as well.
- That opened his eyes to the "insane market out there" for the spicy condiments.
Zoom in: Visiting the store is an experience, not just a shopping trip. Berger describes himself as a "hot sauce sommelier," and if you go to his store, he's happy to set out a selection of sauces and a pile of tortilla chips so you can sample his wares while he describes their flavors and characteristics.
My thought bubble: As a lover of spice, I was excited to stop in.
- I sampled a handful of sauces while Berger walked me through the flavor profiles.
- Gator Hammock "Lethal Gator" sauce, for example, has a dark, smoky flavor, he explained, while he deemed the Fat Cat Purry-Purry Sauce difficult to describe, but likened it to "alternate world marinara."
- Some are very unique, like Angry Goat's mango-banana-habanero Yellow Flamingo Hot Sauce.
The bottom line: I bought a bottle of the Lethal Gator to take home, along with a Barbados-style mustard hot sauce called Dick's Caribbean Dream.
- I suspect I'll soon be a regular customer. There were a couple sauces I'm already planning to go back for.