Weekend of Fire Day Three - CaJohn's Open House
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The third day of my fiery adventure had arrived. Since I was staying in Columbus, I had to commute back and forth to the Cincinnati area (a 100-mile drive) for the two days to attend the Jungle Jim's Weekend of Fire show. Not today. I was to visit CaJohn's Fiery Foods based right there in Ohio's capital city, so there was no long drive! Better yet, I was told to show up at the location between 10 and 11:00 am, so I was able to sleep in for the first time during my trip (no 6:00 am wake-up times). So I chilled around my in-laws' house for a while and then plotted my course to the CaJohn building using Google Maps on my iPhone.
The directions provided by the mapping service weren't exactly the friendliest. It led me to a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam (at 10:30 on a Monday morning) and long excursion through, well, let's say less-desirable areas of town. But at least the directions were accurate, and I made it to my destination: the famed building which read "Harold D. Hard Fire Equipment Specialists" on the exterior. I've read online about the name before, but it still made me chuckle when I thought of the "fire" connection with hot sauce. I pulled into the parking lot closest to the front door, and walked in.
First off was the lobby/reception area. Racks and displays showed off both dozens of types of CaJohn's sauces and salsas, along with collectors bottles and pepper specialties and knick-knacks in general that would make even the biggest chilehead collector envious.
A face only a mother could love:
Unique bottles: ghosts (for "ghost chile" sauces, of course), hearts, a naked woman, a motorcycle, and more:
I saw a few familiar faces, including Sue Hard (John "CaJohn" Hard's wife) and a few employees scurrying about. The big topic of the day amongst everyone was the impending move of CaJohn's Fiery Foods from their current digs to a newer building somewhere else in town. While we waited for other chileheads to show up for a tour, and while a munched on one of the donuts provided by our hosts, Sue had given us some background information on the surrounding area this building was located in and also discussed a past employee or two (we'll just leave it at that).
These are just SOME of the awards in John's office:
Surprise, John! You're on the Interwebs!
The man in his office:
I quickly helped Sue out with a computer problem, and after two more visitors arrived, Sue walked us around the building.
After a walk down the hallway, the first big stop was the warehouse, where hundreds of boxes of product awaited shipment. Also, notice all the hanging banners for winning Scovies on the back wall:
Next was the labeling room, that also doubled as a wax-dipping room for collector's bottles:
No, that orange liquid is not delicious queso:
If only my shopping cart regularly looked like this:
Sue holding up a cobra bottle for me:
Here's the room where buckets and buckets full of pepper mash were stored. It was a sight to behold:
I was temped to sneak out with this one full of green fatalli mash, but I was afraid it would make a bulge in my shirt:
Next it was a trip to the kitchen. After looking inside a pair of walk-in fridges, we were shown the various kettles, mashers and pourers. We even were pointed out the equipment that Chuck Evans uses to make his awesome line of Montezuma products. They were all shut down today, and everyone - both employees and visitors - were preparing for a lunch feast.
While other chileheads arrived, the first of our group were encouraged to sign our John Hancocks on the signature wall. I noticed a lot of familiar names scribbled up there, presumably the bulk of them from last year's chilehead open house. Sue had informed us that this piece of dry wall with signatures would be cut out and sent to the new CaJohn's building whenever and where ever that might ultimately be.
The CaJohn's crew cooked us up a fantastic BBQ meal which included beef brisket, CaJohn's Jolokia sausage, beans, potato salad, and cookies (both regular and chile spiced) brought in by John and Sue's daughter Erin. As we sat outside underneath a large canopy chowing down, the weather could have not been more gorgeous (a perfect 74-ish and sunny), and the company couldn't have been more pleasant.
Just as conversation turned towards several of us making the trip over to see the possible location of CaJohn's new building, it was sadly time for me to leave. Wanting John to sign a bottle for me, Sue and I quickly ran back inside where I purchased a bottle of CaJohn's Jolokia 10 (and a few others for my own usage), dashed back out to have him put his signature on the label. I said my thanks and goodbyes to everyone, and had to hit the highway. After picking up the family in south Columbus, we began our long journey on I-70 towards our St. Louis area home.
Comments
2009-08-09 21:27:51
2009-08-09 23:34:54
2009-08-11 13:18:27
Thanks for sharing these photos with us.
Brian
2010-10-28 11:12:15
How can i buy some bottles of cobra hot sauce, i'm from Guadalajara Mexico, and i'm interested in prepair some meals with your sauce.
I'll so glad every posible information.
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