• August 11th, 2014
• 1 Comment

In the warming mornings of early May, a couple of our staff took a spell over at Sauce & Bread – the digs that house both Co-Op Hot Sauce & Crumb.

Before entering, the smell of baked goods and spicy-sweet hot sauce wafts by on the sidewalk out front, where big bold white letters let you know you’ve arrived. Inside the store, it’s quiet with a low dinn and humm of coolers, and distance kitchen work pulls you in. Chalkboards pointing all their local items, a floating zombie finger shows you where to order, and a smattering of hot sauce welcomes any and all.

Mike welcomes us and shows us around his part of the kitchen where pungent liquids await bottling, full shakers sit to age or for an order, heaps of pepper await prep, along with a plethora of containers brimmed with spices. To put it simply: it smells amazing. But the fun smells have only started. To the secret basement where rows of barrels bubble and swell with luscious hot sauce and vinegars think bourbon meets boiled chili peppers – mouthwatering. Upstairs in the back is where the crumb team gets to baking, and crafting all of their fantastic bread and goods as well as all of those for the front of house.

There is where the smelling ends and the eating starts. We order up a couple of sandwiches and wait for the wafs of freshly toasted breads fill the room by lingering over the wide variety of bottles, from hot-sauce to barrel fermented apple cider vinegars. The sandwiches hit the massive wood slatted table and it’s impossible to resist reaching to the wood caddies filled with a handful of the most fantastic sauces thrust from this city. That isn’t to say their sandwiches don’t already reign the attention of the eater – alone they are wonderful seasonally crafted sandwiches featuring the best the farmer’s markets can offer. Mike was even nice enough to whip up a lovely shrub with one of his drinking vinegars – perspective altering.

Get out to where Clark meets Devon, pick up a bunch of that magic sauce and pull up a seat to mow down on a purely wonderful lunch experience.

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