It all started with a love for Frank's Red Hot. You know the stuff; the commercial cayenne pepper sauce that tastes delicious on just about everything. Waukesha's Dave Mennenoh was, and still is, one of its many loyalists and a few years back, he set out to replicate the recipe on his own.
Imitation, they say, is the most sincere form of flattery. But what Mennenoh ended up with wasn't anything like a faux Frank's. As he experimented with flavors he developed a formula all his own and after 22 unsuccessful tries, his 23rd batch knocked 'em dead. With the overwhelming approval of friends and family, Off Road Fire Co. was born.
Since 2007 Off Road has been producing small batches of two sauce varieties: Campfire, a milder version, and Forest Fire, the amped up one. This year, the Campfire blend took first place in the "all-natural" category of the Scovie Awards, a highly regarded annual event that draws a panel of 60-80 food critics and chefs to Albuquerque to taste more than 800 fiery foods from around the globe.
"We tend to eat healthy, so I wanted to make a real natural sauce. I use organic vinegar, fresh red peppers and fresh onions," he says. "I like to pick out the peppers myself and cut all the white stuff out of the middle; I just love to cook and I'm real picky."
Quality Over Quantity
It could be because a neighbor kid tricked him into thinking a habanero was a piece of candy at age five, but Mennenoh never desired to be the hottest in the land.
"I've never attempted to go for the super-hot sauce," he says of his vinegar-based recipe. "Neither one of mine are all that hot. I think most of the better hot sauces today are more about flavor and uniqueness."
You can find the Off Road Fire Co. sauces in Milwaukee at all three Outpost Natural Foods stores and at Roots Restaurant and Cellar, in Waukesha at Good Harvest Market and Cyclesmith, and in Madison at the Weary Traveler and Alchemy Cafe.
He's pushing more 20 cases a month, but for now, Off Road Fire Co. is still a small, family-run business. Mennenoh still makes and bottles each batch by hand from an industrial kitchen in northern Wisconsin and his wife designs the product labels. One day, he says, he'd like to expand to a national market, but for now, he appreciates the do-it-yourself nature of the company.
And for the record, these days he's putting his Campfire sauce, not Frank's, on his pizza.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
