THUNDER BAY -- A local success story is reaching levels of international fame thanks in part to a popular online series where celebrities are interviewed while eating spicy chicken wings.
Heartbeat Hot Sauce’s red habanero sauce was selected for this season’s lineup on “Hot Ones” - the popular YouTube series hosted by Sean Evans.
The show features Evans conversing with celebrities, all while eating progressively spicier chicken wings, slathered in hot sauces from all around the world.
For the sixth season, the second hot sauce in the lineup is the creation of local Al Bourbouhakis and Nancy Shaw.
“Let’s take a moment to admire this beautiful bottle,” host Sean Evans said on the Season 6 line-up reveal. “This lovely heart chili-pepper graphic; it is beautiful to look at. And get this, it’s from a place called Thunder Bay, Ontario.”
The shoutout from Evans was about as perfect as Bourbouhakis could have asked for.
“We got a really, really nice introduction,” he said.
However the process to get onto to the mega-popular show was something Bourbouhakis described as a “long drawn-out process.”
Initially, Bourbouhakis was contacted by a Brooklyn-based hot sauce shop called the Heatonist.
Self-referred to as the “purveyors of fine hot sauces,” the Heatonist sells and distributes sauces from all over the globe. The main attraction: they act as curators and select sauces for Hot Ones.
“We have a team of people whose job it is to find sauces that will suit our standards,” Heatonist owner Noah Chaimberg said. “I’m originally from Montreal, so I have love for Canada, of course.”
The naturalness of Heartbeat’s creation process helped the two sides get acquainted. The Heatonist only accepts all-natural, small-batch sauces which is exactly the end result of the “Red Habanero.”
As it turns out, Thunder Bay’s remote location may have helped, too.
“We’re looking for unique sauces, ones that you can’t just get at the local grocery store,” Chaimberg said.
When Bourbouhakis was first contacted by the Heatonist, they were excited about the chance to be on the show, but had to go through months of anticipation to find out if it was a done deal.
Heartbeat was eventually involved in a vote between their Red Habanero, and Pirate’s Lantern Pepper Sauce to decide which sauce be featured.
Eventually, both sauces got the nod, which was to the “excited relief” of Bourbouhakis.
“There was definitely some underlying tension and anxiety,” he said. “When we first got the confirmation it was a big sigh of relief.”
The fun started on June 7 when Jackass star Johnny Knoxville became the first celebrity to try the Heartbeat-slathered wing.
The sauce is number two in the lineup out of ten sauces, which may come to the surprise of locals who typically take a long swig of water after a bite.
Bourbouhakis said the show’s producers have made an effort to get things hot in a hurry.
“[Knoxville] kind of shook his head a little bit… He immediately acknowledged that the heat level jumped up noticeably which is not typical for him early in the lineup.”
An early spot in the rotation should mean that every guest will get a chance to try the Heartbeat sauce.
“We’ve had a ton of people reach out and say how cool it is to have celebrities eating your hot sauce,” Bourbouhakis said. “We’ve definitely seen a lot of our retail partnerships take off a little quicker than they might have without the show.”
The influencing power of celebrities, and the wide exposure, can only mean good things for the local businesses.
“We’ve also had numerous businesses in Canada and the U.S. reach out since the reveal episode in anticipation of people looking for it.”
Thus far, both Season 6 episodes have eclipsed 3 million views on YouTube. Subsequently, Heartbeat Hot Sauce is stocking shelves as far as Alameda, California.
The excitement doesn’t end on the business front. The celebrity reveal will come to the surprise of Bourbouhakis and his team at the same time as everyone else.
“There’s been a lot of talk about Danny DeVito from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” he said on who he’d like to see try his sauce. “We listen to a lot of Joe Rogan podcasts, too… But pretty much anyone on the show will be cool to see.”
New episodes of Hot Ones can be found on the First We Feast YouTube channel. The sauce is available at various locations across town, which can be found on the company’s website.
