Axios New Orleans
October 09, 2025
1 big thing: 🌶️ Crystal turns up the heat
Crystal Hot Sauce launches its own version of sriracha this month.
Why it matters: The Louisiana company is looking for ways to grow with consumers' tastes.
The big picture: Crystal is working with chefs to show what's possible with the condiment, says Pepper Baumer, president and CEO of Baumer Foods, which makes the hot sauce.
- The family-owned company partnered with Commander's Palace over the summer to do a special lunch, complete with Crystal Hot Sauce martinis.
- The star ingredient? The pepper pulp that's left after making the sauce. It won condiment of the year in 2019 from Food & Wine.
- Commander's and Picnic Provisions both cook with it.
Catch up quick: Baumer's grandfather started the business in 1923 as a snoball syrup company. He later switched to making hot sauce.
- The company got a boost in World War II through federal contracts to make jellies and preserves for the troops.
- You know the Crystal Preserves sign in Mid-City? That's the company's former building. After it flooded during Hurricane Katrina, Crystal moved operations to Reserve and the office to Metairie.
Zoom in: Crystal is a milder hot sauce with a vinegary tang.
- "Our whole niche is more about flavor," Baumer says. "So our 'extra hot' is probably on the same Scoville unit as Tabasco."
- The company also makes teriyaki, Worcestershire and soy sauces.
Pro tip from Baumer: Keep your Crystal bottle in the fridge and the sauce won't change colors.
What we're watching: COVID hit Crystal hard, and Baumer says they're watching how tariffs will affect the company.
- Crystal imports its cayenne peppers and glass from Mexico.
What's next: Crystal is looking at ways to sell its pulp to consumers.
- The company also is moving forward with chef-led food events in Nashville and Austin.
2. 🧳 Reputation management
3. Fully Dressed: 🧑🍳 A win and a loss for Emeril's
🧑🍳 Emeril Lagasse's restaurant in Miramar Beach, Florida, will close later this month. (Instagram)
- But his flagship, Emeril's, under the leadership of his son, chef E.J. Lagasse, scored a 3-star review from The New York Times ... just in time for the Michelin star reveal next month, eh? (Gift link)
🚔 The final inmate who escaped from the New Orleans jail, Derrick Groves, was recaptured yesterday in Atlanta. (Axios)
🎤 It'll be Cash Money vs. No Limit in the next Verzuz music battle series. The event, which will be streamed, is part of ComplexCon in Las Vegas later this month. (Complex)
🪦 A 2nd-century Roman headstone somehow ended up in an Uptown backyard. It's not clear how the grave marker — reported missing from an Italian museum — got to New Orleans, but now it's with the FBI and on its way home. (Preservation Resource Center)
4. 🔎 Concerns rise over immigrant detention
A little more than 9% of immigrants detained in Louisiana were placed in solitary confinement between April 2024 and August 2025, according to a new report.
Why it matters: The data sheds additional light on how the detained immigrant population fares within the state as some civil rights organizations raise concerns over their welfare.
Zoom in: The new report by Harvard University researchers and Physicians for Human Rights says 1,265 detained immigrants in Louisiana were placed in solitary confinement during the research window.
The big picture: Louisiana houses the nation's second-largest immigration detention population.
- They're held in a collection of primarily private-run facilities across the state, including the new Louisiana ICE Processing Center on the grounds of Angola Prison.
Between the lines: That facility was not included in the Harvard data, but civil rights organizations in recent weeks have raised concerns over how people are treated there, including in a new ACLU lawsuit. Go deeper.
5. 📆 Weekend planner
Axios New Orleans
