And the Luteses were in the right place at the right time in the early '90s when hot-sauce sales took off. To get the stuff hotter than a habanero pepper, some sauce makers started to add distilled pepper extracts. And the boasts broke out like the sweat from a jalapeno. By 1998, hot-sauce middleman Tim Eidson had had enough. Andrew Przlomski, an urgent-care physician from Manitowish Waters, Wis., and his wife, Pepper Przlomski, own two locations of Doc's Hot Shop.
Customers arrive by pontoon boats in the summer, snowmobiles in the winter.
Mr. Lutes asks. Yah, he noooked me. Still in Reno, it's time to go see Chef Ivo Puidak of the Galena Canning Co. of Chicago, which makes salsas and hot sauces, among other things. The two start putting together a deal. Mr. Lutes orders a bunch of cases of Blasting Sauce, and Chef Ivo tosses in some dynamite blasting displays.