He’s the boss with the sauce, and it’s all in the family

Regular readers of this column know that we’re all about local around here. Delaware’s a small state, so our producers generally make smaller amounts of a product – a style known as “craft.” Craft industries emphasize hometown enthusiasm along with unusual flavors and techniques. Examples here in the Cape Region include (but are certainly not limited to) craft beers, vodkas, rums, whiskeys, jams, jellies, breads, cheeses, pickles, coffees, meats, soft drinks … the list goes on and on. We even have our own craft meadery!

Creativity and enthusiasm are alive and well just down the road in Seaford, where Rehoboth Beach native Rick Ewing and his daughter Cassie produce Delaware Sauce Company’s craft hot sauces. Though we can still call him local, his private-label Eaglewingz brand sauces can be found all over the country, including Kansas City, Ohio, Baltimore, Miami, Annapolis, Philadelphia and even the British Virgin Islands.

Rick dabbled in the food industry as a diversion from the successful construction business he shares with his son Taylor. He’s still known for his late ‘80s nocturnal hot dog cart out on the deck at the Rusty Rudder; doing a brisk business keeping customers nourished until 1 a.m. In 1988, he teamed up with Cassie – who was 10 years old at the time – to continue making the distinctive hot sauce. They did everything together, from mixing to ordering supplies, bottling and labeling. Fast-forward to the present, and their Eaglewingz private-label sauces can be found in well over 50 restaurants just here on Delmarva.

If you’ve dined in any coastal eateries, you’ve probably drizzled Rick and Cassie’s sauces on your favorite dish. Most notable are the custom-labeled table sauces at Fins, Big Oyster Brewery, the sadly long-gone Gilligan’s, JD Shuckers, Woody’s Dewey Beach Bar & Grill, Zogg’s, SoDel Concepts seafood restaurants, Dos Locos, the Hooked restaurant group based in Bethany Beach, Ocean City’s Bad Monkey, Mother’s Cantina and Crabcake Factory – just to name a few. You can even purchase the full line of flavors at Odysea in downtown Rehoboth Beach. In fact, over the last couple of months, Delaware Sauce Company has sold an impressive 8,000 bottles to a distributor who resells them to online stores such as Facebook Marketplace and Amazon.com.

Every Eaglewingz sauce has a story, and one of the best is the birth of SoDel Concepts’ Shuckin’ Sauce. When Rick and Cassie came up with that flavor (I love it on Matt’s Fish Camp chowder and the fried oyster sandwich), they held a contest to name the sauce. A hundred bucks went to the winner, who named it Sauce-Shank Redemption. Though the sauces would eventually end up privately labeled, movie fans have to admit that that’s a great name.

Of course, no discussion of hot sauces would be complete without our longtime local chilihead, Chip Hearn, founder of Peppers in Lewes and Peppers.com. Early on, Rick knew he could benefit from Chip’s expert advice on creating new flavors. He sought out the award-winning wing and BBQ maven, Food TV personality and creator of local BBQ sauces, who told him that the first decision is to decide what kind of food would benefit most from the sauce. Seafood seemed like the obvious choice. Keeping that in mind, Ewing created the Pineapple Teriyaki Sauce that earned first place nationally at the 2017 New York City Hot Sauce Expo. He’s quick to credit the talents of Chip Hearn for that honor.

It’s no secret that some do, indeed, like it hot. So, after many requests from chiliheads such as myself, Rick recently came up with a sauce with more of a burn factor than most of his restaurant-labeled sauces. Ghost of Frog Hollow was specifically developed for Jeff’s Taphouse in Bridgeville. It contains ghost peppers, habanero peppers and cayenne pepper. Interestingly enough, though it might trigger hallucinations for some of our more timid diners, it still has a delectable flavor that is not masked by the heat.

One of Delaware Sauce Company’s most popular wing sauces is the Whiskey & Molasses flavor, created from New York state blackstrap molasses and Canadian whiskey. The alcohol cooks off, leaving a softly sweet aftertaste. I mentioned that every sauce has a story: Rick and Cassie received a request to create a hot sauce specifically for a wedding being held in an apple orchard. (I think I could easily be friends with those people!) Thus was born Eaglewingz Apple Bourbon Sauce. Another great story involves Bacon Me Crazy, named by Rick’s niece, which is used to flavor a number of bacon-centric meat products at JD’s House of Bacon in Baltimore.

Given how the business has grown (huge 18-wheelers are not an uncommon sight at their office), the family has systems in place that enable them to mix, bottle, label and ship many of their custom hot sauces at a moment’s notice. Part of that is Rick’s longtime relationship with Zeke at Impact Graphics in Seaford, which ensures quick printing and turnaround for the all-important labels.

Rick tells me, “It doesn’t go out of our kitchen unless we like it.” As a professional eater (I just made that up – I like it…), I’ve enjoyed many Eaglewingz sauces – in fact, one of my favorites is Cayenne Cassie’s, a simple yet brightly flavored sauce with an aromatic whisper of black pepper. There are three bottles in my pantry at this very moment.

We all depend on one another in resort towns. So when buying, eating or sipping, keep our neighbors and friends in mind by doing it locally. And that includes the all-important hot sauce drizzle available at many of our local eateries.